’State Ka Order Hai’

’STATE KA ORDER HAI’

A Report by Shabnam Hashmi

An Independent Fact Finding Team visited Indore on August 5, 2008 to inquire into the incidents of July 3-4, 2008 and its long term affect

The Team comprised of:

Dr Syeda Hameed: Member, Planning Commission, Govt of India

Shabnam Hashmi: Member, National Integration Council, MHA, Social Activist

The following account is compiled and written by Shabnam Hashmi on the basis on the one day visit, testimonies of the close relatives of those who died , testimonies of the injured and individual and group discussions with the local human right activists, and an analysis of the media reports of the above period which were submitted to the IFFT.

Dr Syeda Hameed as member of the Planning Commission will be looking at the long term affect of these incidents. The present account deals with the findings and recommendations.

The team visited the following areas:

Juna Risala

Sindhi Colony

Khajrana

Khajrana Village

The following victims / relatives of the victims deposed before the team:

Juna Risala

1. Nazneen- mother of the deceased Mohd Rizwan

2. Abdur Rehman- Advocate and uncle of the deceased Mohd Rizwan

3. Salman Ahmed- 18 yrs, B Com Final- Bullet Injury

4. Gulam Ahmed Khan- locality leader

5. Irshad Khan-19 yrs, bullet Injury

6. Gulrez-19 yrs- bullet injury

7. Rafik s/o victim Alla Baksh – injured- bullet injury

8. Faiz-17 yrs-s/o victim-Aijazul Hasan, bullet injury

9. Nizamuddin, Father of the deceased Zeeshan

10. Salma Parveen, Mother of the deceased Zeeshan

11. Mohd Hanif Pyare Mian employer of the deceased Zeeshanal

12. Members of the local community ( approx 40 people)

Sindhi Colony

1. Khattumal Makhija father of the deceased Hem Chand Makhija

2. Sheela Devi Makhija mother of the deceased Hem Chand Makhija

3. Shanker Tejwani friend of the deceased Hem Chand Makhija

Khajrana

1. Mehrunnisa mother of the deceased Imran- 17 yrs

2. Abdul Rafiq father of the deceased

3. Zaibunnisa- grand mother of the deceased Imran

4. Members of the local community ( approx 10 people)

Khajrana Village

1. Nana Patel father of the deceased Anwar Patel- 19 yrs

2. Mohd Imtiaz brother of Mehmood

3. Rasheeda, Wife of Mehmood

4. Shama Bi, Mother of Mehmood

5. Members of the local community ( approx 50 people)

The team met the following officials:

District Magistrate

Superintendent of Police

Additional District Magistrate

I am writing the account of what we saw and heard. One day is neither enough to understand and grasp the intensity of any communal attack nor to share the grief of the victims. The background of the Amarnath dispute has been contributed in the report by Dr Ram Puniyani.

Background

Amarnath yatra has been one of the major religious tourism activities of the J & K state, well managed by the local population, mainly Muslims of the area, till 2001 when Shri Amranath Shrine Board (SASB) was formed and it took over the arrangements of the pilgrimage. SASB had Governor of the state as the chief and Governor’s Principal Secretary as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Gradually the SASB started asserting beyond its mandate, e.g. going on to construct shelters and structures on Pehalgam Golf Course, mainly due to the clout of the Governor who headed this body. In 2005 SASB, contrary to the laws, was granted the permission to use the forest land for the tourists. Incidentally, CEO’s wife was the forest officer who cleared this highly illegal demand of the shrine board. This started the process, which ultimately went out of hands of the local government. While Government initially opposed the order of the forest department, the high court stayed Government’s decision. Following this the state Govt. transferred the land to SASB and then cancelled it.

BJP and VHP gave a nation wide call to observe Bharat Bandh on July 3, 2008 on the Amarnath land transfer issue.

July 3 & 4, 2008-Incidents in Indore

Indore is the largest city of Madhya Pradesh. It is situated on the Malwa Plateau, just south of the Satpura Range. It is the commercial centre of Madhya Pradesh.

