Pakistani men groom white girls for sex in Britain

Pakistani men grooming British girls for sex

Pakistani men grooming British girls for sex
IANS, Jan 5, 2011

LONDON: Pakistani-origin men in Britain are grooming white girls aged between 11 and 16 for sex with Asian men, a media report said Wednesday.

Police and social services were silent on the exploitation because of fear that it would be termed a racial issue, The Daily Mail reported.

Researchers from University College London’s Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science said the victims were “typically white girls” while “most central offenders are Pakistani”.

The offenders were not viewed as paedophiles but had picked the girls because of their “malleability”.

The report, however, concluded that “race is a delicate issue” that should be handled sensitively “but not brushed under the carpet”.

It said the grooming usually began with older groups of men befriending girls aged 11 to 16 they meet on the street.

The victim was initially treated as a girlfriend and showered with gifts and attention.

But the relationship quickly becomes more “sinister” as the abuser plies the child with drinks and drugs before effectively pimping her out to friends and associates.

The worst cases involve girls being moved around the country to be repeatedly abused.

However, charities working with police to help victims of sexual abuse have publicly denied there was a link between ethnicity and the grooming.

A police officer at West Mercia called for an end to the “damaging taboo” connecting grooming with race.

“These girls are being passed around and used as meat. To stop this type of crime, you need to start everyone talking about it but everyone’s been too scared to address the ethnicity factor,” Chief Inspector Alan Edwards said.

“No one wants to stand up and say that Pakistani guys in some parts of the country are recruiting young white girls and passing them around their relatives for sex, but we need to stop being worried about the racial complication,” he said.

In 17 court cases since 1997 where men were prosecuted, 53 of the 56 people found guilty were Asian, 50 of them Muslim, while just three were white, according to The Times.

Five Asian men were jailed in November 2010 for 32 years for sexual offences against girls aged between 12 and 16 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

Judge Peter Kelson said the men were “sexual predators”.

Mohammed Shafiq, director of Lancashire-based Ramadhan Foundation, a charity working for harmony, said: “I think the police are overcautious because they are afraid of being branded racist.”

Forensic Report gave Clinching Evidence in Godhra Carnage by Islamic Terrorists

Forensic lab gave ‘clinching evidence’ in Godhra case
Ahmedabad, Feb 22, (IANS):

Clinching evidence in the 2002 Godhra train burning case came from Gandhinagar’s Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), lawyers said Wednesday after a fast track court here convicted 31 people and acquitted 63 in the case.

FSL played a key role in the investigation and trial of the case, the lawyers said.
According to defence lawyer A.A. Hassan, for the conviction the court relied on the FSL report to accept the theory of pre-planned conspiracy.

“The court has accepted the theory that the fire was not accidental and that entry into the coach was made by cutting the vestibule and then petrol was poured inside and it was set on fire,” he said.

Special Public Prosecutor J.M. Panchal said Tuesday the clinching evidence for the conviction came from the FSL report, eyewitnesses and circumstantial evidence.

At least 59 people were burnt to death Feb 27, 2002 on board the Sabarmati Express near the Godhra railway station, an incident that sparked communal frenzy in Gujarat.

The FSL, after detailed investigation, had concluded that the burning of the S-6 coach of the train was by using petrol. The FSL also stated that the culprits entered the coach through a sliding door of the coach.

As per police investigations, the fire broke out after the accused had cut a vestibule between two coaches (S-6 and S-7) and entered from there whereas another group poured petrol inside the coach and set it on fire.

This was challenged by lawyers of the accused in the court as well as before the Justices (retired) Nanavati-Mehta probe panel. This panel ruled that the incident was a pre-planned conspiracy.

Another inquiry commission of Justice U.C. Benerjee, which was formed by the Indian Railways, had concluded that the incident was “accidental”.

To examine the pattern of burning, FSL reconstructed the scene by pouring liquid from outside, inside and passage of the coach.

Its examination also showed the presence of hydrocarbons of petrol in the S-6 coach.

The two containers found from the track also had petrol inside. According to the prosecution, the accused had brought the petrol in a small truck to the Godhra railway station and then poured it in the coach.

