Mysore riots – Muslim leader, Muslim groups under scanner

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mysore/Popular-Front-leader-Kaleem-in-police-custody/articleshow/4745876.cms

ular Front leader Kaleem in police custody

6 Jul 2009, 2132 hrs IST, TNN

MYSORE: The city police on Monday picked up Popular Front of India (PFI) leader Kaleem on charges of inciting communal violence in the

trouble-torn Mysore suburb and extended prohibitory orders imposed in four police station limits till July 13.

While the Udayagiri suburb remained tense, the police have beefed up security in the area in the aftermath of Kaleem’s arrest. Kaleem is named as an accused in the FIR filed at Udayagiri police station for the case related to desecration of religious school. He is accused of obstructing the public officials (police) from carrying out their duty at the school and inciting the communal violence, police commissioner Sunil Agarwal explained.

A senior official said Kaleem managed to escape when they raided some of the areas in Kyathanamaranahalli in the wee hours of Saturday.

In all 14 activists of PFI, a part of Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) which is under the police scanner, were taken into custody after Kaleem addressed a press conference at the Mysore press club. When they were searched, the police found a knife in possession of one of the activists. An autorickshaw used by Kaleem to arrive at the press club was also seized. Deputy commissioner P Manivannan, city magistrate and police commissioner authorized the police officials to round up Kaleem when they got wind that he is addressing a press meet. He was allowed to explain his position and was picked up when the meet was over.

Before his arrest, Kaleem said the PFI has nothing to do with the recent violence in the city and accused Sri Rama Sene leader Pramodh Mutalik of hatching a plot to create disturbance in the area. Mutalik visited the trouble-torn Kyathanamaranahalli about four weeks back, he pointed out. While the post mortem has stated that 14-year-old Junaid died due to stabbing, Kaleem said it was because of police firing.

Meanwhile, the condition of injured BJP leader Giridhar is stable. BJP MLA S A Ramadass, CM’s parliamentary secretary, met him at the private hospital.

DC P Manivannan has sent a report about the law and order situation in Mysore in the aftermath of violence that claimed three lives and injured scores others to chief secreatry Sudhakar Rao.The report is likely to be forwarded to governor H R Bharadwaj.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mysore-14-held-for-inciting-violence/articleshow/4746000.cms

14 arrested for inciting violence in Mysore

6 Jul 2009, 2153 hrs IST, PTI

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MYSORE: Fourteen people were arrested on Monday for allegedly inciting violence that broke out in various parts of the city over alleged

desecration of a madrasa which left three dead and six others injured.

Police said the men owing allegiance to ‘Popular Front of India’ were taken into custody as they were emerging out from the Journalists’ Association Building here after addressing the media.

Some knives were recovered from the activists who were alleged to have been inciting the violence, they said.

Meanwhile, the riot-affected areas remained incident-free as the district administration extended prohibitory order issued under Section 144 CrPC in parts of the city.

Clashes broke out over the alleged desecration of a Madrasa at Udayagiri area here on July 2.

Popular Front leader Kaleem in police custody

6 Jul 2009, 2132 hrs IST, TNN

MYSORE: The city police on Monday picked up Popular Front of India (PFI) leader Kaleem on charges of inciting communal violence in the trouble-torn Mysore suburb and extended prohibitory orders imposed in four police station limits till July 13.

While the Udayagiri suburb remained tense, the police have beefed up security in the area in the aftermath of Kaleem’s arrest. Kaleem is named as an accused in the FIR filed at Udayagiri police station for the case related to desecration of religious school. He is accused of obstructing the public officials (police) from carrying out their duty at the school and inciting the communal violence, police commissioner Sunil Agarwal explained.

A senior official said Kaleem managed to escape when they raided some of the areas in Kyathanamaranahalli in the wee hours of Saturday.

