Community Round-Up

Only five per cent of the students in medical colleges in Gujarat are Muslims. This has been brought out in a survey by the Muslim Medical Center here.


The survey points out that 288 out of the 5807 students in MBBS, MS and MD courses in the State’s 13 medical colleges are Muslims. Of these, MBBS courses have a total of 5350 students, of whom 230 are Muslims. The PG courses have 457 students in all. These include 58 Muslim students. The overall Muslim representation in medical colleges is slightly less than five per cent. It may be recalled that Muslims constitute nine per cent of Gujarat population. Gujarat has 13 medical colleges. Of these, four are Government medical colleges while remaining are under self financing scheme and have been started during the last 15 years. The survey was conducted by Mr. A. Bhawani Farooq of Rajkot. The directory contains names, addresses and phone numbers of the medical students.


The Directory can be had from: Mahir Kothari, Muslim Medical Center, Harankhana Road, Panigate, Vadodara-390019, Ph. 0265-5597613, 2568663. e-mail: mahirindia@yahoo.com.

The Abbas Khan College for Women under the management of Central Muslim Association of Karnataka organised a two-day Refresher Course in Geography on August 5th and 6th 2005. Prof Zarina Khanum, Principal, Abbas Khan Degree College inaugurated the Refresher Course. About 42 Pre-University teachers attended this course. Other novel feature of this refresher course was an Exhibition on maps, charts, models, weather instruments, rocks and minerals at the conference hall of the college. The department of Mines and Geology, government of Karnataka supplied samples of different types of rocks and minerals. The members of the organising Committee of the Refresher Course included H.N.Ramesh-Deputy Director, Department of Pre-university Education, Prof Aliya Begum-Principal, Abbas Khan P.U.College, Prof L.Shaheen Safiha Khanum-H.O.D of Geography and Prof Manjunath-Principal, M.E.S. College. The management of Central Muslim Association of Karnataka, Bangalore sponsored the event. For more details, contact Abbas Khan College for Women, O.T.C. Road Cross, Cubbonpet, Bangalore-560002.

A big racket was busted in Hyderabad Old City area when an old Arab Sheikh named Muhammed who belonged to Dubai married two young Muslim girls within a difference of 10 minutes. He disappeared the next day from the hotel after sending those two girls back to their parents’ home. Their parents were promised Rs. 20,000, but the brokers pocketed the money. The parents informed the police and during investigations, it came to light that such cases had brokers (men and women), lodge owners and the Qazis working hand in hand. Two of the brokers- Khalamaan and Mansoor have been arrested. Young Muslim girls and their parents are lured by these brokers with a promise of good money. Signatures are taken on the divorce papers also along with the marriage documents at the time of ‘marriage’ and the sheikhs flee away quietly after spending a few days with the girls. Mostly the parents are not given the promised amount. A dharna was staged by women with CPIM leader Brinda Karat before the Hajj House in protest against such “marriages.” This is not the first time such a case is reported, a little hue and cry from here and there and the case dies down. The culprits get away by greasing the palms of the police. It is obvious that the parents would not have reported it to the police, had they been given the promised amount.

For the Waghel Muslim business community of Jamsalaya town, 400 kms west of here, constructing a school building was no problem. The community invested its hard-earned money in raising a grand edifice and campus eight years ago. But the school is still without competent English teachers.


The educationally backward community is engaged in ferrying merchandise to Gulf nations in large boats, which can carry cargo up to 1,000 tons. The 40,000 strong Muslim community, which comprises about 250 such boat owners, has just about three to four graduates. Pining for English education has grown phenomenally in recent years as the boat owners frequent ports in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Somalia, Sudan and up to Egypt and have to transact business.


Feeling the urge for higher education, the elders led by Asghar Haji Ghani established the Islamiya Education & Welfare Public Trust eight years ago to promote modern education. They bought a 3-acre plot of land and raised a building. Teaching began in earnest in 1997 and the seven classes have over 300 students now. But most teachers have been recruited locally. Says Asghar Haji Ghani, President of the Trust, we require at least half a dozen of good English teachers. ‘Without them our goal will be difficult to meet,’ Ghani told Islamic Voice.


For more information contact: Asghar Haji Ghani, President, Islamiya Education & Welfare Public Trust, Jamsalaya-361310, Jamnagar district, Gujarat, Ph. 0-93277-85624

On July 22, Mohammed Afroze (27) was found guilty by Special Judge, A. P Bhangale of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) court of conspiring ‘‘to commit terrorist acts on territories of nations at peace with India’’ and for forgery. For planning to bomb cities in the US, UK and Australia the 9/11 way, and forgery, Afroze was sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 20,000. But why was Afroze sentenced on the basis of the confessional statement that he later retracted and did not stand by?


In his judgement, judge Bhangale pointed out that under Section 26 of the Indian Evidence Act, an exception is made that if a confession is made before a magistrate, it is admissible and is normally proved by the evidence of the said magistrate. On December 18, 2001, after giving Afroze sufficient time, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate


Veersingh Taware had recorded his ‘‘voluntary’’ confession. Afroze told the magistrate that he was confessing as he repented that many innocent persons had died in the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, in New York.


Though Afroze retracted his confession later, he claimed he had been tortured and pressurised by the police—judge Bhangale found light in a Supreme Court judgment in the State of Tamil Nadu v/s Lakshmi Narasimhan case.


‘‘It is not the law that once a confession is retracted the court should presume that the confession is tainted. As a matter of practical knowledge, we can say that a non-retracted confession is a rarity in criminal cases. To retract... is the right of the confessor,’’ the apex court had noted. The apex court judgment also stated that ‘‘the twin test of a confession is to ascertain whether it was voluntary and true... retraction of the confession is not a ground to throw the confession overboard.’’


Afroze’s advocate Mubin Solkar had insisted that a retracted confession must be corroborated with evidence. But judge Bhangale reasoned that terrorist activities were carried out in utmost secrecy and when a confession was available, it was ‘‘not necessary for the prosecution to establish each and every link as confessional statement gets corroboration from the links which are proved by the
prosecution.’’ Referring to another apex court judgement, judge Bhangale said: ‘‘The prosecution is not required to prove its case with mathematic precision, for in all human affairs, absolute certainty is a myth. El Dorado of absolute proof being unattainable, the law accepts for it, probability as a working substitute in this work-a-day world. The law does not require the prosecution to prove the impossible.’’


Penning these words, the judge concluded that it appeared that the ‘‘magistrate had taken care to ascertain about the voluntariness of the confessional statement... made without any pressure, inducement, promise or threat.’’

The 12- member Committee headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar feels that despite being battered by communal violence in the recent past, Gujarat is still better than Uttar Pradesh as far as prosperity and happiness of Muslims is concerned.


It may sound like a cruel joke for the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led UP government, but this is the conclusion drawn on the basis of a comparative study of the two states. The government has constituted the Committee, to prepare a factual report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community. After visiting Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the Committee began its tour of UP. It is slated to present its report by June 2006 to the Prime Minister for an action plan. For the U.P. government, it was perhaps a wake up call when a noted economist and member secretary of the Committee, Abu Saleh Shariff said: "Muslims are no better in UP in spite of its good growth rate and a reputation of having a Muslim-friendly government.” He said Gujarat certainly scored over UP as far as the Muslims’ betterment was concerned. The committee pointed out that UP had so far been reluctant to make use of Rs 154 lakh allocated by the Centre for providing computers to madrasas and the fund allocated for appointment of teachers there.