NEW DELHI, 1 November — Indian Muslim leaders yesterday blasted the authorities for the large-scale attacks on members of the community in a town that followed anti-US protests and have claimed 13 lives.
At least one of them, Syed Shahabuddin, a former diplomat-turned-politician, accused the Maharashtra state government of “terrorism” for failing to rein in security forces whose firing on Muslim mobs accounted for almost a dozen deaths.
A scuffle between a police officer and a young Muslim Friday during a protest against the US war on Afghanistan turned into an orgy of violence at Malegaon, a town 250 km north of Bombay.
Shahabuddin, a former MP, insisted that the disturbances in the town were not a Hindu-Muslim conflict as was being made out. The police “acted brutally and communally in firing selectively against the Muslims,” Shahabuddin said, demanding a probe into the incident. “This has led to a loss of life and communal confrontation.”
Simultaneously, a Hindu politician, Devendra Dwivedi, warned against what he described as growing Hindu intolerance, and said such a mindset would only harm the country of one billion people. Muslims number some 140 million in India and form its largest minority.
“Unfortunately a wave of intolerance appears to be sweeping especially through Maharashtra that warns of more troubles ahead,” said Dwivedi, a leader of the Congress party that rules Maharashtra in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party.
Muslim leaders appeared to agree with him. Remarked Jawed Habeeb: “Government agencies are systematically targeting Muslims while the government has given a free license to Hindu groups to preach hatred and instigate violence against Muslims.”
The trouble at Malegaon, during a march by Muslims calling for a boycott of US products such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, later spread to neighboring villages in the form of Hindu-Muslim violence. Although the town was put under curfew and the army called out Saturday, arson and violence have continued. Police reported more unrest yesterday in areas surrounding the town.
Authorities lifted a five-day-old curfew on Malegoan and neighboring villages for a few hours to allow people to stock up on food. But the curfew was reimposed as police and soldiers patrolled the area. While Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has refused to say who caused the violence.
But Muslims in Malegaon and Bombay slammed the police for “forcibly stopping” them from distributing handbills that denounced the US strikes on Afghanistan and called for a boycott of US products.
The leaders also suggested that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in the opposition in Maharashtra, and its right-wing ally Shiv Sena were fanning anti-Muslim sentiment in the state. The greater part of the Muslim indignation is over the view taken by the police that anti-US protests are an “anti-national” act because the government has supported Washington. Taufeeq Aslam of Jamiat-e-Islam-i-Hind said, “How does protesting against US attacks make an Indian unpatriotic?” Aslam said his organization counseled patience to Muslims although “police atrocities such as these” test the people’s emotions.
Habeeb said the Vajpayee-led coalition government’s anti-Muslim attitude was a major problem for the community.
Shahabuddin, who is also president of the All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat group, alleged that the Maharashtra State Reserve Police, which fired upon Muslims, was “known for its anti-Muslim bias, largely due to its virtual exclusion of Muslims from its rank and command structure.”
However, he appealed to the Muslim community to exercise its freedom of expression with restraint and within the constraints of the constitution and the law of the land. Shahabuddin also condemned the US attacks on Afghanistan and said he was of the view that the “invasion of Afghanistan is an act of aggression by the US against the state and the people of Afghanistan.”