In all 14 activists of PFI, a part of Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) which is under the police scanner, were taken into custody after Kaleem addressed a press conference at the Mysore press club. When they were searched, the police found a knife in possession of one of the activists. An autorickshaw used by Kaleem to arrive at the press club was also seized. Deputy commissioner P Manivannan, city magistrate and police commissioner authorized the police officials to round up Kaleem when they got wind that he is addressing a press meet. He was allowed to explain his position and was picked up when the meet was over.

Before his arrest, Kaleem said the PFI has nothing to do with the recent violence in the city and accused Sri Rama Sene leader Pramodh Mutalik of hatching a plot to create disturbance in the area. Mutalik visited the trouble-torn Kyathanamaranahalli about four weeks back, he pointed out. While the post mortem has stated that 14-year-old Junaid died due to stabbing, Kaleem said it was because of police firing.

Meanwhile, the condition of injured BJP leader Giridhar is stable. BJP MLA S A Ramadass, CM’s parliamentary secretary, met him at the private hospital.

DC P Manivannan has sent a report about the law and order situation in Mysore in the aftermath of violence that claimed three lives and injured scores others to chief secreatry Sudhakar Rao.The report is likely to be forwarded to governor H R Bharadwaj.

14 arrested for inciting violence in Mysore

6 Jul 2009, 2153 hrs IST, PTI

MYSORE: Fourteen people were arrested on Monday for allegedly inciting violence that broke out in various parts of the city over alleged desecration of a madrasa which left three dead and six others injured.

Police said the men owing allegiance to ‘Popular Front of India’ were taken into custody as they were emerging out from the Journalists’ Association Building here after addressing the media.

Some knives were recovered from the activists who were alleged to have been inciting the violence, they said.

Meanwhile, the riot-affected areas remained incident-free as the district administration extended prohibitory order issued under Section 144 CrPC in parts of the city.

Clashes broke out over the alleged desecration of a Madrasa at Udayagiri area here on July 2.

Violent Mohammedan mob riot, severely beat up policemen, set ablaze police station, rampage in Ghaziabad, worst riots district has witnessed

Ghaziabad is one of the Minority Concentrated District in India with 23% Muslims.

“Two police constables, identified as Satish Chandra and Vipin Kumar, were critically injured in the violence in Islam Nagar locality”

“According to a police officer, it all started with about a hundred persons marching to the district hospital where the bodies of the two men killed by the cops, Feroze and Rahis, were kept in the mortuary. They beat up two constables on duty there. They had to be admitted to hospital. Some policemen who rushed to the spot to save the duo were also roughed up with the mob chasing them.After this, the 200-300 strong mob, mainly from Islamnagar, Chaman Colony and neighbouring areas, marched to the New Bus Stand police post where they thrashed the few policemen on duty and set the post and some motorcycles of policemen and others on fire with petrol taken from the vehicles.

Gzb encounter: Protesters beat up cops

4 Mar 2009, 2300 hrs IST, Lalit Kumar,

GHAZIABAD: In perhaps the worst rioting that Ghaziabad has ever witnessed, mobs on Wednesday evening severely beat up and injured two policemen, set A vehicle set ablaze by people in protest against the police encounter in Ghaziabad.A police post, a police jeep and about half-a-dozen motorcycles on fire and vandalized the police control room on Meerut Road. They also damaged many of passing cars and buses.

Late in the night, prohibitory orders under Section 144 were imposed all over the city.

The rioting took place over allegations that two persons the police had claimed to have shot in an armed encounter early in the morning saying they were carjackers had actually been picked up from their homes around midnight on Tuesday by a police SI and four constables. Predictably, the cops denied the charge.

The rioting began around 5.30 pm but the New Bus Stand police post and some vehicles were still smouldering at 8.30 pm. Parts of Grand Trunk Road and the Delhi-Meerut highway, littered with shattered glass of passing vehicles and burning wreckage of a few, had to be blocked to traffic for almost two hours.

Mobs also vandalized the office of the city police chief, Anant Dev, around 10 pm when this report was being filed.

