Who Benefits from the Bomb Blasts

Indian Muslims are passing through an extremely difficult time right now. A situation has been created in which the whole community finds itself under trial. No one is above suspicion and even the most respected Muslim citizens can be picked up for police investigation. That educated Muslim youth are being arrested on flimsy grounds and tortured to accepting crimes which they have not committed. But what worries the most is the fact that the countrymen have willingly accepted that only Muslims indulge in violence and unleash reign of terror. This alone explains why the larger society is a mute witness to the atrocities being meted out to the Muslim youth in BJP-ruled states and elsewhere.
Serial blasts have taken place in all parts of the country and scores of innocent people including children and women, have been killed or injured, even paralyzed for life. Killing the innocent is a crime which can not be forgiven and the culprits must be brought to book. As responsible and civilized citizens we condemn this mindless terrorism in strongest words.
But we also take exception to what the police and the intelligence agencies are doing to the Muslim youth. Why the needle of suspicion must always point in the direction of the Muslim community. Our secret agencies have failed any number of time in detecting conspirators who carry out bomb blasts at will. But immediately after such tragic incidents they quickly become wiser, even super intelligent and arrest the ‘culprits’ in no time. It has become a boring, yet disturbing, routine. They quickly arrest some Muslim youth and declare him to be the mastermind behind this or that blast. Sometimes they are released but only after their image is tarnished.
This time the Muslim community has rightly raised questions about the police version of the mastermind behind this or that blast. A few weeks back the notorious Gujarat police arrested a certain Mr. Abu Bashar Qasmi whom it declared to be the mastermind behind the Ahmadabad blasts. In less than a month Delhi is jolted by murderous blasts despite the fact that the Delhi police was already looking for some Abu Zar and others whose names were disclosed by the Ahmadabad blasts’ mater mind. The sketches of the criminals who carried out blasts in Delhi are surely not of Abu Zar, the car-parking attendant whom the Delhi police, at the tip of Gujarat police, was looking for as prospective terrorist and bomber. This means either the Gujarat police was telling a lie or the mastermind Abu Bashar had lied and misguided them. The Delhi police can believe the notorious Gujarat police only at its own risk. The Delhi police also must keep in mind that a few days back all the Muslim youth arrested in Gujarat, alleged before a court of law that they were tortured to sign plain papers and confess crimes they had never committed. It is possible that the Gujarat police obtained by torture ‘tips’ from Abu Bashar Qasmi about the wrong people and provided them to their counterparts in Delhi. How can we forget the track record of the Gujarat police who have refused to work justly even after reprimand from the court. Time and again they have worked as loyal servants of Modi whose fascism is well-known.
The Muslim community is bewildered why only they are targeted as suspects and not the activists and leaders of the Bajrang Dal. Recently two Bajrang Dal leaders were killed while making bombs in Kanpur. Earlier skull caps and artificial beards were recovered from the houses and offices of Bajran Dal activists. We are at a loss why the needle of suspicion is never pointed in their direction? Why they can not be culprits? After all who or which party is going to benefit from the communal polarization which the murderous blasts are expected, even intended, to bring about?
The police, inept, and also biased against Muslims to a great extent, can not be expected to investigate impartially. Surprisingly the media are also not very helpful as none of them has bothered to independently investigate the involvement of the Bajrang Dal whose two leaders were recently killed in Kanpur while making bombs. Barring one or two leaders the political class also does not seem to be coming to our rescue. By all indications the Muslims alone have to fight out the battle ahead. The time is, therefore, difficult and the community is required to keep its cool, analyse the whole affair in an objective manner and chalk out the future course of action even more objectively and intelligently. It is possible that in trying circumstances some of our young men might have gone astray and adopted violence as a methodology. We must impress upon such elements that killing the innocent is not only un-Islamic but also counter productive. It must be borne in mind that a bomb here or a blast there can not annihilate the Indian state. On the contrary it would harm us the most. Our educated youth should also know that today’s India abounds in opportunities which are waiting to be grabbed by those who have decided to excel in education. And the market is increasingly becoming so competitive that it would be difficult for it to practise discrimination against talented Muslims.
Finally the Muslim community and leadership must see to it that contrary to the wishes of the Sangh Parivar the country must not be allowed to get polarized on communal lines. Many Muslims have rightly voiced that the purpose of the bomb blasts in various parts of the country is to arouse Hindu sentiments with a view to reaping rich electoral dividends. The general election is round the corner and the bomb blasts are thus well-timed. We must see the design behind the mysteriously carried out bomb blasts and frustrate it electorally. This is essential for our survival as a community as well as our future in the country.

[September, 2008]