Must read on Godhra Massacre by Islamic terrorists: Without tinder, sparks are useless – Varsha Bhosle

Varsha Bhosle

March 4, 2002
Without tinder, sparks are useless
Friday: In Mumbai, 7 buses have been damaged, 8 BEST staffers injured, and trains blocked by stone-throwing mobs during the strike called by the VHP. In neighbouring Thane, 6 shops belonging to “a minority community” have been set ablaze; a “100-strong mob moved around in the town… appealing to shopkeepers to down shutters and at some place forcibly pulling them down” (The Indian Express).

Question: Why did the shopkeepers ignore the VHP’s call for a bandh? Like agents provocateurs, were they looking for trouble…?

A-ha, you’re thinking, this dame’s accusing the victims for the crimes committed by the Hindu mob! And you’d be right. But I’m simply following our “secular” tradition: When news spread that 59 “Hindu activists” were killed by “miscreants” at Godhra, “the entire Opposition expressed disappointment over the government’s response to their demand for stern action against the VHP for continuing with its mass mobilisation programme in a bid to build a temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya” (The Newspaper Today, February 28).

That’s right. Unarmed men, women and children are massacred by a Muslim mob — and the “secularists” suggest that the Hindus brought it upon themselves by going to Ayodhya.

What really happened at Godhra? According to The Asian Age of February 28, “A mob of 1,500, reportedly belonging to a minority community, attacked a bogie of the Sabarmati Express ferrying VHP activists… using iron rods and swords, and hacked to death over 50 passengers… Inflammable substances were also thrown into the coach, which led to a fire in a portion of the bogie, and several passengers were charred to death.”

Hacked to death with swords before being burnt.

Could the Age be wrong? But the Ahmedabad edition of The Times of India also carried this bit: “‘In our culture, women are respected and not attacked with swords and acid. We should not take this lying down,’ thundered [karsevika] Sushma Shukla.”

While stuff like “frenzied young men brandishing swords, tridents and iron rods have taken over the streets” occupies the front pages today, silence reigns over the swords, rods and acid used by “unidentified persons” or “miscreants” in the attack on “Ram sevaks” or “Hindu activists”.

The man in charge of the Hindu entourage on the train also told the Age, “There were many girls travelling along with the karsevaks and about 10 have been abducted by miscreants belonging to the minority community.” The reporter quizzed District Collector Jayanti Ravi about the abductions, which she did not deny: “The reported abduction of the girls is a subject of investigation, which would be done later.”

Ten girls stated to have been abducted. Have you read about this in our largest-selling newspapers amidst all the details of the carnage that Hindu hordes have wrought? Has anybody inquired about the FIRs…?

On the evening of the attack on the Sabarmati Express, a STAR News anchor admonished a fellow anchor for saying that a Muslim mass assaulted the Hindus: “Please don’t jump to conclusions. As journalists, we have a responsible role to play,” he said. The attack occurred around 8am, and even after 7pm, the newsman wanted to project doubts about the religious identity of the assailants…

How do you think the abducted girls’ brothers must have felt about the news blackout? How do you think the men who collected the shapeless bundles of charred flesh must have felt when the Communists and the Congress stuck to the supposed legitimacy of the Babri Masjid instead of sympathising with the distraught families? Could they have felt that India is their country, too? Wouldn’t they direct their rage at the first Muslim they saw? Then, does this “responsible” press, do these “secular” politicians, have any right to comment on the fury driving the rampaging Hindus? NOT!

Why am I not spewing bile at the Muslims, you ask? I won’t; I feel they’re little at fault. A spoilt child is created when the parents, fearing the tantrums he throws, accede to his every demand. He invariably becomes a bully, unwilling to share his possessions with his siblings, who then wait for a chance to get even. However, the error is the parents’, who shouldn’t have indulged him and driven a stake between the siblings. Whether the gruesome acts of the Muslim mobs or the Hindu hordes, none of it would have happened if someone had stuffed all our Nehruvian secularists and pinkos — politician, press and commoner — into a giant box and drowned it at sea in 1947. Then, Muslims would have learnt to live in parity with Hindus, and there’d be no Hindu backlash. Indeed, there would be no VHP.

