COMMUNITY ROUND UP

To raise the percentage of Muslims in the police force from 4 to 10, the Maharashtra state minority department has introduced an ambitious pre-selection training programme that aims to train 3,500 youth from minorities sections. The absence of adequate representation of the minority community in the police force is impeding law enforcement. "Since the 1992-93 post-Babri Masjid riots, the intelligence network of the police force among the Muslims had almost completely dried up," says an official in the home department. The police department then had to rebuild their contacts as Mumbai reeled under terror attacks. The Muslims of Maharashtra continued to be deeply suspicious of the law enforcement agencies and those suspected of being in contact with police officials were often at the receiving end of society. The state has allocated a fund of Rs 2.17 crore for the two-month camps in all districts across the state. It has also proposed to hike the attendance allowance to Rs 2, 000 per year for minority students in classes V to VII to decrease the dropout rate. Commissioner of Police, D Sivanandan has instructed senior officers to identify prospective Muslim candidates with help from local Mohalla Ekta committees and other religious and social groups.

The party, which originated on the slogan of 'Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan' has finally realised the importance of the language of Urdu. The top leader of BJP and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Lal Krishna Advani not only got his book 'My Country My Life', translated into Urdu, but also praised it like any other lover of the language. At the function to release his , 'Mera Watan Meri Zindagi', the Urdu edition of 'My Country My Life', Advani said that Urdu occupies a special place in India 's linguistic bouquet, which charms everybody with its hues and spreading its aroma far and wide. Journalist, M. J Akbar released the book.

The Bearys Institute of Technology (BIT) near here was inaugurated by Union Minister for Law Veerappa Moily on August 10. The Institute is situated on a 32-acre picturesque campus at Inoli Padav near Konaje, in the outskirts of the city.

Speaking after the inauguration, Moily said, Quality education is required to make a perfect human being. So, we have to lay emphasis on giving quality and value-based education. India is in the third place in terms of education amongst all the countries of the world, but there is a need to improve the quality”.

Karnataka Home Minster Dr. V. S. Acharya, said that as the demand for engineering is increasing, BIT will help promote excellence in engineering and one of them might even become a great engineer like Sir M. Vishweshwaraiah.

Addressing media conference a day earlier to the inauguration, Syed Mohamed Beary, Chairman of the Governing Council of the Institute, informed that Bearys Institute of Technology (BIT) will offer free engineering seats to students ranked within the top 1,000 in the common entrance test. He said the Institute offers courses in civil engineering, electronics and communication engineering, information science and engineering, and computer science and engineering. The intake is 240 students a year. Of this, 50 per cent seats are allotted through CET.

The Beary Group intends to launch Bearys School of Design, Environment and Architecture; Bearys Institute of Planning and Management; and Sarah Fathima School of Fashion Design on the same campus by 2012, he added.

Prof. H.P.Kincha, vice-chancellor of VTU, Belgaum, Prof. K. M. Kaveriappa, vice-chancellor of Mangalore University, Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP representing Mangalore, B. A. Moideen, former minister of higher education, U. T. Khader MLA representing Ullal, and Dr. S. K. Raikar, principal of the institute, were present at the inaugural ceremony.

Prof. B. M. Hegde, former vice-chancellor of MAHE, and member of the advisory committee of BIT, also spoke at the occasion. Mufti Ashraf Ali of Sabeelur Rashad, Bangalore said the prayer. Syed Mohammed Beary, president, Beary's Institute of Technology, welcomed all.

The BIT has several first to its credit. It is the first to have a Dean, Research in the first year itself and it is the first green building campus in India.

A woman in Gwalior has set a unique example of communal harmony by running a madrasa, an Islamic school, to educate Muslim children belonging to downtrodden or poor families. Today, this madrasa being run by Kamlesh Pathak is an edifice of communal harmony and inspires people. Pathak started this madrasa in 2006 to provide quality education to Muslim children hailing from the economically weaker sections. Imparting lessons in English, Arabic and Urdu, the Pathak-run madrasa imparts lessons till the fifth grade. It aims to educate students with basic skills to move ahead in life. “I had thought for a long time of starting something for the children coming from economically weaker sections. We chose English, Arabic and Urdu for teaching in the madrasa for extending benefits of education to the economically weaker children so that they can move ahead in life and do something for their family, for themselves and the nation,” said Kamlesh Pathak.
There are 65 students enrolled at Kamlesh Pathak's madarsa. She wishes to expand the madrasa and extend its benefits to other children as well.

For students, the madrasa has proved to be of a great help to learn and realise their educational dreams. They say Pathak has done exemplary work by opening such a place to educate children irrespective of religious considerations of pupils.