Indore was engulfed in violence for several days after the BJP & VHP gave a call for a Bharat Bandh. What Indore witnessed was well orchestrated mayhem planned by the Sangh against the minority community with the full connivance of the state administration.

RSS and various Sangh organizations under its umbrella have been vitiating the atmosphere of the city for several years. Though the city has a long history of co-existence of various communities and a rich syncretic culture, the systematic communalization of the society has been underway especially since the BJP came to power in the state in 2003.

The pattern of the violence that took place in Indore on July 3 & 4, 2008 clearly reminds us of the systematic planning of the Sangh to eliminate and marginalize the Muslim community on the pattern of the Gujarat carnage of 2002, the only difference being of the scale and the provision of the relief after the attacks.

The SP and the Collector visited the Indore RSS office on July 2nd evening as well as on July 3, 2008 morning.

Even before July 3, 2008 Bharat Bandh, the Sangh members raised highly abusive and provocative slogans in front of some mosques. In Mukeripura and Malwah Mill area slogan shouting was done at the prayer time. Processions with naked swords were also taken out on July 2 in minority areas.

The collector and SP both new to the area , they had joined a month earlier, said in an interview that they did not expect the kind of violence that took place on July 3, 2008. The question is were the incidents of July 2 not an indication enough or did they visit the RSS office to take a brief?

On July 3rd, 2008 in Khajrana colony some small tea shops owned by Muslims were open. About 25 people from the Sangh went there and asked them to shut the shops. The crowd vandalised the shops and beat up the shop owners. They raised highly provocative slogans .A scuffle took place and the attackers also got hurt in that. They returned to the Patidar mohalla and called out to people and a mob collected. They started pelting stones and slowly stone pelting started from both the sides. Police arrived on the scene and threw tear gas shells. The mob retreated towards the Ganpati Mandir.

Between 11 and 11.30 the VHP and Bajrang Dal members started attacking any Muslim that came on the road with hockey sticks. The Muslims for going anywhere have to use this way as there is no other road to go out. Any Muslim that came on the road was surrounded and brutally beaten up, after checking their identity if it was not too obvious. Approximately 50 Muslims including children , women and old were beaten up and injured. The injured covered with blood started coming towards the village mosque. Police did not take any steps to stop the beatings and humiliation of the Muslims. The Muslims went to the police station to ask for help but the Police did not respond. VHP and other supporters were there in large number. Stone pelting started from both the sides. Soon firing started resulting in three deaths (all Muslims) and 19 injured (all Muslims).

As the fact finding team drove towards the Khajrana village we were shocked to see a house which had more than 20 bullet holes. It is a clearly one sided attack since all deaths and majority of the injured are from the minority community. The police had not arrested anyone when we visited the place.

We asked the SP and the Collector how many licenses for the firearms have been issued in the recent past. They decided not to reply to the questions. According to our enquiries more than 2,000 licenses have been issued in the last two years and one hardly need to guess who the beneficiaries would be.

Almost simultaneously the VHP, Bajrang Dal and other goons entered various Muslim dominated areas (Badwali Chowk, Ranipura, Lodhipura, Mukeripura, Narsinghbazar, and Khajrana) shouting provocative slogans, misbehaving with local residents. The police stood and watched.

All shops belonging to the Muslims were attacked. Medical shops belonging to Muslims were attacked. Bengali speaking Muslims were especially targeted.

Violence that erupted on July 3, 2008 took the lives of four people. Imran ( 17yrs) killed by the Police in front of Khajrana Thana, Anwar Patel, Mehmood and Sharif Patel all from the Khajrana village.

Anwar was 19 years, worked as a help in Fatima Patel’s clinic. He was hanging the clinic’s washed linen when the bullet hit him. Nemichand Patidar an active member of the BJP shot him. The bullet pierced through his body, entering near the eye and coming out near the stomach. FIR was lodged by his father Nana Patel. He is an eye witness to the killing of his son. No arrests have been made.