*****

Saturday: The death toll has risen to 375. In Ahmedabad, even after the army being deployed, Hindu hordes armed with petrol bombs, swords and guns continue to hunt prey. In Bapunagar, where Hindus and Muslims clashed, rocket launchers, automatic guns and bombs were used. Six mosques have been razed in Ahmedabad, Surat and Bharuch. In Naroda-Patia, an entire slum was torched within minutes. The stories coming out are as bloodcurdling as that of the Sabarmati 59 — of entire Muslim families being lynched and set ablaze. In Pandarvada village, 30 were burnt alive. In Ahmedabad’s Gulmarg Housing Society, 35 Muslims were butchered, and similar massacres occurred in Saraspur and Shahwadi colonies…

The list of the dehumanization is endless. Most of the murdered couldn’t possibly have been part of the mob that burnt the Hindus. Most of them must have been innocents with no connection to any kind of violence. But that’s the ugly nature of a riot — no sanity, all fury. Whether the impetus is race, religion or poverty, riots essentially stem from extreme frustration. Communal riots will not go away unless the devout Hindus’ concerns are addressed. Bhosle’s “inflammatory” writing on the Web does not reach the Hindus of Godhra — it is the “national” newspapers, filled with anti-Hindu slants, that fuel their sense of estrangement in their own country. If our “secularists” do not recognise the crime they are committing — the position in which they are placing a minority — such riots will continue. With or without the VHP. Why make a tinderbox in the first place and then guard against a spark?? Chuck out the tinder! The spark will be wasted.

As I hear one horror story after another, the only questions that keep ringing in my mind are: WHY did the Muslims attack the train? WHAT were they thinking?! Did they really believe that no Hindu would retaliate? Didn’t they know that Gujarat is the land of *that* Mahatma Gandhi who had said, “But as a Hindu, I am more ashamed of Hindu cowardice than I am angry at the Mussalman bullying. Why did not the owners of the houses looted die in the attempt to defend their possessions? Where were the relatives of the outraged sisters at the time of outrage? My non-violence does not admit running away from danger and leaving the dear ones unprotected” (cited in The Tragic Story of Partition by H V Seshadri). WHO were these people?!

Prompt came the reply: The ISI, said BJP leader J P Mathur. Which is so much bullshit that I want to puke. Among those arrested (at the time of writing) — on the basis of eyewitness accounts or being caught in action — are two eminent municipal councillors of Godhra, Abdul Dhamtia and Salim Shaikh, the latter’s brother Abdul Gaffar, and two petrol-pump owners who provided the fuel to burn the train. Also, the nagarpalika president, Mohammad Kalota, and councillor Bilal Haji — both accused — are absconding. Besides which, no sane person can believe that Pakistan would dispatch a 2,000-strong army of spooks to one place.

The Muslims who attacked the Sabarmati Express were neither ISI agents nor al-Qaeda jihadis — they are plain old Indians. Sure, the hand of the ISI *is* deep in there — but it’s now being cited by the politicians to shirk the responsibility for their continuing with the Congress policy of indulging the minorities, to the point that Muslims began to think they are invincible. Just as Osama bin Laden thought he would get away with obliterating the WTC, so did the Muslims of Godhra think vis-à-vis the Hindus returning from Ayodhya.

Ayodhya… To understand where I’m coming from, I urge you to visit my column of 1997 before reading further. The razing of the Babri has become the embodiment of everything that’s evil in India — that is, practising Hindus are what’s wrong with India. You see, if a Vinod Mehta or a Dilip Padgaonkar can’t be bothered to wear a janoi or believe fervently in the existence of Ram, it follows that any Hindu who does can’t be a sane specimen. If a Shekhar Gupta or a Kuldip Nayar feels no threat to his self-esteem from a mosque built on land traditionally revered as Ram’s janmabhoomi, it follows that anyone who does is an extremist-Hindu-fundamentalist-activist.

Problem is, there are far, FAR more Hindus who want to see the Ram temple come up at Ayodhya than there are clutches of “secular” opinion makers, historians, politicians and socialites. The alumni of Cathedral School or JNU do not an India make. This country also consists of the people who burnt Bombay and are burning Bharuch.

The root of the Ayodhya issue is the sacrilege of a masjid constructed at the site of what is held as Ram’s birthplace. Muslims — who believe that the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem represent Islam’s third-most holy sites — should have no difficulty in understanding the pulls of blind faith. After all, there is *no* historical evidence to suggest Mohammad ever visited Jerusalem, let alone ascended to heaven from the site on the Temple Mount. Therefore, a court order in favour of Muslims will NOT make Hindu resentment vanish. In fact, it will lead to worse.

