Guilty by default

 

 

It was the afternoon of 14/09, a day after the blasts in Delhi, about 7-8 people came in three cars to our house in Okhla. They did not even show their I-cards, they just barged into our house, brandishing automatic weapons, and started to take me away. As I was sitting with my guests, I asked them to leave lest they also become involved in this surprise raid. They took me to their holding cell in Lodhi Road where I was intensely interrogated for more than 24 hours. I was not even allowed to contact my friends or family in order to let them know about my well being. Even the local police were uncooperative, as they refused to give us (my family) a copy of the FIR. They (the local police) just told my family to not meddle in the high level affairs of the government.

I’m a lecturer at the Udaipur University; I also run an NGO called the Universal Knowledge Trust, through which I provide scholarship to aid the education of underprivileged kids. No less than 96 students get funds from my NGO every week so that they can continue studying. Recently I was involved in collecting donations for the flood-affected in Bihar. Right now my house is filled with relief equipment meant for flood victims, collected from friends and family. I’m a scholar; I’ve edited a book called the Encyclopedia of the Holy Quran for an author called M.K. Singh. And I’ve also written a book named, ‘Empower Yourself, A Handbook for Citizens’ and another one called ‘A Guide to Uplift Minorities’. I’m 55 years old, involved in social work for decades – what link could I possibly have with the terrorists?

They (ATS) just descended on this community immediately after the bomb blasts. This smacks of a knee-jerk reaction and an easy way to show that some action is being taken instead of a proper investigation. We’re being harassed for being Muslims. People become millionaires running NGOs, but come to my house and you’ll find that we don’t even own a motorbike! My own sons never got a scholarship for their studies; those funds were only meant for the underprivileged kids. We totally condemn terrorists acts carried on in the name of Islam; these people don’t deserve to live and neither will they go to heaven for they have the blood of innocents on their hands. The government can do whatever they want with these people. What we want is that in the aftermath of these acts, proper procedure should be followed and random arrests, to appease public opinion, should be avoided as they are worthless and counterproductive. No terrorist will sit at home after he’s committed a terrorist act.