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'Police participated activley in anti-Muslim violence'

28-05-2002

London, Council of Indian Muslims(UK):

Police have actively participated in the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat a senior lawyer of Supreme Court of India Mr Majeed Memon told a gathering of Indian Muslims in London last night.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the Council of Indian Muslims (UK) he said, “There have been incidents in which police officers siphoned out petrol from their vehicles and gave it to the arsonists.”

“One shudders simply by imagining the heartlessness of the perpetrators who entered the mosque and raped women taking refuge there and then murdered or stopped the victims from filing their FIRs. On the contrary FIRs were lodged against Muslims and if you compare these FIRs filed in different police stations you will find that their language is strikingly similar which means that they were prepared and distributed well in advance”, He added.

He said that he, along with a team of other lawyers was preparing to file cases against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders in India as well as in The Hague.

Mr Memon, who has also been representing the victims of the infamous TADA and has pleaded for the Indian musician Nadeem said, “I wish Vajpaee could realise that as a whole it is the country’s economy which has been damaged by what has been happening in Gujarat.”

He said that not all Hindus were anti-Muslims. “There are Hindus who have been helping Muslims by risking their own lives many of whom are my close friends and are dearer to me than my own family members”.

Then how could crimes as gruesome as which took place in Gujarat were allowed to happen? “Twenty percent Hindus were communal, twenty percent were secular while the other sixty percent were fluid and depended upon the environment and thus could easily be influenced by either side. What happened in Gujarat is merely the reflection of this fact”. He replied. “If we act sensibly and with prudence these sixty percent will be on our side and will rise against injustice.”

Mr Memon also said that despite the most horrific crimes committed against them in Gujarat Muslims were not demoralised. “The Gujarat tragedy will bring the divided Indian Muslim community together.”

He appealed to the Indian Muslims organisations in the UK to come under one umbrella and set an example for their compatriots back home.

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