BOMBAY, 8 July 2006 — The lynching of two policemen by an angry Muslim mob in Bhiwandi on Wednesday night rocked the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly with Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil assuring the house that those who killed the two policemen would be hunted down within two days’ time and would face the consequences of their crime.

Roaring with anger, Patil told the legislators that the killers would not be spared. “The attack is not on the individuals but on the government. Let it be known that the policemen are not on the streets to get killed and the instigators of the heinous crime should also remember that we have weapons to deal with them,” Patil said.

“We have the clues to the killers and we promise that we would teach them a lesson which they won’t forget for the rest of their lives,” Patil thundered with anger.

The reference to the killers indirectly was directed toward Muslims, who are suspected of committing the crime.

What surprised many was that while Patil did plain speaking in the legislature, he was silent on the killing of the two Muslim youths Ramzan Azam Qureshi (20 years) and Malik Abdul Khaliq (50 years) who the Muslim leaders alleged were shot point blank without provocation by the police on the orders of Deputy Commissioner of Police R.D. Shinde.

Patil said that the two policemen in plainclothes were attacked when their motorcycle skidded near Milan Hotel at 9.30 p.m. last Wednesday. A group of people standing there apparently assaulted them with stones and knives. They were badly beaten and then stabbed until they died. Their bodies were then tossed into a government bus which was set on fire. The fact that the murderers of the policemen targeted no other motorbike, indicates that they knew them, Patil added.

While there was no announcement of compensation for the two Muslims killed in the police firing, Patil scaled down the demand of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance of Rs. 2.5 million each to Rs. 7, 50,000 each to the families of the killed policemen with a job for each of the families of the deceased policemen.

In the legislature the opposition called for drastic and strict action against the killers. BJP leader and former deputy chief minister and home minister, Gopinath Munde, alleged that Samajwadi Party leader from Bombay  and member of Parliament Abu Asem Azmi was responsible for instigating the mob to attack the police. The government should take action against Azmi for inciting passions in Bhiwandi, Munde demanded.

Responding to the demand, Patil said that the inquiry will not spare anyone and the government will find out whether the murderers had been instigated by someone and if so, they would not be spared and no political pressure would work.

Patil rejected the demand of the opposition for a judicial inquiry into the Bhiwandi violence and arson and said that a judicial inquiry was time-consuming, but a senior police officer will investigate the riots and a case of murder of the policemen will be registered against the killers.

Meanwhile the bodies of Ramzan and Mali were laid to rest amid tight security on Thursday afternoon, while those of the two deceased policemen were sent to their native place in Jalgaon and Nasik, after post-mortem.