By Pervez Bari
Bhopal: The complicity of the police and the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh Government led by Shivraj Singh Chauhan in allowing the communal goons of RSS & BJP to create ruckus in the name of Ram Temple Donation in Muslim dominated regions in the state is absolutely clear. This allegation was made by Association for Protection of Civil Rights, (APCR), Fact Finding Team after visiting the affected areas.
It may be mentioned here that in Ujjain, Chandankhedi (Indore) and Dorana (Mandsaur) louts of the Hindutva brigade while engineering communal mob attack on Muslim majority localities had created unprecedented scenes in late December 2020.
Addressing a joint Press Conference here on Thursday Adv. Ehtesham Hashmi and Adv. Shoeb Inamdar (National Assistant Coordinator, APCR), informed that the Fact Finding Team of APCR spoke extensively to the people of these violence-hit places. “We spoke to eyewitnesses, victims and police officials in order to understand how the violence unfolded”, they added.
Apart from these the APCR Fact Finding Team compromised Adv. Mukesh Kishore (Member CIP-ML), Kashif Ahmad Faraz (Journalist), Adv. Jawalant Singh Chauhan, M Huzaifa (Student Activist, AMU), and Syed Ali (Social Worker) which visited Madhya Pradesh after the engineered communal mob attack.
Adv. Ehtesham Hashmi said that after speaking to people and visiting violence affected places it was very clear that this violence was not spontaneous but was pre-planned and very carefully orchestrated by the right-wing hooligans of BJP.
Adv. Hashmi said: “A similar pattern of violence was observed that was orchestrated in every place that we visited. On 25th of December 2020, a religious rally was organized from five different places in Ujjain, subsequently all five gatherings conversed in Begum Bagh locality, where predominantly residents are from minority community (Muslims). The gathering started chanting derogatory slogans for the residents. This led to skirmishes between the gathered mob and residents. In reply to the abuses hurled targeting women of the locality, reportedly one woman threw stone at abusive mob. Apparently, it turned out into stone pelting mayhem. The mob taking advantage of the situation started beating men from the local population and damaged property in the local vicinity. This whole incident happened in the presence of the local police”.
He charged that in response to the incident police filed FIR’s against 40 residents from the local area who were instigated into this conflict. The provocation came from the gathered mob and in whole police action the victims were harassed and accused by the police for the violence. One-sided action of the police was grossly irrational and arbitrary, he alleged. The similar pattern was used in rest of places in villages of Chandankhedi (Indore District) and Dosana (Mandsaur District). The incident started post a procession which was carried on in the name of Ram Temple Donation for Ayodhya.
Adv. Shoeb Inamdar while talking to newspersons said the rallies were forcefully taken to Muslim areas, where extremely derogatory communal and provocative slogans were raised. This was followed by large scale violence, wherein particularly mosques and Muslim properties were targeted by the mob. In many places they even destroyed houses and vehicles, live-stocks owned by Muslims.
Adv. Inamdar said the procession with a pre-planned motive gathered in large numbers with firearms and sharp-edged deadly weapons and instigated the local minority community with abusive sloganeering, when the local Muslim community did not respond to their instigation. The gathered mob with a pre-planned intention and with a thorough planning targeted the last house of the village which was open from all sides.
The whole episode of rampage and attack on innocent human lives of Muslims in these places were undertaken with impunity in front of police party. Many eyewitnesses confirmed of police inactiveness and insensitiveness towards their duty to protect innocent citizen’s life and property. Complete lawlessness existed there since morning to evening that day, he charged.