By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net
Hyderabad: The firing on two policemen, killing one of them in Hyderabad by the suspected terrorists has left the city police in a tizzy as an unheard of outfit Tehreeke-Ghalba-e-Islam accepted the responsibility for the incident and described it as a “revenge attack” for the indiscriminate police firing on Muslims two years ago.
Home Guard Balaswamy was killed and Constable Rajinder Prasad was injured when two unknown motor cycle borne youth shot them at the Falaknuma bus stand in the old city of Hyderabad.
The police found a note in Urdu at the scene of the incident, signed by one Mohammed Faseehuddin owing the responsibility for the attack and warning more such attack to avenge the death of 9 people in the police firing after the blast in Mecca Masjid on May 18, 2007.
As the attack took place on the second anniversary of the incident and the personnel from Falaknuma station were targeted, the police suspected that the attack had some connection with the incidents at the Mecca Masjid. The note came as a confirmation of the suspicion.
However there was some contradiction in the statements of the police officials. While the Police Commissioner B Prasad Rao said that the hand of another organization Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Shaaer-e-Islam was suspected, the other officials held TGI responsible.
The body of Balaswamy was taken to his native village in Mahbubnagar district after the postmortem and the government has announced a compensation package for his family. The injured constable Rajinder Prasad was undergoing treatment at Care Hospital
Red alert was sounded in and around the city to nab the culprits and police was questioning some people. The investigations were focused on one Viqaruddin Ahmad alias Ahmad Khan, suspected activist of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, who is absconding since December last when he had opened fire and injured two policemen in the old city.
It may be recalled that when agitated Muslim came out of Mecca Masjid after the bomb blast during the Friday prayers, the police had opened fire killing nine people. The police later said that it opened fire to prevent attack on a petrol pump and in self defence as a mob was attacking on them. But the television footage of the incident showed that the people running away in opposite direction or lifting the injured were targeted by the police.
It was significant that the assailants chose to target the men from Falaknuma police station. The policemen from this station were among those who opened fire. That more people were killed in firing than the blast had also left the Muslim community in Hyderabad infuriated and government had come under tremendous pressure to take action against the guilty policemen. But the government constituted a judicial commission headed by Bhasakar Rao and the hearing was concluded last year. But it is yet to submit the report.
The note left behind by the assailants said, “Hamara Inteqam Jaari Rahega. Woh Sab Policewale jo hamare Musalaman Bhaiyon per goli chalaye, unsab ko maut ki saza milegi” (Our revenge will continue. We will give death penalty to all those policemen who fired at our Muslim brothers”.
Strangely, the terror activity came to the fore just when the YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s government was about to take over for the second term after elections. The problem had risen its head even when YSR had come to power for the first tenure in May 2004 and the local police had arrested a religious leader and TTSI leader Moulana Naseeruddin triggering a chain reaction including the Muslim women raiding the police commissioner’s office to protest forcing the government to release him. Later Moulana Naseeruddin was handed over to Gujrat police in connection with the Haren Pandya murder case and he is still in Sabarmati Jail of Ahmedabad.
A few months later a suicide bomber – allegedly a Bangladeshi- blew himself up in Task Force office headquarter killing a guard and it also triggered series of arrests.
Later the police claimed to have busted a conspiracy to attack the Director General of Police office with an oil tanker and also to target some senior police officials.
The relations between the police and the Muslim community further soured after the bomb blast in Mecca Masjid and then twin blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park in August 2007. The police picked up about 100 Muslim youth suspecting their involvement and many of them were subjected to inhuman torture.
Later all the arrested persons were acquitted by the court. However the bitterness and distrust remains.