Lush and serene surroundings at the Adhaytmik Nagar railwayhalt, located nearly 20 km away from New Delhi by the side of National Highway24 connecting Lucknow, is a deceptive veneer that conceals a hideous socialfault line. That was exposed on September 14 when six youths were killed inpolice firing ostensibly in self-defence.
By all account, it appears to be a classic case of theconformation of the existence of institutionalised riot system (IRS) inpost-Independence India, a theory propounded by Paul Brass, a famous US scholarand social scientist on India.
Around 12.30 pm, Abdul Gaffar crossed two parallel railwaytracks running along the railway crossing to reach the nearby Rafikabad mosqueto offer Friday prayers. Gaffar was quite cautious while crossing this busyrailway tracks on which run hundreds of trains daily.
As soon as Gaffar crossed the tracks and reached the otherside of the Adhyatmik Nagar railway halt, he was confronted by someschool-going children. Recounting it, Gaffar says that those children handedhim some torn pages of the holy Quran on which something was scribbled inHindi.
After offering his prayers, Gaffar approached the imam ofthe Rafikabad mosque, Habibur Rehman, and showed him the pages. According toAbdul Quadir, muezzin of the mosque (the person who calls the faithful for theprayers), the imam’s first reaction was to “bury those pages” silently. Onbeing asked what exactly was scribbled on the pages, Quadir said that somebodyhad written “lafz-e-suar (words of pig)” on those pages and had left a mobilenumber in English numerical.
The sagacious advice of the Imam to bury those pages and thematter found no takers as a group of youths gathered outside the mosque anddemanded punitive actions against this act of sacrilege.
As the din of war cries and punitive action against the“unknown culprit” for the blasphemy grew louder, reason and rationality becamethe casualty. How these pages were found? Who gave those pages to Gaffar whoclaims to be mentally-challenged? Such questions lost their relevance.
As crowds of hundreds gathered outside the Rafikabad mosquegot restive, provocation came from an unruly group.
After the evening prayers, the agitated crowd moved to theadjacent Dasna and blocked traffic at the NH 24. However, after an interventionby local elders, the blockade was lifted.
It is pertinent here to take into account the uniquedemographic composition of Dasna and Masuri, two places in the Ghaziabaddistrict. About 85 percent of the population is dominated by Muslims while restof population belongs largely to the Hindu community, particularly scheduledcastes and OBCs.
Sajjad Hussein, a Samajwadi Party leader, is serving histhird consecutive term as the chairman of the Dasna Nagar panchayat.
Hussein was blissfully ignorant about the episode till 6.15pm. “I came back to my house after offering namaz when someone called up totell me about the serious nature of the protest,” he said.
Hussein immediately called up the station officer of theMasuri police station, PK Singh, to find out more. “While I was talking to theSO, I heard commotion inside the police station on phone and decided to rush tothe spot,” he says.
When Hussein reached the Masuri police station, SO PK Singhwas surrounded by an agitating mob which persisted in its demand to produce theman whose mobile number was written on the torn pages of Quran.
Around 7 pm, it became clear that the crowds had becomeunmanageable and there were still no signs of the administration.
Just when it became apparent that Hussein and SO PK Sigh hadfailed to win the trust of people, a section of crowd indulged in rioting andarson inside the police station. Some vehicles at the NH 24 were attacked andburnt while parked vehicles inside the police station were set ablaze.Surprisingly, senior officers ranging from the superintendent of police (ruralareas) and additional district magistrate reached the spot but could do littleexcept to scurry inside a room of the police station.
Sajjad Hussein who was holed up with senior governmentofficials inside a room in the police station was the first to urge the policeto resort to firing. “I requested them to fire at the mob which was instigatedby slogans like “Nara-e-tadbir, Allah-o-Akbar”.
The policemen cocked their rifles and resorted to manyrounds of firing. Asif, a 15-year-old boy who climbed onto his house’s roof tobring down his siblings, was hit by a bullet. His father Aslam tried to takehis son to the hospital but could not do so. His son died in his lap whileother family members watched helplessly. Waseem, a BCom student, was shot deadfrom a point-blank range. Aamir and Wahid, two other boys in their teens, metthe same fate.
Half-an-hour of police firing claimed six innocent lives. Bythe time, the reinforcement reached the spot and the anti-riot police arrived,the deathly silence prevailed in Masuri.
Once the gravity of the situation dawned on theadministration, all senior officers rushed to the spot.
Though these officers tried to control the damage by holdingdialogues with the community leaders, there was a major attempt to cover up thefailure of the local administration.
What is intriguing is the silence of the Akhilesh Yadavgovernment on the inept, or rather callous, handling of the situation.