A heavy contingent of the Provincial Armed Constabulary and riot police had been deployed in the entire affected area under the City Kotwali and Sihani Gate police stations. Cases of rioting, arson, destroying public property, attacking government servants on duty and other counts had been registered. And, although the police were tight-lipped, a large number of alleged rioters had been rounded up.

Many in the mob also condemned the recent lynching of four alleged burglars, belonging to a particular community, in Loni’s Balramnagar area as the police stood by.

According to a police officer, it all started with about a hundred persons marching to the district hospital where the bodies of the two men killed by the cops, Feroze and Rahis, were kept in the mortuary. They beat up two constables on duty there. They had to be admitted to hospital. Some policemen who rushed to the spot to save the duo were also roughed up with the mob chasing them.

After this, the 200-300 strong mob, mainly from Islamnagar, Chaman Colony and neighbouring areas, marched to the New Bus Stand police post where they thrashed the few policemen on duty and set the post and some motorcycles of policemen and others on fire with petrol taken from the vehicles.

The angry crowd then went berserk on GT Road, damaging cars and buses and finally marching to the city control room, where they smashed windows and furniture besides burning two motorcycles parked there. A police jeep was torched. And, even fire tenders from the fire station a stone’s throw away could reach there only after everything was over.

Senior police officers were out of reach as they were huddled together in meetings. All police vehicles had been brought out on the roads and paramilitary personnel had been summoned from nearby districts.

Violent protests erupt in Ghaziabad after police gun down robbers
March 4th, 2009 IANS –

Ghaziabad, March 4 (IANS) An angry mob went on the rampage here Wednesday, ransacking a hospital, damaging a police post, over a dozen vehicles and critically injuring two policemen after two men were gunned down by the police allegedly for robbing a man.
Around 300 people barged into the district MMG Hospital here ariound 6 p.m., attacked police officials and tried to take away the bodies of the two men, said Superintendent of Police (City) Anant Dev.

Two police constables, identified as Satish Chandra and Vipin Kumar, were critically injured in the violence in Islam Nagar locality of Ghaziabad town, adjacent to New Delhi.“After ransacking the post-mortem room of the hospital, the mob came out on the roads and started pelting stones, bricks and iron rods at public and private vehicles. They shouted slogans against the police and the Uttar Pradesh government,” Dev said.

The official said that the irate crowd then torched the police post near the New Bus Stand, set two police vehicles and three motorcycles on fire apart from damaging several buses.

The mob was protesting the killing of two young men, who robbed and beat up a businessman early Wednesday. They were gunned down by a police squad within hours of the alleged robbery, but two others escaped with the loot, the official said.

Dev told IANS that the robbers were shot dead in Indirapuram locality around 4.30 a.m.

He said four criminals travelling in a Qualis car seriously injured a man and robbed him at about 1.30 a.m. They then dumped the unconscious man near Haj House in Sahibabad.

When the victim, identified as Naushad, regained consciousness, he dragged himself to the main road and was spotted by a police patrol vehicle.

On the basis of Naushad’s complaint, the police chased the attackers and managed to gun down two of them. The others managed to escape with the money they had robbed from Naushad. Dev said two pistols and a knife were recovered from the Qualis.

The police said residents in the area had identified the two robbers as Salim and Feroz of Islam Nagar locality.

Jamia Encounter affidavit: Cops submit detailed account to court

Cops to court: men we killed were militants
Krishnadas Rajagopal,  Oct 16, 2008

New Delhi, October 15 : Chief of Special Cell Karnal Singh gives court a detailed account of the Sept encounter
Delhi Police’s first sworn affidavit on the September 19 encounter — a minute-by-minute account of that morning which will provide grist to the official chargesheet later — was submitted before the High Court on Wednesday.

The affidavit by Joint Commissioner Karnal Singh said the story of L-18, Batla House, started with a knock on the front door of flat 108. It was six days after the serial blasts in Delhi. At the door was Special Cell Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma and his team.

