MUMBAI, 30 June 2007 — Stung by the strictures of two Mumbai judges, the city police yesterday filed an affidavit before the bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and D.B. Bhosale stating that the police will ensure protection to the two Mumbai girls — Samina Shaikh and her sister Zarina Shaikh, residents of Nagpada in central Mumbai — and others who have become targets of Muslim extremists who appoint themselves as moral religious policemen.
The two girls were harassed and their family members assaulted with cricket bats for allowing their girls to go to school. The suspects in the crime are vigilantes who oppose the education of women. The incident of extremist vigilantism took place on May 11 when a neighbor of the girls, Mohammed Ali Ansari, and a couple of other men attacked the girls’ parents and their brother.
Authorities have pledged to root out incidents of religion-based violence perpetrated by certain members of the Muslim community.
Police Inspector Abdul Pathan of the Nagpada police station told the court that the police have set up an emergency hotline for such incidents, and hold regular community outreach events to teach local residents about religious coexistence and that incidents involving religious and moral policing would not be tolerated.
Police will also be patrolling in plain clothes to track down people who form a small segment of Indian Muslims trying to emulate the Taleban in Afghanistan.
