-Abha Bharti from Ranchi-
For the self-proclaimed liberal and ‘secular-intellectuals’ of India, riot is always a fine art and demonstration of democratic rights when vulnerable Hindus are at the receiving end. They do not cry intolerance, they will not return their awards that were received after adulation of establishment, and no one will ever refer how their wives feel insecure due to rising intolerance in the country. And finally celebrity news anchors pursuing ‘journalism on demand’ will never turn their news screen black.
These ‘intellectual-hypocrites’ with questionable intellect must come over to Hazaribagh in Jharkhand to see the level of intolerance within Muslims who for the last 25 years have routinely disturbed Ram Navami festival and processions leading to riots, murder, arson and curfew.
This year was no different. The Ram Navami procession in Hazaribagh was attacked by a mob that was high on Muslim fundamentalism. The violent attacks led to the death of one person and injury to over 500.
“Whole year, Hazaribagh remains a peaceful town but during Ram Navami fanatical elements of a certain community fan inter-community passions, they pelt stones on the procession and create ruckus. However, not all could be blamed. It seems that secular and liberal minded people within the Muslim community have no control over their youths who are becoming a tool of the fundamentalists,” said Shivendu Kumar a local resident of Hazaribagh.
On April 15, the day Ram Navami was being celebrated; Hazaribagh’s prime locality Lepo Road witnessed an ugly clash when Muslims started pelting stones at Ram Navami procession of the Rewali Club, which soon snowballed into a full-blown fight.
Around 18 shops were gutted along with seven bikes, five four-wheelers, a concrete mixture machine and a
generator. The administration imposed Section 144 but later on decided to impose curfew. Forces were deployed all over the town.
District and police administration were shocked to know that fundamentalists were all prepared to further fan the riot. Police sources said that an explosion took place at a house in the minority dominated Habib Nagar locality where people from the community were assembling bombs. The bomb accidently exploded that killed five people. Highly placed sources in the police department said that around seven people were involved in preparing bomb out of which five died on the spot in this explosion. But their bodies were secretly disposed so that people don’t get any clue of their communal design.
“We have arrested Mohammed Iftekhar and Mohammed Ishan in injured condition. Ishan was hospitalised for treatment. They are among seven who were assembling bombs. They have disclosed that five died in the blast. But till we get the bodies nothing can be said officially. Police recovered 10 petrol bombs from the site. They were undergoing treatment at their homes to avoid police action,” explained a senior police official.
Police sources said that Mohammad Ekram died during the blast. “Police is in the process of verifying identity of Ekram by tracing his family. Body will be exhumed for postmortem and identification,” the official said.
Police also recovered chemicals, including ammonium nitrate and potassium chlorate used for making bombs, from the house.
So far, police have detained as many as a dozen of suspects involved in communal violence while lodged five separate FIRs.
The Habib Nagar blast and attacks on Ram Navami procession have a dirty secret which no police officer is willing to talk about. It was not only meant to further intensify the communal clash; but some Bangladeshi nationals illegally staying in Hazaribagh were part of this conspiracy. “It is an open secret that a good number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have settled in Hazaribagh and other parts of Jharkhand. Suspected Islamic terrorists are getting their passport from Hazaribagh district is a fact known to the government,” said a senior intelligence official.
As soon as Hazaribagh Ram Navami clash hit national headlines, all self-proclaimed human right activists, secular-brigade and their NGOs started sharpening their knives to target the RSS. Those activists right from Mumbai to Delhi who had played a dubious role in distorting truth of the Gujarat riot, projecting LeT activist Ishrat Jahan as an innocent girl started calling local journalists and contacts to know the details of those two boys who died in the clash believing that the two must be from minority community.
They had a plan to create another ruckus in the country through which they could have polarised political opinion to form a political federation to ‘clean India from RSS’ — the idea which motor-mouth Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has recently floated to become the poster boy of this pseudo-secular gang.
Yet, when these pseudo-intellectuals came to know that the deceased were Hindu and the clash was scripted by a handful mob of Muslims with a bomb factory in Habib Nagar, they withdrew into stoic silence. Leaders of so called secular parties of Jharkhand too initially had planned to rake-up the issue but on finding that the Hazaribagh clash will not serve their minority vote bank and appeasement policy they kept silence.
Hazaribagh has more than a century old tradition of celebrating Ram Navami. But the city got its first scar of communal violence in 1989 when members of minority community attacked a Ram Navami procession. Hazaribagh has never seen a peaceful Ram Navami due to anti-social elements lurking with stones to attack Hindu devotees.
“Some people have a problem with the very name of Ram and they will go to any extent to create disturbance. Hazaribagh has a great history of peaceful coexistence which is under threat due to some people. But the district administration did a wonderful job in containing communal clash. In 1973, Ram Navami procession was stopped by communal forces which we again started in 1986. In Hazaribagh Ram Navami procession was suddenly disallowed in 1988 which we resumed in 1989. The so called secular leaders and patron of minority vote bank that time had declared that devotees of Ram must be thrown in the Bay of Bengal. Now, miscreants are targeting the Durga Puja festival. During immersion of the idol of Goddess last year stones were thrown at the procession,” said former Hazaribagh MP Yadunath Pandey.
Even last year violence erupted during the Ram Navami processions when a bunch of youths from the minority community pelted stones at the procession in which 12 people were injured. n
Spate of violent attacks in Bihar
When rest of the country was peacefully celebrating Ram Navami, one of the most auspicious festivals of Hindus, a group of bigoted Muslims started hurling stones at Ram Navami procession in two separate incidents at Gopalganj and Siwan which left at least 10 people injured.
It is reported that later police fired several rounds in the air to disperse two warring groups during procession in communally sensitive Siwan district.
In the prevailing melee one person was also stabbed and was rushed to Gorakhpur in adjoining Uttar Pradesh for better treatment.
Miscreants also set half a dozen shops and several vehicles on fire.
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