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Mahfooz Ahmed, barely 21 years old,
hails from Rasoolabad Village of Azamgarh, a district of eastern
Uttar Pradesh. A second year student of Bachelor’s in Arts at the
town’s Shibli National College, Mahfooz also works at his college
as a watch-man of its guest house, in order to support his
studies, since his family finds it difficult to make their ends
meet.
On the 22nd of September this year,
he was sent to Varanasi by his college authorities to get some
Audit forms for the college, which was undergoing the process of
some audits and the requisite forms were neither available in the
college nor anywhere else in Azamgarh. By evening, Mahfoozhad
managed to collect the forms and was getting ready to catch a bus
for the return trip. He informed the college authorities
accordingly. But, he was nowhere to be seen the next day. Worried
college authorities and family members tried contacting him but to
no avail as his mobile turned out to be switched off.
Meanwhile, the next day,a few of the local TV channels flashed the
news of Mahfooz being detained by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS)
from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. It was claimed in the media reports
that he was detained by the ATS while taking pictures of the Hotel
Taj in the Cantonment area of Varanasi, though, till the last
minute, the officials denied this arrest. It was only after much
public pressure that the Varanasi Police accepted that Mahfooz was
under their custody. He was subsequently released after 44 hours
of illegal detention. The police alleged that Mahfooz was stopped
at the hotel's gate, where he was caught while making a video of
the hotel campus and found with the possession of some Pakistani
currency. According to the agencies, Mahfooz told the police that
it was given to him by a person who visited Azamgarh from
Pakistan!
Mahfoozdid accept that he took pictures of the Hotel with prior
permission, but denied all the other charges. “I took photographs
of the hotel with prior permission from the security guards at the
gate. But when they got to know that I was from Azamgarh, I was
communally abused and branded as a terrorist before being finally
handed over to the police,” Mahfooz told Rajiv Yadav, a PUCL
activist, after his release.
“If the police have found Pakistani
currency with Mahfooz, as they claim, why haven’t they produced it
before a court?” asks Rajiv. “It is a clear case of unlawful
detention and we demand a proper clarification from the police and
intelligence agencies,” he adds. This is not, after all, the first
time that a resident of Azamgarh, particularly a Muslim, has been
branded as a terrorist or abused and subsequently detained.
In March 2009, Mohammed Ashad, an Engineering student from
Azamagah, who was then studying in Noida, was taken into custody
on the grounds that he hailed from Azamgarh and that he was a
Muslim. He was arrested from sector 18 of Noida, while he was
driving a bike along with his friend Amar Deep Singh, and detained
and interrogated for 24 hours.
In November 2008, the members of a
hockey team from Azamgarh were branded as terrorists. The team was
on its way to Etawah from Kanpur on November 10thwhen some boys
who had forgotten their jersey in the train’s coach they were
travelling in, went back to collect it. Inside, the government
railway police (GRP) personnel stopped them and asked their
whereabouts. On being told they were from Azamgarh, the police
officials detained our players and declared us terrorists.
There are many cases like this. Rajiv believes that the police and
other agencies are doing so, to malign the Muslim community and
create a sense of fear amongst the Muslim youth. “It’s nothing but
communal witch-hunt and desperate attempts to give a bad name to
Azamgarh,” he asserts. All of this started in the wake of the
‘encounter’ at Batla House in September 2008, in which two of the
boys who were killed were from Azamgarh.
Thereafter, the police
and the intelligence bureau officials started claiming that
‘Azamgarhwas slowly but surely, becoming a hotbed for terrorist
activities’, which was unquestionably reported by the mainstream
media houses.
The residents’ demand for a judicial probe in the
‘encounter’ at Batla House case by a sitting judge of supreme is
still pending and every year, they organise conventions and
rallies to re-iterate their demand. Residents increasingly face
problems in getting their Passports made or renewed. In my recent
trip last week, I was told in a conversation with a local
activist, Tarique Shafeeq that, “since three years, hundreds of
residents have been denied access to new passports or its
renewal,”.
He further complained that, “Wherever we go, we are
seen suspiciously. We have to be extra cautious”. After every
blast in the country, both the police and the media try to make
some connection with Azamgarh, which has made the life of its
residents more difficult.
As a result, there’s a complete pall of insecurity and gloom
that’s been pervading its residents. The youth are scared and
their parents afraid to send their children out of their homes, be
it for studies or jobs. Moreover, residents of Azamgarh have been
forced to vacate their rooms by landlords in Delhi and other
places. Many youths have been missing. There is absolutely no
knowledge of their whereabouts. Tarique Shafique’s brother, who
studied para-medical sciences at Hamdard University, found it very
difficult to find a place to stay in Delhi. “Is it a crime to be a
Muslim and a resident of Azamgarh?,” asks Tarique. The Country,
especially the State and it various agencies, need to answer this
before it is too late.
Mahtab Alam is
Delhi based Civil Rights’ Activist and Journalist. He can be
reached at activist.journalist@gmail.com
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