A bomb blast rocked the historical Makkah Masjid on May 18 2007, which left Muslims of Hyderabad flabbergasted. The agony of violation of sanctity of the mosque was much more than the heartrending scene of injured bodies of near and dear ones.
Ironically a few hours after the blast it was alleged that the blast was the act of Jihadi youth. It was indicated by police, media and even the state chief that it was the act of Muslim youth.
Nearly 3 years after the blast, Gujarat ATS, CBI and NIA drew the curtain and revealed that those were the Hindu terrorists who conducted the blast and not the Muslims. But it is not improper to say that police knew very well that the blast was not operated by the Muslims but they deliberately wanted to make it believe that that it was carried out by the Muslim Jihadi outfits.
Eventually through investigations and the arrest of accused Rajasthan ATS, CBI and NIA solved Makkah Masjid, Ajmer and Samjhauta express blasts cases and presented chargesheets against some accused.
Now that the curtain is raised on real culprits it is quite clear that the city police had tried to conceal the facts and give a wrong twist to the investigations.
The city police had prepared two detailed reports on Makkah masjid blasts and police firing in its aftermath. In the report with regard to blast Ahl e Hadees Milli tent group was mentioned in ‘accused’ column. In the column of ‘reason of crime’ it was written ‘to kill Sunnat ul Jamat’ people. The column ‘damages of property’ was left unfilled. In the sub topic of past history in the report it was mentioned that some fundamentalists are suspected to have installed a bomb in the mosque and the bomb might have triggered to kill innocent people. Continued hostility between the people of Sunnat ul jamat and Ahle Hadees was seen as the reason behind the blasts. The role of Lashkar –e-Taiba and Harkat ul mujahideen was said to be detected.
The Siasat daily had always denied the opinion that Muslim terrorists were involved in Makkah masjid blast and with the help of available evidences and logics tried to prove that it was not the act of Muslim youth but a part of planned conspiracy and somewhere the officials working in law enforcing agencies had their role in it.
It was made to believe by police, media and politicians that Muslims were involved in the incident however the assumption got reinforced when four months after, Hyderabad MP and present president Majlis ittehad ul Muslimeen Asad Uddin Owaisi established the involvement of Shahid Bilal in the Makkah Masjid blast while giving an interview to the English daily Hindustan times published from Delhi.
The interview was published in Hindustan times on September 5 2007 in which referring to Asad Uddin Awaisi it was stated that misguided youth like Mohammad Shahid Bilal and some vicious organizations are leading Hyderabad towards destruction.
When Siasat daily disclosed the interview it was tried to give the impression that Hindustan times presented the twisted version of the statement.
Now that the real culprits are exposed every one is sympathising with the Muslim youth.
Is it not necessary to make the officials of city police accountable for laying blame on innocent Muslim youth without any basis and trying to mislead the people?
Siasat special report
By: Ather Moin: athermoin1@gmail.com