Headlines
Riot victims blame local SHO: NCM report
New Delhi, May 30
Riot-hit Muslim villagers in
Ballabhgarh's Atali Village in Haryana have demanded "strong action"
against Station House Officer (SHO) Babu Lal for "abetting the
miscreants" belonging to the majority community who attacked them on
May 25, saying that he had even "sent away" some of the additional
personnel deployed at the village.
A fact-finding team of the
National Commission for Minorities (NCM) that visited the village on May
27 has stated this in its report, which IANS has accessed. Atali
village is located about nine km from Faridabad in Haryana and a little
over 40 km from Delhi.
On Monday, Babu Lal was the
officer-in-charge of the local police station when a 2,000-strong armed
mob attacked Muslims gathered at the site of a mosque under onstruction
for prayers and gutted houses and shops belonging to them. The officer
has since been removed from his post pending an enquiry.
"They
especially named the local SHO Babu Lal, who was present at the site,
and had been warned about impending trouble. According to them, he, in
fact, sent away some of the personnel who had been deputed to the site
and accused him of abetting the perpetrators," said the NCM report,
which will soon be submitted to the home ministry.
The violence
continued till Wednesday despite a police order banning any public
gathering. Over 400 Muslim villager are still taking shelter at the
Ballabhgarh police tation fearing retribution if they return home.
The
mob, armed with axes, swords, spears, country-made pistols, petrol and
gas, burnt down the mosque and went on a rampage, torching and looting
the 17 houses owned by Muslims in its vicinity. The mob also tried to
burn a labourer working on the structure and even chopped off his
fingers and toes with an axe.
Police said a probe has been ordered.
"We
have constituted an SIT (Special Investigation Team) to probe the issue
which triggered the riot-like situation here. For precautionary
measures, section 144 of the Criminal PCrPC is still imposed in Atali
village and its nearby areas," Deputy Commissioner of Police
(Ballabhgarh) Bhupinder Singh told IANS.
The prosperous village,
with a population of 10,000, has witnessed simmering communal tension
over the past two decades. But five years ago, the proposed
construction of a mosque brought things to a head. The Jats also
managed to get a court stay on the mosque, stating it was a threat to
communal harmony in the area. However, a month ago, construction
resumed, after the court allowed it.
"The mosque is being built
is on Wakf (a body that looks after properties belonging to a common
heritage of the community) land. They got all the permissions and
started building. But they expected trouble and had asked the police
for protection," a member of the NCM panel told IANS.
However,
the security provided was simply inadequate to deal with the
2,000-strong mob that had attacked the Muslims. "The kind of
destruction that took place - houses gutted, shops looted, vehicles
burnt, doors, fridges smashed - shows they had a lot of time to go
about it. The mob threw gas cylinders on the homes," said the member,
relating the panel's findings.
The member also wondered if the
local police felt outnumbered, why more personnel not called from
Faridabad which is just 15 minutes away from Atali.
As per the
three-member NCM panel comprising Ajaib Singh, T.N. Shanoo and Farida
Abdulla Khan, the situation was still quite hostile and a number of
local residents were unwilling to let the Muslim families return. The
main accused in the case engaged in a direct altercation with the
victims in the presence of the NCM panel.
"Even as we left the
village and were returning to Delhi, we were informed that another
Muslim villager had been attacked by those involved in the earlier
riot," a panel member, who did not want to be named, told IANS.
The
affected villagers also told the NCM team that the police not just
failed to provide them adequate security cover even after they sought
it, they were also shying away from apprehending the culprits.
"They
have identified and named several of the perpetrators and filed an FIR
(First Information Report) but no action has yet been taken on their
complaints," the NCM report, based on their findings on May 27, further
states. However, some arrests were reported on Saturday.
The
NCM panel found the affected Muslim villagers living in a pitiable
condition in the open compound of the Ballabhgarh police station, where
they have taken shelter fearing further attacks.
"When we
reached the Ballabhgarh police station, we found the men, women and
children all living in an open compound in this heat without any
shelter food or water. They have been at the police station since
Monday evening when they fled their homes. How difficult it is to
arrange a shamiana? Later, I was told they have arranged some coolers,"
the NCM member told IANS.
"In the presence of the authorities
we were told that no amenities had been provided to them and when the
SDM mentioned food that had been sent, she was told that it arrived so
late that it had to be returned, which she then admitted," the report
said of the ground situation.
(Anuradha Mukherjee can be contacted on [email protected])