“These days people differentiate between Hindus and Muslims but aunty (Kamlesh Pathak) is not like them. She has opened this, which is a good effort. If Hindus and Muslims start living together like this, there will no longer be any differences,” said Sanno Khan, a student. At present, a total of 418 madrasas are being run in Gwalior by Muslim organisations, including this one being run by a Hindu woman. (Reported by Ashok Pal -ANI)

The Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Group and Association for Protection of Civil Rights have summarily rejected the NHRC enquiry report on the Batla House encounter, which gave a clean chit to the Delhi Police.

In the 30-page report, the NHRC said that no human right was violated in the Batla encounter and that the police opened fire only in their self defence. The state human rights body said that on the basis of the “material placed before us, it cannot be said that there has been any violation of human rights by the actions of police”.

“Indeed, we would like to know what material was placed before the NHRC for inspection. The NHRC enquiry into the case, one will remember, came far too late, and that too at the insistence of the High Court. For months, the NHRC refused to take any initiative to independently enquire into the 'encounter' which several civil rights groups, including JTSG, deemed suspect. The NHRC enquiry was carried out in an inexplicably secret manner; even applications by residents of Azamgarh to depose before the Commission were not acknowledged by the NHRC. If people of Azamgarh, the family members of the accused and killed boys, civil rights groups who have been working and campaigning on the issue were never heard by the Commission, we wonder what was the material placed before the Commission,” JTSG leaders, Manisha Sethi, Adeel Mehdi and Tanweer Fazal said in a statement.

The Maulana Azad Education Foundation has invited applications for scholarships for meritorious girl students from the minority communities. The scholarship is given to meet the tuition fees, expenses for books, hostel fees etc. Only girl students of Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Buddhist communities are eligible for the scholarship.

Only those students whose parents' annual income is below Rs 1 lakh need apply. The income certificate from the parents, and not from the school, should be submitted along with the application form. The students should have obtained 55% marks in the 10th standard exam and secured seats in 11th standard or +1.

The scholarship amount is Rs 12000 and will be distributed in two equal installments of Rs 6000 each, for 11th and 12th standards. Students once selected for the scholarship will not be eligible for it again. The application form can be downloaded from the website of the Maulana Azad Found-ation and its photocopies too can be used. For application form: http://maef.nic.in/ ScholarshipForGirl.pdf

The Kerala government has ordered a probe into the portrayal of Muslims as terrorists in an anti-terror visual capsule prepared by the state police. Ernakulam Range IG, Vinson M. Paul has been assigned to enquire into the portrayal of Muslim characters in the visualisation of terrorist's hunt, organised by the Kerala police, said Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, state Home Minister. The Intelligence department also will probe into the matter. The visualisation of the police hunt for terrorists was presented in a function organised by the police department in connection with the launching of the Computer Aided Police Service (CAPS) in Kochi on July 30, 2009. The CAPS will bring all police stations and offices, including that of the state DGP, together under a computerised network. Complaints can be lodged through e-mail and the status of the case be monitored online. The visualisation deals with the tactful defeat of a high-tech terror network by the police. All the terrorist characters wear pyjamas and kurta and have beards. They hack the government websites. The Cyber Cell of the Kerala Police locates them and shoots all one by one.

The madrasa grants allotted by the Central government should be immediately distributed, demanded the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen (KNM) Vidyabhyasa Board, the religious education board of the KNM. The state government is holding back the distribution of grants worth crores of rupees allotted by the Central government for the renovation of madrasas and for the welfare of the madrasa teachers, the group demanded. The board also asked the state government to revise its order by which stamp paper worth Rs 10 has been made mandatory for applying for pre-matric scholarships.

As part of its long battle for reservation to Dalit Muslims, the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (PMM) organised a programme in New Delhi and demanded that the Central government should amend the Constitutional Order of 1950 to include Dalit Muslims in the list of Scheduled Castes. It also demanded tabling of the Ranganath Mishra Commission Report in the Parliament. The report has recommended 10% reservation for Muslims.

Thirty students across Maharashtra who secured excellent marks in SSC examination have been selected for Rahmani Scholar Batch IIT-JEE 2011. Rahmani Foundation will bear the expenses for preparation of 11th & 12th standards and IIT-JEE of these students for the two complete years. The poor students will be coached free of cost along with food and lodging facilities as most of the 30 successful candidates are wards of marginal farmers, school teachers, a police constable and a grade IV government employee. These students were selected from among 2,000-odd aspirants who had appeared at the Super 30 entrance test.

The Foundation aims at creating educational awareness among Muslim students and, thereby, lead them to high profile posts. In the coming years too, the Foundation will conduct entrance examinations and students from Urdu, English and Marathi medium will be given admission.
Rahmani Scholars Batch (RSB) is a branch of Rahmani-30 ( Bihar ), a brainchild of the Rahmani Foundation of Munger run by Maulana Muhammad Wali Rahmani. The Maharashtra branch is the outcome of the inspiration derived from the historical success of all the 10 students whose preparation for IIT-JEE-09 was sponsored by Rahmani-30 in Patna .

