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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Feb 27, 2013 AT 19:29 IST
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Edited At: Feb 27, 2013 19:29 IST
Churumuri writes:
Deccan Herald journalist Muthi-ur-Rahman Siddiqui has walked out of the central jail in Bangalore a free man, six months after being named by the city’s police in an alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba plot to target two Kannada journalists and the publisher of the newspaper they were earlier employed in.
Siddiqui had been accused of being the “mastermind” of a gang of 15 in August last year to kill editor Vishweshwar Bhat, columnist Pratap Simha and publisher Vijay Sankeshwar, allegedly for their “right-wing leanings“. The journalists were with Vijaya Karnataka of The Times of India group, before they joined Rajeev Chandrasekhar‘s Kannada Prabha.
The national investigation agency (NIA), which investigated the case, didn’t name Siddiqui in its chargesheet on February 20 following which a special court trying the case ordered his release on February 23.
On Monday night, Siddiqui walked out of jail and on Tuesday, he addressed a press conference.
Reporting for the Indian Express, Johnson T.A. writes:
About six months ago, when he appeared in court for the first time after being named by the Bangalore Police, Siddiqui, 26, still had the glint of youthful exuberance in his eyes.
But now, the first thing that comes to mind on seeing Siddiqui after his release from prison on Monday, is the disappearance of that enthusiasm from his face. Gone is the glint in his eyes, and in its place is a serious, sad man.
Even so, Siddiqui, whose thesis suggestion for his PG diploma in mass communication—’Media coverage of terrorism suspects’—was struck down by his supervisor pulled no punches in describing his own ordeal before his colleagues, compatriots and competitors.
- “The media has forgotten the ‘A’ in the ABC of Journalism [Accuracy-Brevity-Clarity].”
- “I always thought the police, media and society at large do not treat terror suspects fairly. That thinking has been reinforced by my experience.”
- “Security agencies are not sensitive towards the poor and weaker sections of society. If you look at the way the entire operation was carried out by the police and reported by the media, this insensitivity is clear.”
- According to the [Bangalore] police and the media, I am the mastermind. If I am the mastermind, why are the others still in jail? I hope they too will get justice.”
- “The media and the police need to be more sensitive toward the downtrodden, Dalits and Muslims. The way the media and the police behaved raises basic questions about their attitude toward Muslims.
- “Muslims are often cast by the media and police in stereotypes. There is an institutional bias which manifests in such cases. This is not just about me; it is about hundreds like me who are in jails [across the country] on terror charges. Muslims are not terrorists.”
- “If I was not a Muslim the police wouldn’t have picked me…. They first arrest people, then find evidence against them. What happened on August 29, 2012 was no arrest but downright kidnapping. A bunch of strong men barged into our house and forcefully took us away in their vehicles. This even as we were pleading and asking why we were being taken out.”
- “They kept interrogating me as if I was the mastermind and kept saying that I’d be in for seven years for sure. Everyone knows that jail is no fun place. For the first 30 days we were cramped in a small room. The confinement itself was torture. They did not inform our families. They did not tell us what we were being arrested for. They made us sign 30-40 blank sheets of paper. One of these papers was used to create fake, back-dated arrest intimation.”
- “Some fair play is still possible in the system. Though justice was delayed, it wasn’t denied in my case.”
Siddiqui, who is still on Deccan Herald‘s roster, says he wants to go back to journalism, for that is his passion, but wants to spend time with his family first.
Two other journalists—Jigna Vora of The Asian Age and S.M.A. Kazmi—have been arrested in recent times on terror charges. They are both out on bail.
Also See:
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Feb 27, 2013 AT 19:29 IST, Edited At: Feb 27, 2013 19:29 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Aug 31, 2012 AT 20:53 IST
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Edited At: Aug 31, 2012 20:53 IST
Muthiurrahman Siddiqui, courtesy: Facebook
Yesterday, Bangalore police arrested 11 persons, including a DRDO scientist and a journalist, with alleged links to Lashkar-e-Taiba and HUJI. and claimed to have foiled their plot to target MPs, MLAs and media persons in Karnataka.