They were there to conduct a raid — an operation that germinated from a specific tip-off on September 19 that one Atif alias Bashir, resident of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh was “presently residing at Batla House, Jamia Nagar, Delhi”. He was “involved in the serial blasts”, the affidavit said.

“The team knocked at the main door of the flat and disclosed its identity but the occupants did not respond,” Karnal Singh mentioned in his statement. The team found the door bolted from inside. “Thereafter the team tried the other door of the flat and found it unbolted. The team members entered the flat through the side door to apprehend the suspects,” narrated Singh in his statement before a Bench of Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar.
At this juncture, Singh specified the team had only meant to “apprehend” the “occupants of the flat”. But “the occupants opened fire to evade arrest. The team members also fired in self-defence… “ Singh said.

Singh added that Sharma and Head Constable Balwant Singh were injured in the “cross-firing”. The affidavit then goes on to address the “occupants/inmates” of the flat as “militants”.

“Two other militants — Junaid alias Ariz and Shahzad Ahmed alias Pappu — escaped from the flat by firing on the police,” Singh said. By then, Atif alias Bashir, had “sustained bullet injuries” and was removed along with another, Sajid, to a hospital.

Mohammed Saif from Azamgarh and the only one apprehended that day spilled out the names of his friends to the police, the affidavit stated. Singh records the recovery of an AK-series rifle with two magazines containing 30 live rounds each “from the far end right side room of the flat”. Two pistols of .30 calibre were “found lying near the injured militants”.

Affidavit on Jamia encounter
Express News Service,  Posted: Oct 16, 2008

The FIR accuses the “militants” of offences under Sections 186 (obstructing the duty of a public servant), 307 (attempt to murder), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from his duty) and Section 34 (common intention) of the IPC. The suspected terrorists have also been accused under Section 25 and 27 of the Arms Act. While Section 186 attracts a punishment of imprisonment up to three months or a maximum fine of Rs 500, Sections 332, 353 attract three and two years of imprisonment, respectively. Section 307 serves the maximum deterrent of imprisonment of 10 years to life. If found guilty under all the Sections, the accused would face punishment under all the Sections concurrently.

Calls operation a ‘raid’
According to the affidavit, the Special Cell team had come to L-18 in search of Atif alias Bashir. Intelligence inputs, informers and technical surveillance/ analysis had earlier “revealed” his involvement in the serial blasts. The affidavit says the intention of the police was to “raid” the flat, matters turned ugly when the “occupants” fired at them, forcing them to reciprocate in “self-defence”.

Inspector Sharma’s role
Contrary to earlier reports, the affidavit does not mention a recce. Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma and his team were right at the main door of flat number 108, L-18, Batla House, from the start of the “raid”. The rest were covering from the ground floor. When a knock and a push on the front door, bolted from inside, did not elicit any response, the team gained entry through an “unbolted side door”. The firing started immediately. While Sharma and Balwant Singh were caught in the “cross-fire”, two of the “militants” escaped “by firing at the police party”. There is no mention in the affidavit about the duo’s exit route and the waiting posse on the ground floor.

‘Occupants’ or ‘militants’?
Paragraph three of the affidavit uses several terms to identify the men inside L-18. At the point when the police knock on the flat door, the men are described as “occupants of the flat”. The next sentence catapults their identity to “suspects” who shot at the police to “evade arrest”. In the following sentence, the men are back to being “inmates of the flat”. From the sentence that describes the wounds of Sharma, the affidavit remains firm on the description of the “occupants” as “militants”.

Those who doubt Jamia shootout won’t believe it even if 10 of us die, says injured constable Balwant

Also see Travesty to call Jamia Nagar encounter fake: NSA

Those who doubt Jamia shootout won’t believe it even if 10 of us die, says injured constable Balwant
Oct 05, 2008

New Delhi, October 4 On bed number 3, on the 7th floor of the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre at AIIMS, sits head constable Balwant Rana, his head propped against pillows and his bed strewn with newspapers.
Rana, the head constable who was injured in the Delhi encounter in which Inspector M.C Sharma died, has been here since the Jamia Nagar incident on September 19. Doctors have told Rana that he would be discharged on Monday. (He refused to be photographed for security reasons.)

