Atrocities Committed Against Minorities in the Name of Fighting Terrorism

People's Tribunal
on the
Atrocities Committed Against Minorities in the Name of Fighting Terrorism
August 22-24, 2008
Hyderabad


Dear friend,

The global fight against terrorism has veered more around witch hunting rather
than curbing terrorism. This has turned out to be a battle where people feel
more insecure than ever before. Their liberty and freedom have often been taken
away to meet the challenge posed by terrorists. This is true about most of the
world today and India is no exception. The security-centric world has been
empowering State and robbing citizen of not only freedom but also rendering him
more insecure. He is now at the mercy of the State and his consent for harsher
laws is being taken for granted. This is at such a great scale that any
individual in most societies can be taken as suspect. An inhospitable climate
has been created where electronic door frames, metal detectors, surveillance
cameras, frisking, eves dropping, snooping and spying are rampant. Yet so much
empowered State always demands more from citizens in its fight against
terrorism. One result of this is that many
actions on the part of the State go unquestioned. Citizenry has to be with the
State to save itself from terror though this remains undiminished to prove
neo-conservatives right and push ahead their main agenda -- globalisation.

This is the backdrop that has been thrust upon not only India but also most of
the impoverished third world. Yet the local leaderships have come to kowtowing
the twin-processes of fighting terror and offering their resources, manpower,
know-how, skills, freedom, independence and sovereignty to be breached as per
the demands and terms of globalisation. And these are turning out to be so
urgent as to unleash one act of terror after the other. The pace of this is so
mesmerising as to hardly let people to figure out anything except to believe
the State version of incidents of terror and watch mutely law going through
motions that have now become stereotyped and foregone. Only people from one
community are arrested, only organisations of one sort are blamed and motives
too similar are rattled most of the times. Facts like members of all
communities dieing, including of the one being blamed for the act, or the
particular community targeting its own place of
worship simply go unquestioned.

One of the recent cases has been the case of Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad
where State's and police wont have always been to truss up minority community
youth, torture and humiliate them to the extent of extracting 'confessions'
howsoever far fetched they may sound to the lawmen or laymen. It is not that
this has not been so before and after the Hyderabad incident or has been
confined to this Muslim dominated town alone. In towns after towns and states
after states in such incidents Muslims have faced the ire of the State as a
matter of rule rather than exception whether charges against them could stand
in court or fall through despite the climate generally vitiated to their
detriment through constant rattling of their misdeeds, maligning their ways,
castigating their faith whether consciously, sub-consciously, or
unconsciously.

Not long ago, Aftab Ali Ansari, an employee of West Bengal government was picked
up by CID branch of West Bengal Police from Kolkata, handed over to U P police
and framed as one of the main accused behind the series of bomb blasts that
rocked a number of court premises in U P. Aftab was tortured for days before
not only did the court set him free but West Bengal chief minister had to
accede to his demand for compensation. Aftab's case is only one among hundreds
such unfortunate incidents, a trend where police indiscriminately picks up
innocent youth from minority community on mere basis of suspicion or to brand
them as terrorists. This is despite the fact that in so many cases charges
against people so arrested remain far from being proved

Each time there is a bomb blast, the long arms of the Indian State
reach out to pick up scapegoats to cover up their incompetence in providing
security to its citizens. After each bomb blast or surprise violent act,
arrests are made, organisations named but the police and investigative agencies
have not been able to prove their claims in most such cases. The people arrested
continue to languish in jails or suffer other kinds of victimisation. More
often, the real culprits remain at bay and the threat remains undiminished.

Umpteen such cases can be cited here, but we would prefer to hear the accounts
of those who underwent similar trauma so the truth behind the fight against
terror can be laid bare.

An Independent People's Tribunal will set off this process, where a select jury
of distinguished persons with unimpeachable integrity will hear testimonies of
people drawn from not only Hyderabad but across the country who underwent
arrest and interrogation by the police at the behest of State and its
prejudiced and misplaced policies at one level and calculated to keep the
process of globalisation at another.

Anhad, Human Rights Law Network and Peace in collaboration with collaboration
with APCLC( Andhra Pradesh), Aman Samudaya (Gujarat), AVHRS (Gujarat), BMMA,
Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee (Andhra Pradesh), PUCL (Karnataka), PUCL
(Rajasthan), Human Rights Forum ( Andhra Pradesh) , PUHR (UP), Quami Mahaz
(Gujarat), Sandarbh (MP), Siasat (Andhra Pradesh) & Asmita (Andhra
Pradesh) are organising a people's tribunal to document the atrocities
committed on innocent people especially from the minority community in the name
of fighting terrorism by the state.

Victims or their close relatives from over 10 states will depose before the
tribunal. Human Right activists and lawyers fighting the cases for the innocent
victims will also depose before the tribunal. The report of the tribunal will be
published within two months after the Tribunal is over.

The names which have already been confirmed for the jury include: Asghar Ali
Engineer, Justice SN Bhargava, Justice Sardar Ali, KG Kannabiran, Kingshug Nag,
Lalit Surjan, Prashant Bhushan, Professor Hargopal, Ram Puniyani, Rooprekha
Verma and VN Rai.

Senior experts who have worked on the issue will speak each morning. They
include: Jyotirmaya Sharma, Zafar Agha, Kavita Srivastava, Ajit Sahi and Suresh
Khairnar.

The Tribunal Proceedings will begin on August 22, 2008 at 3pm . On August 23
& 24 the Tribunal will work from 9 am to 7pm. The venue for the Tribunal is
Siasat Auditorium, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Abids, Hyderabad

On August 24th at 8pm we are organising an evening of Sufi Music. We have
invited Dhruv Sangari to perform from Delhi. Dhruv Sangari is a talented vocal
singer and has been working professionally since 1999. His repertoire includes
Persian and Arabic, Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu poetry. For years during his
college vacations Dhruv travelled to Lahore to learn singing from the famous
Sufi singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

This is the first ever People¢s Tribunal which is documenting cases of people
who have been falsely implicated by the State as terrorists or said to have
supported their activities. .

We are writing to invite you to attend the tribunal and extend your support to
the victims.

Sincerely


Harsh Dobhal (HRLN)
Colin Gonsalves (HRLN)
Anil Choudhary( Peace)
Mansi Sharma (Anhad)
Shabnam Hashmi (Anhad)



Sukhia Sab Sansar Khaye Aur Soye
Dukhia Das Kabir Jagey Aur Roye


The world is 'happy', eating and sleeping
The forlorn Kabir Das is awake and weeping