Mehmood was near the spot where Muslims had started coming in after being beaten up by the VHP goons. He got up on a building to see what was happening. Stone pelting was going on. Santosh Patidar’s bullets hit him according to an eye witness. 9 bullets had pierced his body. Police took him to a hospital. His Medico Legal Report or the Post Mortem report was not given to the family. FIR was lodged. No arrests have taken place. Had it been a reverse case we can imagine the number of people who have been arrested.

We met Mehmood’s wife and mother who were inconsolable. Mehmood’s small son and four daughters face a bleak future as he was the only bread earner of the family.

Hem Chand Makhija, 25 yrs, was a commission agent in the anaaj mandi (wheat market). He lived in Sindhi Colony with his parents, wife and a brother. He was playing cricket when his friends ( Shankar Tejwani-30 yrs and others) came and called him to go with them and join the VHP Bandh Procession. They parked their car at Lodhipura and joined the procession in Mukeripura. The place is about 5 kilometers from the Sindhi colony where he lived. The processionists were shouting slogans: Go back to Pakistan. Stone pelting started. Police threw tear gas shells. When the tear gas shells were thrown according to Shankar Tejwani they ran towards Laxman Singh Gaur’s house as that was the place they knew well. Incidentally Lakshman Singh Gaur was the BJP minister till last year when he died in a road accident. In the melee the friends got separated. After sometime when Shankar Tejwani started looking for Hem Chand, he saw someone bringing him on a cartwheel. According to him and Khattu Mal Makhija, Khem Chand’s father, he died of a bullet injury. The family has not seen the Post Mortem report. We could not find any eye witness.

Funeral procession of a young boy Imran (17 yrs), who was dragged and killed outside Khajrana Thana by a policeman ( Shailendra) by placing his barrel of the gun in his mouth ,was lathi charged, even though the family had curfew passes for 25 people. Police prevented ’Namaz-e-janaza’ on the pretext that women threw stones at them. They lathi charged and used teargas. The father of the boy Abdul Rafiq was badly beaten up by the police when he was carrying his dead son to the kabristan.

When we pointed it out to the SP and the Collector that the policeman who murdered Imran in broad daylight has not been suspended or arrested, they replied that the woman (Imran’s mother-Mehrunissa) was arrested in drug peddling that is why she is naming him. Her being arrested for drugs peddling does not change the fact that her 17 year old son was killed in broad daylight. The 11 year old younger brother Shahrukh is an eye witness to the murder. The family had not been able to get a Post Mortem report till the day we visited them.

It is also very important to narrate here that the 500 meter walk from our car to Mehrunissa’s house was so filthy we could barely walk with our sandles continuously slipping on the mud and filth and when we returned after spending about 40 minutes our feet looked as if we have been working in open muddy fields for days.

We asked the collector what happens to the development money and why it never finds its way to the colonies where minorities live. We were told that the road is in the pipeline but when it will be built is a big question. I was reminded about the rehabilitation colonies where 5000 internally displaced families live in Gujarat. They have not been able to return back to their villages even after 6 years of the Gujarat carnage 2002. Only after a long struggle by the Antarik Visthapit Hak Rakshak Samiti and several rounds of meetings that we held with the NHRC, NMC and other agencies the Principle Secretary, Gujarat was sent a notice by the NHRC to improve the living conditions of the colonies.

Despite the mindless violence that took place on July 3rd and took many innocent lives, the district administration was not prepared to put an end to it. Many parts of Indore witnessed fresh violence and killings on July 4, 2008.

The areas of Mukeripura, Khajrana, Badwali Chowk, Lodhipura, Mukeripura, Narsinghbazar, and Khajrana were put under curfew after the July 3 violence.

In Juna Risala the policemen themselves resorted to firing. Not all of them in police uniforms. Many in plain clothes and off duty joined the firing. According to local people RAF helped the bandh supporters. Every group of bandh supporters was armed and escorted by the police.