In January 1991, when the VHP was negotiating a settlement for the return of the Ram Janmabhoomi, it gave this *written* assurance to the All-India Babri Masjid Action Committee and the government: “We do not even demand the return of the thousands of places of worship that have been forcibly replaced with mosques… We merely want three places back, three age-old sacred places. And we would prefer getting them back from the Muslim community, to getting them back by an official decree… Muslims should understand what kind of message they are sending by insisting on continuing the occupation of our sacred places, an occupation started by fanatics and mass murderers like Babar and Aurangzeb. We do not like to think of our Muslim compatriots as heirs and followers of such invaders and tyrants. It is up to them to make a gesture that will signify a formal break with this painful past.” The three places are Ram Janmabhoomi, Krishna Janmabhoomi (Idgah at Mathura), and Kashi Vishwanath (part of the Gyan Vyapi mosque complex).

I propose that the “secularists”, especially the leftist media, create such a climate that the Muslim leadership would freely cede these three sites to the Hindu activists. You see, there is no other solution. For, even if the “educated” bend-over-and-spread-up Hindus don’t know about the VHP’s affidavit and Syed Shahabuddin’s obdurate inflexibility, the Hindus who can make or break a riot DO. Wait and see what happens should a mosque come up at Ram Janmabhoomi again.

The devout Hindus have already compromised by asking for just 3 sites from among thousands. It is now up to the parent to cajole or threaten the spoilt child and teach him how to share with his sibling. Otherwise, further pampering = added estrangement = more riots. QED.

Varsha Bhosle

History of Islamic terrorism in Godhra (1927 to present)

link

An Eyewitness on What Really Happened at Godhra

What Really Happened At Godhra?�
Author: George Joseph
Publication: Mathrubhumi
Date: April 20, 2002

Since the last 12 years, I have been carrying on a small business, near the Godhra Railway Station. I am detailing below those same incidents, which are constantly appearing during the last few weeks, through different media reports and statements. I am a living eyewitness of the Godhra carnage.

Godhra, a Muslim dominated area, is a place, which has been experiencing a deep communal divide and tension since the last many years. Hence we have been living there under great fear and constant tension. If communal violence erupted in any part of the country, its immediate drastic impact was witnessed at Godhra also.

The Congress Councilor, who has been the main culprit behind the Godhra carnage, is a no.1 hoodlum of the area. The Councilor’s cronies have, so many a times, indulged in the most condemnable rowdy acts in the station surroundings. I have been an eyewitness to many such acts. Today I would not have been alive to write this letter, had I opposed them, by giving some complaints.

The attack on Sabarmati Express was a pre-planned exercise. They made careful plans for the same, many weeks before the incident. It was impossible to witness before the naked eye, the incidents that took place on that day. Thousands of people, shouting slogans in favour of the Babri Masjid were present in the railway station surroundings, on that fateful day. Why the police did not try to control them? The Congress Councilor was the main reason for that. Even the police did not have the guts to touch him.

Those people who managed to jump out of the burning bogie were mercilessly stoned to the ground. Even little children were not spared. I ran for my life as it was impossible remain there as an eyewitness for a longer period of time. Why is the Congress Party not prepared to condemn and expose the real colour of the culprits? Why the media is selectively avoiding eyewitnesses like us? All these exercises are for votes.

We are not ready to go back to Gujarat till the problems are completely resolved. The reason is, in Godhra only Muslims can live. Through experience I am attesting to this truth. When communal problems take place, it is not correct to make a pre- judgement without actually analyzing the real root of the problem. There are many people who still justify the merciless acts of burning alive the passengers of Sabarmati Express with kerosene and petrol. The reason I am writing such a letter is that, none of the media could highlight the real problem. Medias like the Mathrubhumi should have the guts and the conviction to come out with the real truth behind such problems, irrespective of religion, caste and creed.

George Joseph, Pazhoor

(This is a translation of the letter)

Islamic Terrorists hatched Sabarmati Train Carnage Conspiracy At Godhra Guest House

Conspiracy hatched at Godhra guest house: court

Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011

Manas Dasgupta

“After train stopped, 5 of the accused set coach S-6 afire”

AHMEDABAD: Special court judge P.R. Patel, in his judgment in the Godhra train carnage case, held that a “conspiracy” was hatched on the night of February 26, 2002 at the Aman Guest House in the Gujarat town, where besides Abdul Razzak Kurkur, four persons — Salim Panwala, who is believed to be in Pakistan, Farooq Bana, Salim Jarda and Salim Bana were present.

