Moradabad: A city of communal riots Submitted by admin4 on 20 August 2011 - 4:02pm Articles Indian Muslim By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.

net, For Moradabad, Hindu-Muslim communal riot is a pattern, which now has become ine xtricable part of its history, present and future. So much so, that the western Uttar Pradesh town, which was established by Murad, the son of Mughal emperor Sh ahjahan, has now become a byname for communal clashes. There have been more than a dozen communal violence of small and big intensity during last thirty years. Religious tempers on both the religious sides are always high. You can never be sure about communal riot here. It can happen any time. It just requires a provoc ation, which might be entering of pigs in the Eidgah, as it was in 1980, which w as followed by a huge communal riot; the provocation can be the route of the Eid Miladun Nabi (celebrations of the Prophets birth day) procession, as it happened in the case of communal clashes in February this year; it might be the controve rsy over route for kavadiya pilgrims as was the case for communal clashes which happened last week or it might be over the alleged desecration of Quran in July this year.

In order to analyze the phenomenon of communal riot in Moradabad and reasons and motivations behind it, I talked to common people on the streets of Moradabad, a nd also the radical elements in both the communities-the stakeholders of any com munal riot. Every riot has its genesis in the last riot because, the residue of the last cla shes serve as a spark for the next communal disturbances. Muslims in Moradabad s ee the communal clashes which broke out two weeks back, as an extension of the v iolent confrontation between the police and the community after the alleged dese cration of Quran in an incident which took place on July 6 at in Arahlatnagar Ba gah village on the outskirts of Moradabad city. While talking to Muslims amidst the relaxed curfew, I felt a palpable sense of a nger against those, the community thought responsible for the desecration of Qur an which included the police, administration and Hindus in general; because ther e was a feeling that because the local Hindus didnt come out against the police, the police had the tacit support of the majority community. Murtaza Iqbal, a local journalist with an Urdu daily, Aag told this corresponden t that in reaction to the alleged disrespect shown to Quran, Muslim mob had atta cked the police in which the SP, who was fatally attacked, had to get more than 25 stitches on his head. The mob also burnt police vehicle and had almost taken the local area in their administrative control. Iqbal said that never in the history of India had this kind of incident taken pl ace where a Muslim mob had attacked a police station and taken the control of an area. It was because of Talibani dictates of the local Muslim groups, pushed and manipulated by the local leaders of Samajwadi Party, Iqbal added. Interestingly, when I made further enquiries, it turned out that the claim of Qu ran desecration was made up. The actual matter was related to sexual assault of a Muslim woman by another Muslim individual and there was a complaint against him, after which the police had gone to investigate in a particular house where the accused spread the rumor that police had desecrated Quran. Soon the rumor spread

like a wild fire in the jungle and people took to the streets. It was all made up by that person who was accused in the case of sexual assault i n order to distract the attention of the people. You will be surprised to know t hat the community believed the version of a 12 years old girl, who alleged that she had seen the police showing disrespect to the holy Quran, said Fareed Shamsi, a local journalist with IBN 7. The severe attack on the police by the Muslim mob had angered the police, which started acting in vendetta, arresting more than a dozen members from the minorit y community, several of them even minor, said Akhlak Ahmad, a human rights activ ists associated with Association for the Protection of Civil Rights (APCR). Wasnt this immature on behalf of the local Muslim leadership to provoke the religi ous tempers of Muslim against the police which resulted in huge confrontation be tween the police and the local Muslims in Arahlatnagar? I asked this question to the Syed Masoom Azad, the Shahar Qazi of Moradabad and Murtaza Iqbal, both of wh om were seated side by side at Azads residence. Indeed it was not only immature but also wrong and thats precisely why we had cond emned the attack on the police and the way entire episode occurred and the way i t was handled, said Azad and Iqbal almost in one voice. Azad and Iqbal told me that initially the reaction to the allegation of desecrat ion of Quran was not violent and situation was getting back to normal. But few r eligious group with vested interests started mobilizing people, visiting door to door and distributing pamphlets. On the whole, a huge campaign was built up by these Talibani elements who were probably a prop up of the Samajwadi Party, asking Muslims to take an unprecedented stand against the police so that they didnt dare to dishonor Quran again. Iqbal blamed local religious groups for provoking religious sentiments which cau sed huge destruction and prompted illegal arrests of several innocent Muslims. But why should we tolerate such attack on our religious scriptures? Shouldnt we te ach a lesson to the police so that they dont have the courage to dishonor Quran a ll their life? asked Tufail, a youth in his twenties, who was sitting in the same room but was silent till now out of respect for the Shahar Qazi. The fact that the fringe and loony elements in far away Arahlatnagar Bagah villa ge, had managed to convince a youth in Moradabad city, represented a disturbing sign. Iqbal accepted the fact that indeed there was religious aggression among M uslims in Moradabad but he considered this as a reaction to an equally militant r eligious stand by the Hindu Right in Moradabad. He alleged that Muslims were repe atedly told that if they didnt follow certain dictates then Moradabad will be turn ed into Gujarat.

The fire of religious aggression has been spread among both Hindus and Muslims he re and their social, political and religious leadership is responsible for that, added Iqbal. Iqbal, who has more than thirty years of journalistic experience, made a very im portant insight. He said that every time there was some communal tension, the ad ministration acted in a very partisan manner which led to a very strong sense of resentment against it. The fringe elements among Muslims in Arahlatnagar, manip ulated this very resentment. The resentment is so big that Muslims here still remember how the police acted in

biased manner when the riot of nineteen-eighty happened. Some religious groups with their own vested interests, which are in some cases aligned to political pa rties, manipulate this very resentment to create communal clashes and mobilize v otes in favor of a particular political group, added Iqbal. But the phenomenon of communal riot in Moradabad cant be seen without the politic s of riot motivating this monster, particularly in the wake of the coming assemb ly elections. Its not the common Muslim or Hindus on the streets, who benefit fro m the riot, in fact they are the worst sufferers. It was the Samajwadi Party which during the alleged desecration of Quran, pushed and exploited Muslims resentment against the local administration to mobilize pe ople on communal lines. At the same time the Hindutva groups like Sarvadaliya Hi ndu Sabha, are trying to communalize the city in a bid to mobilize the Hindu vot es. The recent communal clashes represent the BJPs preparations for the coming assembl y elections, alleged Shamsi. But Roli Arora, wife of the district chief of Shiv Sena, Virendra Arora, refused to accept this categorically denying any involvement of Shiv Sena in the commun al riot. Muslims are angry with the administration and the local police, and not with the local Hindu population. If you look closely at the way communal clashes originat ed in the city, you will find that this resentment in the community had a import ant role to play in the riots. Yes I can accept that there are political groups, wanting to mobilize the votes on communal lines before the assembly elections, but we dont do this, added Ms. Arora, a former advertising professional with Amar Ujala. Its not the end but just a beginning for the communal riots in Moradabad, as Iqba l said that the city will remain tense because the assembly election is schedule d early n