A group of people were returning home after the namaz around 2-2.30pm. There was stone pelting going on near the mosque. There has been a long pending property dispute near the jinsik chauraha. According to local people the situation was not such that the police had to open fire. 8 people got hit by the bullets. Two died and the rest were injured. Majority of the injuries are in the upper part of the body contrary to any norms of crowd dispersal and management. Even if there was a huge crowd, which according to all the people whom we spoke to was not there, police could have first used the tear gas, then rubber bullets, fire in air, fire first on the legs. Many people named the constables Yashwant, Neeraj and Jitendra who fired indiscriminately on innocent boys and others killing two and injuring 6.

Someone screamed at one of the constables who were firing indiscriminately at people: Why are you shooting at innocent people?

The constable replied: State Ka Order Hai.

The injured when taken to the hospitals by the local community were surrounded in one hospital by the Bandh supporters who did not let the hospital treat any Muslim patient. There were also complaints about some doctors giving out dated medicines and injections to the patients in a government hospital. It reminded me of the VHP leaflet which was given to me in 1994 by a senior politician. The leaflet had instructions for the doctors in detail on similar lines. At that time we firmly believed that a doctor cannot do it. But we have seen both in Gujarat and now in Indore that the communal thought has seeped into some of the professionals even in this noble profession.

Mohd Rizwan, 22yrs, s/o Abdul Rahman died of a bullet injury. We met his mother, grandmother and his uncle- Abdur Rehman. His mother and grandmother were inconsolable.

Zeeshan, 18 yrs also died. Zeeshan worked with Mohd Hanif Pyare Mian who has an electric shop. Zeeshan was one of Pyare Mian’s finest pupils and was very hard working. A number of people who had crowded into Zeeshan’s small house echoed the same fact that the police firing was absolutely uncalled for. The situation was not such that it could force the police to fire.

Gulam Ahmed Khan, one of the residents of Juna Risala responded to the crises and carried many patients to the hospital on a motorcycle one by one. He reached Rajshree hospital with a patient and before the doctors could tend to the patient he was surrounded by about 20 Bajrang Dal members. They shouted: No Muslim patient will be treated here. Swarup Gaur and Harsh Gaur were among the crowd of attackers. They were armed with lathis and some with even swords. Gulam Ahmed Khan thought for a moment that his end has come but the uproar attracted local Marathi women, who came and fought with the Bajrangis and rescued Gulam Ahmed Khan and the patient. They asked Gulam Ahmed Khan to go to another hospital as they could not guarantee his safety.

Gulam rescued many patients and transported them to the nearby hospitals. His kirana shop remained closed for over 20 days as he had no time to sit there.

Gulam narrated to us that people from different communities have lived together in Juna Risala. They actively participate in each other’s functions and on daily basis to. The two communities have close ties and this is something which is unacceptable to the Sangh outfits.

Gulam registered an FIR against the three constables who fired at people. They have not been arrested nor suspended, though a SDM level enquiry has been orderd.

State has filed an FIR against Gulam & others under sections 147/ 148/ 149/ 307 and 353.

From our experience of other states and the last 10 years trends we have seen that places where people from various communities visit like the dargahs, colonies where they live together in harmony are especially targeted by the Sangh and now more and more supported by the local police as was evident in Juna Risala. During the Gujarat carnage of 2002 hundreds of dargahs were demolished including those of the famous urdu poet Wali Gujarati and even Ustad Fayaz khan’s mazar in Vadodara was vandalised. RSS’s latest attack is on Sufis and Sufism. They came out with a big article in their mouth peace Organiser a few months ago attacking the whole Sufi tradition. The Sangh’s intentions are very clear; do not leave any space where people can interact with each other. The segregation and ghettoisation breeds fear against the ’other’ and it becomes much easier to spread myths and demonize a whole community.

