Date:22/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/22/stories/2008082255581600.htm

National

Muslim groups lambast Rajasthan Government

Special Correspondent

For ‘harassing’ educated Muslim youth, ‘defaming’ community

JAIPUR: Incensed at the “detention spree” of Rajasthan police in the wake of breakthrough in the Ahmedabad serial blasts case, Muslim groups in the State have lambasted the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government for harassing educated Muslim youths and defaming the community with the charge of their involvement in the May 13 Jaipur blasts.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has picked up about 20 persons from various towns following the success claimed by police in neighbouring Gujarat in solving the Ahmedabad blasts case. Many of the detainees are young Muslim students and professionals, such as doctors and entrepreneurs.

A delegation of the Rajasthan Muslim Forum, which met Governor S.K. Singh on Wednesday and Director General of Police K.S. Bains here on Thursday, alleged that the State agencies were acting with a biased mindset and preconceived notion of involvement of Muslim youngsters in the serial blasts that claimed 68 lives.

Muslim Forum’s convenor Qari Moinuddin said the “illegal detentions” on the pretext of investigation would not serve any purpose other than provoking the majority community’s sentiments against Muslims and instilling a sense of fear and helplessness among the latter.

The delegation took exception to the continued detention of medicos Abrar Ali and Amanullah Jamali despite the complete absence of any evidence against them. “Dr. Ali is a young medical graduate preparing for the post-graduation entrance exam, while Dr. Jamali is in the government service at a Community Health Centre in Pali district,” pointed out CPI(M) leader Waqar-ul-Ahad.

The Muslim Forum, affirming that the doctors could not be linked with the terror net by any stretch of imagination, felt that the detention of highly educated Muslim professionals formed part of the BJP’s conspiracy to “demoralise and defame the Muslim community” with an eye on the Assembly elections due later this year.

The delegation members cited the case of Anwar Hussain – a junior resident doctor in AIIMS, New Delhi – who was picked up from his native town Niwai and detained for a day earlier this week. The SIT could not find a shred of evidence against him, but his career had been ruined with a terrorist tag for his whole life, they pointed out.

A memorandum submitted by the Muslim forum to the Governor and the DGP demanded an immediate release of the suspects and called upon the Centre to intervene in the investigations to nail down the real culprits.

Muslim Forum’s member and Jamat-e-Islami Hind State president Mohammed Salim said the BJP-led Government in Gujarat, which was responsible for the genocidal slaughter of Muslims in 2002, should not be believed vis-À-vis its claim of having cracked the explosion case. It was unfair to target Muslims in Rajasthan on the basis of dubious claims of Gujarat police, he added.

The Muslim Forum pointed out that the profiling of Muslim young men as terrorists would yield political benefits to the BJP but would harm the country.