Will India-Pak Peace Process Bring Peace To Indian Muslims?
By Aleem Faizee
17 November, 2006
Countercurrents.orgWhile the secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan has begun once again the way Muslims are being targeted unabated in their homeland, is making them more anxious, tense and worried for their future in the country by every passing day.
Their forefathers had sacrificed their lives in India at the time when other Indians were not even aware of the difference between independence and dependence. It was their forefathers who had set the path for the freedom struggle and ultimately India became independent. But, today they are being treated as traitors, that too at the hands of those who had very dubious record during the freedom movement.
Communal riots became common in India since independence and were used as a tool to lower the morale of Muslims . On one hand they were killed in police firings and on the other, their belongings were looted during the curfew under police protections. These were the scenes observed during most of the communal riots. The already deprived Muslim community became poorer because of these riots.
And now it seems, bomb blasts have become another tool for harassing the people belonging to Muslim community. The investigations that are being carried out after Mumbai and Malegaon blasts and the consequent arrests are only making Muslims more restless. Although top ATS-Anti Terrorism Squad officials claimed they have admissible proof against those arrested, people are not ready to believe their theory.
What is worrying them most is that Muslims are being blamed for any untoward incidenct, taking place anywhere in the country. Once the blame has been put on the Muslims, the police, it seems, can now pick up any Muslim from anywhere for interrogations. Even respected citizens, just because they had traveled abroad, were reportedly called for interrogations. In one such instance a Muslim, who was part of a team that went to Dubai for the shooting of a film, was called for interrogations.
Earlier, they used to be the Muslims with some kind of suspicious activities and criminal records, who had been detained and arrested by the police and the community had never bothered about these arrests. But now what is more disturbing for them is, the series of the arrests made recently by the police, are of those educated and respected community members, who do not have any kind of previous criminal records. They are being harassed and tortured in custody, some even died in police custody. Many of them are in their teens and described by their relatives, as innocents.
Muzzammil, just 23, the relatives say, is very simple, religious and caring person. He was working as a mechanical engineer in a firm in Mumbai. Belonging to now poor but very respectable family, was the only hope for his parents, totally downtrodden economically. The Mumbai police has detained him shattering the dreams of his poor parents. With the shattered dreams and tears in eyes, they are now wandering the sizzling Mumbai streets, begging for help and pleading for justice. His is not the only story of this sort.
The trauma does not stop here. Muslims are being denied of their basic civil rights. The police department is creating hurdles during the police clearance. They had even retained the existing passports of some Muslims, who were working in the Persian Gulf since decades and had come to India for vacations. What’s more, grand son of a great son of India denied his posting at RAW just because he was a Muslim.
Tired of the harassment, trauma and shock, the Muslims in India are now banking on Indo-Pak peace initiatives. But the question that remains to be answered is, will India-Pak peace process bring peace to the Indian Muslims as well?
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