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 |
__._,_.___
*****************************************
Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
*****************************************
MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
*****************************************
Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___