The article originally was published on :- ItsnotYellow
"Democracy is not a synonym for justice or for freedom. Democracy is not a sacred right sanctifying mob rule. Democracy is a principle that is subordinate to the inalienable rights of the individual.”
― Terry Goodkind , Naked Empire
The arrest of Liaqat Shah, who is caught in a tussle between the Delhi Police and the Jammu and Kashmir government authorities over whether he was a Hizbul millitant returning to plot terror or start his life yet again reminded us of the problem in our security agencies' response to terror attacks and also in our inadequacy in using communication channels appropriately. The same had even led to causalities in the Hyderabad bomb blasts recently where the authorities had a fair bit of idea about the planned attack in the crowded area of Dilkhushnagar but they could do little to prevent the casualties.
The problem is anecdotal evidence of innocent people being framed or falsely implicated in terror cases is abnormally high. With human rights violations have been rampant in the Kashmir valley in the recent years. In Liaqat Shah's case, even if truth is yet to be established and proven, the two versions are so far spaced out that its quite evident that one of them is a blatant pack of lie.
The Delhi Police stands by its claim that Liaqat Shah is a Hizbul Mujahideen militant who was returning from Pak occupied Kashmir through Nepal to India in order to plan terror strikes in Delhi on the lines of the November 2008 attack on Mumbai. The Delhi Police narrative is so full of loopholes that it is hard to take it seriously even for a layman. Yet, their officials continue to reiterate vociferously about the "incriminating evidence" against Liaqat that makes a mockery of both their intelligence as well as their common sense. The latest being that Liaqat Shah had known Hizh-ul-Mujahideen militants on speed dial on his mobile phone.
Jammu and Kashmir authorities on the other hand insist that Liaqat Shah was returning with his family under a 'rehabilitation' scheme for reformed 'militants' which was kicked off by the Government for those militants who surrender before it . If that version comes out as true and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has promised an investigation by the National Intelligence Agency to establish that - it's fair to say Liaqat Shah is being framed under false pretenses and it clearly is an indication of the murky world of intelligence agencies. Omar Abdullah even addressed the State Legislative Assembly regarding the case saying that Liaqat Shah was under the rehabilitation scheme and under the scheme they the militants return illegally via Nepal and Uttar Pradesh to minimize the risk of the militant leadership getting wind of their plans. They get fake passports made and once they reach Nepal, they destroy all documents, even photographs of their marriages and school certificates of their children, in order to evade the intelligence agencies until they reach J&K and surrender.
Officially, the state has received 1,089 applications on behalf of youth who had crossed the Loc and are willing to return under the policy. Of these, 109 cases have been recommended for return and the remaining are being scrutinized and verified. The rehabilitation policy is conditional on a ‘change of heart’ and includes identification, monitoring, debriefing and reintegration of former militants into normal life.
This is symptomatic of a larger problem of security agencies influencing investigations into terror cases with their own sinister agenda or, at any rate, of being less than professional. Far too often, the kneejerk response of police and investigating agencies is to round up the "usual suspects “as it did in the Hyderabad Bomb blasts also where many innocent young men were branded as ‘terrorists’ and taken into custody . In the past five years Delhi police has acquitted ten men who were paraded before the media as belonging to Let, Huji and Al Badr. This clearly is an indication of the callousness with which innocent lives are being played by the intelligence agencies which has led many innocent Muslims being falsely implicated on terror charges. As happened in the Mecca Masjid blast case of 2007, the entire evidence against those who were arrested and had served jail term was a house of cards that collapsed in court.
The Union Home Ministry's decision to set up special courts to conduct speedy trials in cases where innocent people are falsely implicated in terror cases is, therefore, not without intrinsic merit. Even given the challenges that security agencies face in investigating terror cases, falsely implicating innocent people in terror cases is a perversion of the law and both the Police and the Investigating agencies must be punished for harassing innocent people under the pretext of investigation. This not only tarnishes the image of these innocent convicts but also weakens their faith in our Judiciary. Even if, in the end, the courts acquit them and establish their innocence, nothing can take away from the injustice of being incarcerated in jail for years and the taint of being branded for years as a suspected terrorist. The past continues to haunt them. Many of them commit suicide in Kashmir after being falsely implicated as terrorists. Its quite laughable to see that while ‘Inshallah Kashmir’ directed by Ashwin Kumar faced extreme hardships even to see their release , were later awarded National Award for Best Investigating Filming . I fail to fathom this duality of our Indian state.
The Home Minister has noted that arresting innocent people and keeping them in custody - knowing that they were innocent - is a serious a crime. He has also promised strong action against officers responsible for such false cases but where the Union Home Ministry, or the Minority Affairs Ministry (which proposed the establishment of special courts), err is in limiting these proposed special courts to take on only the cases of innocent Muslims. Even if one acknowledges that the preponderance of such cases relate to innocent Muslims -and investigative reports in the media have established that beyond doubt - a proposal to establish special courts for Muslims alone certainly tests the limits of constitutional propriety and makes for bad political optics.
Far too often, political considerations have led parties to embrace potentially unconstitutional positions as a quick-fix to address what are genuine problems in society. That way only lies ruin, and the possibility that a flawed approach can undermine the larger objective. Constitutional propriety demands that special courts that take up the cases of innocent people arrested on false charges in terror cases should be blind to the religious background of the falsely accused. By narrowing the focus in the way it proposes to, the government is guilty of the same social prejudice that investigators and law-enforcement agencies stand accused of.
With a wife and a son stranded in Pakistan, the other two wives and three children in the Kashmir Valley, and himself locked up on terror charges in New Delhi, Liaqat’s return is now stuck in Omar Abdullah’s and the home ministry’s worries over how safe is the surrender policy for former Kashmiri militants.