Rana’s right arm is still in a cast. A blue curtain separates his bed in the general ward from others. In front of him are newspapers and a laptop, which, he says, he uses to read the news of the Terror arrests.

Rana said he wouldn’t speak about the encounter without permission from seniors but added: “Those who don’t want to believe the encounter was real will not believe even if 10 of us die. It was just fate that M.C. Sharma did not survive.” Rana had worked with Inspector Sharma for the last three-and-a-half years.

India’s tabloid television attacks police and supports terrorists, misleads viewers

Telegenic terrorism
The Pioneer Edit Desk
News channels mislead viewers

Last Friday’s gun battle between the police and terrorists of the Indian Mujahideen in south Delhi’s Jamia Nagar has done immense collateral damage to the anyway shaky reputation of 24×7 television news channels. In treating a serious engagement with possible perpetrators of bombings that killed over 20 people in the capital only a week earlier as some sort of a soap opera, the news channels — almost without exception — resorted to garbage through the day. Unsubstantiated one-liners, plain rumours and bazaar gossip were immediately and instantly put on air. Networks that in other times makes much of ‘rigorous editorial protocol’ lost no moment in interviewing bystanders, publicity hounds and plain mischief-mongers. The police version was sought to be ridiculed even while a valiant officer was battling for his life. Suggestions that this was a fake encounter, that the terrorists had been ‘planted’ in the middle of the night, that it was actually a bomb explosion, that the firing was one-sided were heard from a variety of individuals. The distinction between vox pops and informed assessment was summarily trashed. The sense of anger the channels generated was perhaps matched only by the panic they spread. Nobody expects the news media to be part of the solution, but on Friday the news channels were part of the problem. They established their nuisance value and, far from caring to provide viewers sober, cautious information on a day that called for sobriety and caution, showed themselves up to be cynical and cruel TRP manipulators.

The police and the Government are not always right and, certainly, they are often guilty of misinformation. To doubt what they say, point holes in their argument, produce strong evidence to debunk them is bread-and-butter for the media. It is an obligation that journalists must fulfil. However, the logic cannot be extended to a complete absurdity. The police is not always wrong until proven otherwise. A news disemmination culture that sees itself as morally equidistant and neutral between policemen fighting terrorists and the terrorist themselves — or roadside commentators quick to say anything that gets them on the screen — is not adhering to the practices of good journalism. It is crippling its own reputation and inviting a strong public backlash. The opposite of embedded journalism is not irresponsible journalism. Unfortunately, jejune reporters and breathless anchors at television channels seem unable to treat a genuine terrorist attack and a chat show on a new film on a terrorist attack any differently. The newsroom is not a college canteen; on Friday more than one channel didn’t get that.

Every now and then, when they are exposed as perverts running fake sting operations, demonising innocent people — famously, a Delhi school-teacher was falsely accused of prostituting her students — violating the privacy of individuals, television news networks promise to make amends and frame an industry code of conduct. It remains to be seen whether this is a delaying tactic or a genuine resolve. If this so-called code of conduct is ever adopted, it should have a strong, well-defined section on how a channel must react when a terrorism incident is being covered live. The inquisition and investigation can come later; while the event is happening, the channels must report faithfully and not trigger emotionalism and fear.

The only thing worse than terrorism is a mix of terrorism and tabloid television — may India survive both.

A tribute to Indian police fighting the scourge of Islamic terrorism

Ways of tribute
The Indian Express
Posted: Sep 22, 2008
The funeral of Mohan Chand Sharma, the Delhi police officer killed in an encounter with the men accused of setting off bombs in Ahmedabad and Delhi, might well have marked a watershed moment in India’s history with its police force. There has been a visible outpouring of public emotion; ordinary people, not just police officers, turned out as a mark of respect to someone who all can agree dedicated his career, and gave his life, to stopping terrorism and militancy from impacting our lives. We have seen public mourning for military heroes, for political leaders; but never before has a policeman ignited similar sentiment.