Faiz is a young 17 year old boy with innocent eyes and a childish face. He has science subjects and studies in 12th. The marks will decide his future. With cut off percentages of colleges crossing all limits during the past few years no student can afford to loose even a few days in the present time and day. Fiaz has not attended school for over a month. Aijazul Hasan (age 44) was shot at from close range. The bullet hit his stomach. The intestine has been damaged. He already had two operations and will undergo another surgery after a month. Aijazul who is an auto dealer has not been able to open his shop for over a month.

Constable Yashwant shouted- Neeraj I will pull the trigger first. Neeraj replied: No let Jitendra do it. His aim is very good.

His aim was an 18 year old young B Com final student of Christian Eminent College. Salman Ahmed was returning after saying his prayers around 2.30pm. He heard a commotion and when he looked back he saw 3-4 policemen come out of chauthi paltan and fire. One bullet hit him.

According to the community members all the three constables have a history of misbehaviour with the local residents as well as communal attitude.

Rafik (22yrs) s/o Alla Baksh was injured in firing. He was hit at the thigh joint and had to undergo an operation.

Gulrez (19yrs) - an air condition repair worker got the bullet from the back. He saw policemen in plain clothes firing. According to the locals they even used private fire arms. They had hid themselves behind the bushes and they bent on their knees and took aim at the people returning from the mosque.

Incidents were also related which were very encouraging. While the three policemen mentioned earlier shot, killed and injured people there was constable Avasthi who helped Gulam in taking the patients to the hospital on his motorcycle. From the local neighbourhood a number of people from the Hindu community helped and participated in the funeral of the young boys who were killed.

Haroon Bhai, the owner of Mayur Hospital, offered his free services to all those, who were injured in the riot. According to local Human Rights activist Vineet Tiwari, Haroon told them that total 27 injured were admitted officially in Mayur Hospital, during that period. Out of these 24 cases were of gunshots. All 27 were Muslims. One person, who was the driver of Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), felt uneasy and restless, so he was sent to the hospital. He was on Glucose drip.

After July 3rd , 2008 incidents some areas, as already mentioned above, were put under curfew After the large scale violence on July 4, 2008 the whole city was put under curfew.

While the whole city including Narsinghbazar was under curfew, the mohalla Chatripura literally next door was witnessing a religious procession. The administration allowed a Rath Yatra of the Venkatesh Mandir. 3000 strong procession was allowed to go through those very lanes and roads which had witnessed mayhem a day before. Sumitra Mahajan, BJP MP from Indore and MLA Mahendra Hardia participated in the procession. Sumitra Mahajan danced Garba in front of the Rath in the lanes which were soaked in the blood of the minority community.

Findings:

1. The violence that took place in Indore on July 3 & 4, 2008 was pre planned as part of the Sangh’s larger agenda of reducing the minority community as second class citizens and to break the economic backbone s well as humiliate the community.

2. The RSS played an active role in planning the simultaneous attacks in various localities.

3. The police provided cover to the Sangh attackers during the attacks on the minority community.

4. The police broke all norms of crowd dispersal and management by opening fire on people in Juna Risala.

5. The administration has played a biased role in not arresting the culprits.

6. The state apparatus is threatening those community leaders who have stood up against the injustice by trying to put the charges on them that they are associated with SIMI.

7. Linking innocent people with SIMI is used as a weapon by the police to frighten the minority community.

8. Those police personnel who want to work objectively are under tremendous pressure from the RSS and the BJP politicians.

9. Relief in most cases has been given. The rehabilitation process in under way.

Recommendations:

1. An immediate enquiry by the sitting Chief Justice of the High Court into the incidents of July 3& 4, 2008 in Indore.

2. Suspension of the police officers involved in firing in Juna Risala.

3. Sensitisation workshops of the police personnel on issues surrounding communalism, democracy, Indian constitution.

4. Action against the local RSS head, MP and local MLA for masterminding the violence.

5. Identify doctors who gave expired medicines and injections to the Muslim patients and immediately start criminal proceedings against them.

6. Rehabilitation package to include education of the dependent children of the deceased.