Earlier this course was only for the 11th and 12th class students, but now it has been decided to select 10th class students too.

"Madrasas have nothing to do with terrorism," a religious group says in a report that also negates the allegations that Muslim seminaries in India are breeding ground for terror. The report by the All India Coordination Committee for Madrasas (AICCM) said, "a concerted campaign to malign madrasas had led to the deterioration of educational standards in Muslim seminaries”. AICCM general secretary Maulana Shaukat Ali Bastavi said an AICCM team prepared a report on madrasas after visiting different seminaries all over the country. “None of the madrasas across India has been a centre of terrorism," the report concluded. There are over 4,000 madrasas in Bihar, including the seminaries where the staff gets the salary from the state government. There are 2,459 unaided madrasas. According to the first-ever status paper brought out by the AICCM, there are only 32 madrasas for girls under the government-aided category and 576 madrasas in the unaided category.

It was a case of exemplary courage. If not for Abdul Qureishi, Kalpesh Pawar of Vadodara might not be alive today. Pawar cannot thank Qureishi enough for saving his life from a rioting mob on June 26, 2007, risking his own. Last month, Qureishi was conferred the Kabir Puraskar by the Central government for communal harmony. He displayed rare physical and moral courage in saving the life of Pawar and two Hindu families during the 2006 communal riots in Vadodara. The award is named after Kabir, the Sufi saint instrumental in promoting communal harmony among various sects. Pawar had gone to Reshamwala Khancha in Yakutpura where he found himself surrounded by a violent armed mob that would have hacked him to death. Says Qureishi describing the ordeal, "I got to know about Pawar's plight. I barged into the mob facing blows on my body and was nearly lynched. But, I was able to rescue him from the irate mob." (Reported by Abdul Hafiz Lakhani)

In a landmark decision, the Bombay High Court on July 21,2009 ordered a departmental inquiry against the former Arthur Road jail superintendent Swati Sathe and other jail officers for alleged excessive use of force on about 40 Muslim inmates while they were being transferred to other jails of the state.

Chief Secretary of state, John Joseph has been asked by the two-member bench of Justice, Bilal Nazki and A. R Joshi to initiate disciplinary inquiry against the concerned authorities within a month's time and complete it within six months. If needed, in addition to disciplinary inquiry, the guilty officials can be prosecuted in criminal court, the bench said. The court has also asked that inmates be transferred back to Arthur Road jail and that in future none of the under-trials should be transferred from any jail before the concerned court is contacted.

On June 28, 2008, 39 Muslim inmates, accused in the Aurangabad arms seizure, Mumbai local trains blasts and Malegaon '06 blasts cases and imprisoned in Arthur Road jail, were beaten up by iron rods allegedly on the instruction of the then jail superintendent, Swati Sathe when they were being transferred to Ratnagiri, Kolhapur and Nagpur jails. Some of them had sustained serious head injuries and fracture on the legs.

'Force was used excessively for extraneous reasons and the law was flouted,' the judges said. The verdict has followed a petition filed by Saeed Suhail Shaikh, son of 7/11 under-trial accused, Suhail Mehbood Shaikh, on July 9, 2008, with the help of Jamiat Ulama Maharashtra. In the petition Saeed had said that his father, along with many other prisoners, was beaten mercilessly, leading to a fracture in his leg. He added that his father had not been given any medical treatment after the incident.

“The Indian government should take major steps to overhaul the country's policing system that facilitates and even encourages human rights violations”, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on August 4, 2009. For decades, successive governments have failed to deliver on promises to hold the police accountable for abuses and to build professional, rights-respecting police forces, the report said. The report has come at a time when Manipur is burning due to a fake encounter in which a pregnant woman and youth were killed, and almost two weeks after India's National Human Rights Commission gave a clean chit to the Delhi Police for the Batla House encounter, which the victims' families, neighbors and large number of human and civil rights activits and groups have described as a fake encounter from the day one – September 19, 2008. Almost every police officer interviewed by Human Rights Watch was aware of the boundaries of the law, but many believed that unlawful methods, including illegal detention and torture, were necessary tactics of crime investigation and law enforcement. The 118-page report, "Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police," documents a range of human rights violations committed by police, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and extrajudicial killings. The report is based on interviews with more than 80 police officers of varying ranks, 60 victims of police abuses, and numerous discussions with experts and civil society activists. It documents the failings of state police forces that operate outside the law, lack sufficient ethical and professional standards, are overstretched and outmatched by criminal elements, and unable to cope with increasing demands and public expectations. Field research was conducted in 19 police stations in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and the capital, Delhi. The international rights body has accepted that religious minorities in India are soft target of police atrocities – arbitrary arrest and torture, especially meted out by police as punishment for alleged crimes.