Our police, in the capital and elsewhere, have a hard job to do. Lost in the discussion over laws and high-powered agencies is the fact that, in the end, even the greatest law and order threats are usually stopped or broken up by old-fashioned policing, by unheralded constables and sub-inspectors. They serve as the frontline of the nation’s effort against terror, and they frequently have to suffer both being overlooked by policy, and sometimes, the active contempt of their fellow Government servants. Consider the sixth pay commission, which categorised beat constables with “unskilled workers”. To think that normal, beat policing — not only the public face of the force, but, ideally, the most useful and first source for human intelligence — does not require skill is shocking but sadly not surprising.

The Delhi Police has over the years been at the frontline in tackling terrorism. But like police forces under threat across the country, it is under-funded, under-staffed, and underestimated. The beat constable, on whose observation Delhi depends for protection against unconventional threats, makes Rs 8000 a month. They get a conveyance allowance of Rs 30 — and it’s suggested that they use a bicycle. Problems extend to decision-making ranks — recent batches of sub-inspectors have seen unprecedented levels of attrition, sometimes nearing half the intake. The Centre can create as many more vacancies as it pleases; but four thousand posts already lie vacant, and recruiters despair of filling those to begin with. Working conditions and enabling training too require a relook. Perhaps the public grief and introspection surrounding Inspector Sharma’s death on duty will help make their job, and the job of those who eventually fill those posts, easier.

A true Hero, Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma who died fighting Delhi blasts Indian Muslim terrorists

I hope more and more Hindus wake up from their cowardly stupor of defending and supporting Islamic and vatican aggressors bent on destroying our one and only Bharatmata.  Let us salute brave Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma who gave up his life fighting dreaded Islamic terrorists.     — It is people like Mohan and our brave soldiers who give up their lives to ensure ours, and not morons like Mahatma Gandhi who spent his life protecting Muslim aggressors in India, something for which we are paying dearly today.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Aristotle

Inspector Sharma: A true hero
Mayank Pandey
Sunday, September 21, 2008:

Terrorism cannot be merely wished away, it has to be tackled on the political, socio-economical and international level. The war against terrorism in the state of Punjab ended because of the strong will of the government, the security forces and the people.

I salute Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, a real life hero for making the supreme sacrifice by laying down his life. I also express my deepest condolences to his family members.

It is now the duty of the Government of India to see to that his death becomes a turning point in the fight against terror by implementing tough measures legally.

Also, it is time that the security forces who are engaged in fighting terrorism are compensated adequately.

But the big question is – will the authorities take note of such sacrifices?
NDTV.com

Police inspector who led Delhi encounter dead
Fri, Sep 19 08:35 PM

New Delhi, Sept 19 (PTI) Winner of seven gallantry medals, Delhi Police Special Cell officer Mohan Chand Sharma who was critically injured today in an encounter with Indian Mujahideen militants here died after battling for life for nearly eight hours. Sharma (41), who led today’s daring encounter at Jamia Nagar where five terrorists linked with the recent serial blasts in the country were holed up, had received three bullet injuries on his abdomen, thighs and right arm.

The inspector, who was bleeding profusely, was rushed to the nearby Holy Family hospital where he was operated upon and later put on life support systems. After battling with his injuries for nearly eight hours, he was declared dead at seven in the evening.

“We have lost our best man,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Karnal Singh told PTI. Sharma, who is survived by his wife and two young children, had won seven gallantry medals including a President’s medal this year. He joined Delhi Police as a sub-inspector in 1989 and was instrumental in the killing of 35 terrorists and the arrest of another 80 militants, police sources claimed, adding he had killed 40 inter-state gangsters and arrested another 129.

PTI.

Also read a tribute to our police here