The judge maintained that on February 27, 2002, after the Sabarmati Express halted near “A” cabin of the Godhra station following chain pulling, five of the accused — Ayub Patalia, Irfan Kalandar, Mehboob Popa, Shaukat Patalia and Siddique Vohra — broke open the vestibule between coaches S-6 and S-7, entered S-6, in which a large number of the VHP kar sevaks were travelling, poured sizable quantity of petrol and set the coach aflame, causing the death of 59 people. They had collected the petrol from the “Bawa” pump near the station the previous night.The court, however, has not named them the principal accused. It invoked all relevant Sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code against all the 31 accused. But, according to Public Prosecutor J.M. Panchal, nine persons, barring the absconding Salim Panwala, who were named as having been present in the guest house to hatch the “conspiracy” and those who entered S-6 to set it afire, could attract capital punishment.

According to Mr. Panchal, the court accepted the “conspiracy” theory on the basis of scientific, oral and circumstantial evidence.

Defence not happy

But I. M. Munshi, one of the six-member counsel for the accused, regretted that the court based its judgment on the “evidence” of only four witnesses and an alleged “confessional statement” by one of the accused, which did not merit being “counted.”

According to Mr. Munshi, the court heavily relied on the statements by Ajay Baria, a tea vendor on the station platform, and Sikandar Mohammad, who lived near the mosque adjacent to the station and had “rushed” to the platform on hearing the “commotion.” Both Ajay and Sikandar claimed in their statements given under Section 164 of the Cr.PC that they had actually “seen” the five accused enter S-6 by breaking the vestibule and pour petrol.

Two others who gave statements under Section 164 were Prabhatsinh Chauhan and Ranjit Jodha, both employees of the “Bawa” pump. They told the investigating authorities that they had “sold” 120 litres of petrol the previous night to the accused. The only “confessional statement” was given by Jabir Behra, one of the accused, who claimed to have “knowledge” of the “conspiracy” and the events thereafter.

Dismissing the reliability of these statements, Mr. Munshi said all the five statements were later retracted by the witnesses, and the statements of Ajay Baria and Sikandar were recorded by the police more than a year after the incident, while the petrol pump employees had in their original statements denied having sold petrol loose as originally claimed by the police. Only after the investigation was handed over to the then CID (crime) inspector, Noel Parmar, did he “manage” to “extract confessions from the two that they sold petrol in cans to the accused and that earlier they were scared of confessing about it.”

Similarly, Mr. Munshi pointed out, Salim Behra gave the “confessional statement” when the case was being tried under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has since been repealed. So the statement given under the POTA would not hold and it should not have been relied upon by the court.

“No evidence”

Referring to the acquittal of Moulana Umarji, whom the police originally held the “principal conspirator,” Mr. Munshi said the prosecution could not produce even an “iota of evidence” against him. The aged Moulana was actually running a relief camp with the permission of the District Collector, following the riots post-Godhra, when the police picked him up. A loudspeaker blaring from the nearby mosque “inciting” the mob was also a “cooked up story” by the police. For, after Umarji, the police named Moulana Abdullah as speaking on the public address system at that time but later it was found that he was not even present at Godhra and was in fact abroad on the fateful day.

Mr. Munshi made it clear that the 31 convicted would move the Gujarat High Court against the verdict. He also hinted at the possibility of the acquitted filling a case against the State government for compensation as they had spent nearly nine years in jail for no crime.

Mr. Panchal said he was “satisfied” with the judgment but declined to comment on the acquittal of a huge number of accused. “The court verdict is to be respected and there can be no debate on it.”

About the prosecution approaching the High Court against the acquittal of the 63 accused, Mr. Panchal said a decision could be taken only after going through the entire judgment.

Besides the nine accused the court believed were in the Aman guest house and to have entered S-6, those convicted are Salim Vohra, Abdul Sattar Ghanchi, Abdul Raoof Desli, Yunus Ghadiali, Ibrahim Samal, Bilal Badam, Farooq Ghanchi, Siraj Bana, Qasim Biriyani, Anwar Moola, Ramzan Behra, Hasan Charkha, Mehboob Chanda, Ibrahim Samal, Mehboob Pitha, Ilyas Koda, Ramzani, Jabir Behra, Soyeb Kalandar, Bilal Abdul Ghanchi, Bhuria, and Ismail Mumtaz.