Written By :-
Shashank Saurav
"Democracy is not a synonym for justice or for freedom. Democracy is not a sacred right sanctifying mob rule. Democracy is a principle that is subordinate to the inalienable rights of the individual.”
― Terry Goodkind , Naked Empire
The arrest of Liaqat Shah, who is caught in a tussle between the Delhi Police and the Jammu and Kashmir government authorities over whether he was a Hizbul millitant returning to plot terror or start his life yet again reminded us of the problem in our security agencies' response to terror attacks and also in our inadequacy in using communication channels appropriately. The same had even led to causalities in the Hyderabad bomb blasts recently where the authorities had a fair bit of idea about the planned attack in the crowded area of Dilkhushnagar but they could do little to prevent the casualties.
The problem is anecdotal evidence of innocent people being framed or falsely implicated in terror cases is abnormally high. With human rights violations have been rampant in the Kashmir valley in the recent years. In Liaqat Shah's case, even if truth is yet to be established and proven, the two versions are so far spaced out that its quite evident that one of them is a blatant pack of lie.
The Delhi Police stands by its claim that Liaqat Shah is a Hizbul Mujahideen militant who was returning from Pak occupied Kashmir through Nepal to India in order to plan terror strikes in Delhi on the lines of the November 2008 attack on Mumbai. The Delhi Police narrative is so full of loopholes that it is hard to take it seriously even for a layman. Yet, their officials continue to reiterate vociferously about the "incriminating evidence" against Liaqat that makes a mockery of both their intelligence as well as their common sense. The latest being that Liaqat Shah had known Hizh-ul-Mujahideen militants on speed dial on his mobile phone.
Jammu and Kashmir authorities on the other hand insist that Liaqat Shah was returning with his family under a 'rehabilitation' scheme for reformed 'militants' which was kicked off by the Government for those militants who surrender before it . If that version comes out as true and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has promised an investigation by the National Intelligence Agency to establish that - it's fair to say Liaqat Shah is being framed under false pretenses and it clearly is an indication of the murky world of intelligence agencies. Omar Abdullah even addressed the State Legislative Assembly regarding the case saying that Liaqat Shah was under the rehabilitation scheme and under the scheme they the militants return illegally via Nepal and Uttar Pradesh to minimize the risk of the militant leadership getting wind of their plans. They get fake passports made and once they reach Nepal, they destroy all documents, even photographs of their marriages and school certificates of their children, in order to evade the intelligence agencies until they reach J&K and surrender.
Officially, the state has received 1,089 applications on behalf of youth who had crossed the Loc and are willing to return under the policy. Of these, 109 cases have been recommended for return and the remaining are being scrutinized and verified. The rehabilitation policy is conditional on a ‘change of heart’ and includes identification, monitoring, debriefing and reintegration of former militants into normal life.
This is symptomatic of a larger problem of security agencies influencing investigations into terror cases with their own sinister agenda or, at any rate, of being less than professional. Far too often, the kneejerk response of police and investigating agencies is to round up the "usual suspects “as it did in the Hyderabad Bomb blasts also where many innocent young men were branded as ‘terrorists’ and taken into custody . In the past five years Delhi police has acquitted ten men who were paraded before the media as belonging to Let, Huji and Al Badr. This clearly is an indication of the callousness with which innocent lives are being played by the intelligence agencies which has led many innocent Muslims being falsely implicated on terror charges. As happened in the Mecca Masjid blast case of 2007, the entire evidence against those who were arrested and had served jail term was a house of cards that collapsed in court.
The Union Home Ministry's decision to set up special courts to conduct speedy trials in cases where innocent people are falsely implicated in terror cases is, therefore, not without intrinsic merit. Even given the challenges that security agencies face in investigating terror cases, falsely implicating innocent people in terror cases is a perversion of the law and both the Police and the Investigating agencies must be punished for harassing innocent people under the pretext of investigation. This not only tarnishes the image of these innocent convicts but also weakens their faith in our Judiciary. Even if, in the end, the courts acquit them and establish their innocence, nothing can take away from the injustice of being incarcerated in jail for years and the taint of being branded for years as a suspected terrorist. The past continues to haunt them. Many of them commit suicide in Kashmir after being falsely implicated as terrorists. Its quite laughable to see that while ‘Inshallah Kashmir’ directed by Ashwin Kumar faced extreme hardships even to see their release , were later awarded National Award for Best Investigating Filming . I fail to fathom this duality of our Indian state.
The Home Minister has noted that arresting innocent people and keeping them in custody - knowing that they were innocent - is a serious a crime. He has also promised strong action against officers responsible for such false cases but where the Union Home Ministry, or the Minority Affairs Ministry (which proposed the establishment of special courts), err is in limiting these proposed special courts to take on only the cases of innocent Muslims. Even if one acknowledges that the preponderance of such cases relate to innocent Muslims -and investigative reports in the media have established that beyond doubt - a proposal to establish special courts for Muslims alone certainly tests the limits of constitutional propriety and makes for bad political optics.
Far too often, political considerations have led parties to embrace potentially unconstitutional positions as a quick-fix to address what are genuine problems in society. That way only lies ruin, and the possibility that a flawed approach can undermine the larger objective. Constitutional propriety demands that special courts that take up the cases of innocent people arrested on false charges in terror cases should be blind to the religious background of the falsely accused. By narrowing the focus in the way it proposes to, the government is guilty of the same social prejudice that investigators and law-enforcement agencies stand accused of.
With a wife and a son stranded in Pakistan, the other two wives and three children in the Kashmir Valley, and himself locked up on terror charges in New Delhi, Liaqat’s return is now stuck in Omar Abdullah’s and the home ministry’s worries over how safe is the surrender policy for former Kashmiri militants.
Written By :-
Shashank Saurav
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