Godhra Ruling Against Islamic Terrorism: A Historic Occasion

Godhra ruling will set the trend against mob violence’
February 22, 2011

Sheela Bhatt in Ahmedabad

Rediff.com’s Sheela Bhatt was in Ahmedabad when the judgment in the Godhra train burning case was pronounced on Tuesday. She has also followed and written about the twists and turns in the historic nine-year legal battle. Her analysis of the verdict

On Tuesday, February 22, at 11.07 am, Judge P R Patel came to the makeshift courtroom inside the historic Sabarmati jail with two sets of papers. One set he gave to the prosecution side and another to the defence lawyer. They contained the names of 63 accused who had been acquitted and the 31 who had been convicted.

Most importantly, he announced that he has applied Section 302, Section 120-B, Section 149, 307, 323, 324, 332 of the Indian Penal Code to the 31 accused and he has also upheld the charge of conspiracy against them. That was the most important part of the judgment because it has the power to polarise opinion in India. The Godhra train carnage was not an accident, said the court. It believes that it was a preplanned conspiracy.

This judgment is historic because, in India, incidents of communal and mob violence are quite common but the conviction rate in cases related to them is quite low. A senior police officer related to the case told rediff.com, “This case is the first of its kind where more than 25 people are being convicted on serious charges of mob violence. This will set a trend. It is very difficult to build up a case against each of them. It is very heartening that the court has accepted our arguments and convicted 31 persons.”

31 Islamic Terrorists Convicted For Setting Fire to Sabarmati Express In Godhra, Burning Alive 59 Innocent Hindus

Godhra train attack was planned, says court, convicts 31, frees 63
Feb 23 2011
Ahmedabad:

The special court here pronounced 31 accused guilty of murder and criminal conspiracy in connection with the Sabarmati train carnage in Godhra, in which 59 men, women and children, mostly kar sevaks of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, were burnt to death on February 27, 2002.

The attack, which the court ruled was an act stemming from a criminal conspiracy, triggered the subsequent communal riots in Gujarat, in which over 1,000 people were killed.

Special trial judge P R Patel acquitted 63 others who were chargesheeted. They include Maulvi Umarji, the prime accused. The pronouncement of the judgment started at around 11 am and lasted for half an hour.

The judgment was read out inside the high-security Sabarmati Central Jail today. The sentencing is scheduled for February 25. The minimum punishment the guilty could be given is life imprisonment; the maximum, death.

The court ruled that the fire in coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express was started after a criminal conspiracy hatched by the convicts to kill the passengers inside. A total 94 persons faced trial under the Indian Penal Code, Indian Railways Act, Prevention of Damage to the Public Property Act and the Bombay Police Act.

The accused were charged with pulling the chain of the train at Godhra station, pelting the train with stones near Signal Faliya, throwing burning rags and petrol inside the coach, cutting the canvas of the vestibule, forcibly entering the coach and dousing it with petrol from the inside.

They were also accused of collecting 140 litres of petrol on the night of February 26, 2002, and hiding it behind a local guest house, with the intention to attack the train the next day.

The charge was that they hatched the conspiracy out of communal grudge against a particular community.

The main convicts include Haji Bilal, a former member of the Godhra Nagarpalika and Abdul Razak Kurkur, owner of Aman Guest House. Besides Maulana Umarji, who was accused of instigating the others to set the train on fire, Mohammed Kalota, a former president of the Godhra Nagarpalika, was acquitted.

Thee trial was conducted inside Sabarmati Central Jail, as the state government had imposed Section 268 CrPC on the accused, restricting their mobility.

Special Public Prosecutor J M Panchal said the court had ordered the conviction of 31 accused on the basis of eyewitness accounts, testimony of railway employees, forensic evidence confirming the use of petrol, and circumstantial evidence.

Asked if he was satisfied, Panchal said, “There is no question of satisfaction… The court has given its verdict and we have to respect it.” Panchal declined to state whether the prosecution would demand capital punishment for the convicts.

Panchal was assisted by two Special Assistant Public Prosecutors, N N Prajapati and A Y Kogje. The prosecution examined 253 witnesses, around 20 of whom turned hostile. There were no defence witnesses.

Defence lawyers expressed satisfaction with the judgment. One of the chief counsel, A A Hasan said, “The 63 persons have been acquitted while accepting the defence arguments. Many of the accused were implicated in the case as part of political rivalry and that argument has been accepted by the court.”

I am a Hindu now: A former Muslim’s lady’s life story

June 27, 2010

I am a Hindu now: A former Muslim’s life story
I was born into a very staunch Muslim family in the US. Learning to read the Quran the moment I could read. I was under the misconception that if I did not do as Allah told me to do, I would be punished severely. I was also told that if I didn’t wear modest clothes I was being immoral. Right from a little girl I wore the head scarf. My friends would ask me why, and I would tell them “because God said so’.

As I grew strictness of my family started to go out of hand as they started disciplining me in just about everything. Pointing out to me things that I should do and forced me to do whatever they wanted. I was allowed no freedom outside as well as within the house for the most stupid reasons. My father also refrained me from going out. I was not allowed to speak to the opposite sex but being stubborn, I did just that. When my father found out, about me talking to a guy, when I was 14, my grandmother scolded me and even called me a prostitute. I cried for hours, her words cutting me deep. Once My garandfather and grandmother went to meet our relative, that day I wore jeans and T-shirt and went out with the consent of my mother. I enjoyed with my school friends. When I came to home I saw my grandmother was at home and she was abusing and beating my mother for allowing me to go out without Hijab. My grandmother called me prostitute again and again.

I remember during Bakra eid (sheep slaughtering festival), my mother and myself used to confine into room and used to cry while my family used to celebrate and taking rejoice in killing innocent animals. My mother and myself were nothing but prisoner of our own house. I grew up seeing beating and abusing of my mother by my father and his family.

My majority of school friends were Non-muslims, I was very much comfortable with Hindus, Sikhs and Christians. When my grandmother got to know about this, my grandmother scolded me and my mom and told me that we are not allowed to be friends with kafirs. When I asked her why? she said Hindus are filthy, Jews and Christians are apes and pigs and they are not Humans, they follow satan. I was shocked.

Around the age of 14, I realized how much of life I was missing out on. How my father commanded that I do my prayers 5 times a day and never play any sports because they would only lead me to the devil. One night I was talking to my parents about college and my father said that I would never go to college because he had chosen a boy for me and I was about to get married to him as soon as I turned 18. I was shocked….my mother ran out of the room crying. I began to plead with my father to let me go to college. But he said no. When I asked him why, he told me that Muslim women are not supposed to be educated or go to work. They are supposed to be good wives, who never disagree with their husbands and be good honorable women. I couldn’t belive my ears. This man was still living in the dark-ages.

The next day after school I went to the mosque to talk with our Maulvi Sahab. When I told him about my father’s irrational behavior—he agreed with him. He told me that if all the Muslim men in our community thought like your father, we would be in a really good place right now.

I was stuck and didn’t know what to do. I kept thinking about it till late that night. At around 2am my mom came to check up on me and found me crying. That night I came to know what a sick religion Islam was. She told me that she had been a well educated (Doctor) Hindu woman who had fallen in love with my father in India. During their courtship my father had told her that he was very broad-minded and did not want her to convert when they got married. Against my grand-parent’s wishes she married him and did the Nikaah just so her mother-in-law would like her. Thats where her nightmare began. Her In-laws would not let her go out of the house. No one could come and visit her. She was confined in a home where everyone would spit on her for being a ‘Kafir’. They made her read the Quran and do Namaz. If she didn’t they would beat her. My father would come home and force himself on her. When she would ask him not to, he would tell her that it was written in the Quran, and she was nothing more than a slave to him. After about a year of their marriage, they left for the US. My mom was already pregnant with me.

When I was born he was not too happy with my Mom. He said that if he had married someone of his own faith he would have had a boy for sure. Giving him a girl was the way Allah was punishing him for marrying a Hindu.

When I heard all this I began to hate my father and Islam. I promised to get my mom out of this situation and also never ever end up like her. When I turned 18, along with the help of a lawyer, I managed to get my mom and dad divorced. My mom actually went back to school and has a flourishing practice now.

As for me, you might say that I reverted. I am a practising and loving Hindu now. I have changed my name (new name is not given with the fear of punishment of death for apostasy). I live a life full of love and adoration for a God who does not preach hate, who encourages me to think and gain knowledge, who shows me the way without fear and who loves everyone no matter who they are.

At the age of 23 I got married to my Hindu boy friend and now we have one beautiful daughter. My loving hubby is a great guy, he gave me complete freedom and my rights which my father and his family never gave me. My hubby’s family treat me like their own daughter, and even treat my mom as a part of our family. I thank God for all these.