Among the 11, the most shocking inclusion was a Bangalore-based journalist who has since been named by the police as the “mastermind” of the alleged plot:
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Aug 31, 2012 AT 20:53 IST, Edited At: Aug 31, 2012 20:53 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jun 26, 2012 AT 22:26 IST
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Edited At: Jun 26, 2012 22:26 IST
The intercepts of the chilling conversations that the 26/11 "handler" 'Abu Jindal' had with the terrorists were widely heard around the world and documented in various excellent documentaries and there is a renewed interest in these intercepts now with the arrest of Zabiuddin Ansari aka Abu Jindal aka Abu Jundal aka Abu Hamza, a co-conspirator of the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai, who is alleged to be the handler whose voice has been identified with one of those voices on the intercepts. A quick recap from our blogs:
Intercepts of the Phonecalls with Handlers
Excerpts from the transcript of conversation between "Abu Jindal" and one of the terrorists at Chabad House:
Handler: Remember that every one person you kill there is like taking 50 lives.... Handler: Listen
TerrorisTerrorist: Yes, yes
Handler: Get rid of these people. Kill them
Terrorist: By Allah's wish it is all quiet. There is no movement
Handler: No, no wait. Shoot. If firing starts, you won't know the timing, direction and intensity
Terrorist: I've run out of grenades
Handler: Do it
Terrorist: What? Shoot them?
Handler: Yes. Make them sit up and shoot them in the backs of their heads
... [After some time]
Handler: Have you done the job or not?
Terrorist: No, I will do it in front of you. I was waiting for you
Handler: Do it in the name of Allah. (Woman screams: Please don't kill me!)
Handler: You killed one?
Terrorist: Both together
Terrorist: Allah willing, today is Friday. Today will be the final fight
Handler: Use all of your might. Do it. Shoot them. Get them
Terrorist: Intense fire has started. Firing has started in our room
Handler: Take cover
(A little later)
Handler: Yes, what happened?
Terrorist: I've been hit
Handler: Where?
Terrorist: On my side and leg
Handler: May Allah protect you
Terrorist: Pray for me, so that I attain martyrdom
For more context, some of the documentaries:
Channel 4's Dispatches: Terror in Mumbai:
CNN-IBN: 60 Hours:
Pro Publica: A Perfect Terrorist
Watch A Perfect Terrorist on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.
AlJazeera 101 East: Terror in Mumbai Part I
AlJazeera 101 East: Terror in Mumbai Part II
Also See: Jason MotlagHandler: Sixty Hours Of Terror
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jun 26, 2012 AT 22:26 IST, Edited At: Jun 26, 2012 22:26 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Apr 10, 2012 AT 23:29 IST
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Edited At: Apr 10, 2012 23:29 IST
Photo Courtesy: Frances Pritchett
Writing in the DNA, Iftikhar Gilani says that in its efforts to make a “watertight case” against the the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Maharashtra police is citing such "evidence" as a Ghalib sh'r:
Bordering on the insane and the improbable, the affidavits are a testimony to the fact that the police have been plain lazy while preparing against SIMI. Of the several affidavits — filed in court asking for the ban on the group to continue — accessed by DNA, one by inspector Shivajirao Tambare of Vijapur Naka, Solapur, cites a Ghalib verse — as part of evidence — to show how dangerous SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) is.
Mauje khoon ser se guzer hi kiyon na jay, Aastane yaar se uth jaein kaya! A loosely translated Marathi version in the affidavit concludes that these lines speak of bloodshed and animosity. [Read on: Mirza Ghalib is fanning hate feelings: Cops' theory]
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Apr 10, 2012 AT 23:29 IST, Edited At: Apr 10, 2012 23:29 IST
POSTED BY NewsEd
ON Jul 14, 2011 AT 23:21 IST
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Edited At: Jul 14, 2011 23:21 IST
P. Chidambaram: Whoever planned this attack worked in a very, very clandestine manner. It's not a failure of intelligence.
Rahul Gandhi: We will stop 99 per cent of the attacks. But one per cent of attacks might get through and that is what I am saying...It is very difficult to stop every single terror attack ... We've improved in leaps and bounds, but terrorism is something that is also increasing in leaps and bounds.
Digvijay Singh: Even the US has to go through the 9/11 attacks. We are a country of 1.2 billion people. We have made progress. We have improved our intelligence network. We are comparatively better than Pakistan where blasts take place every day, every week.
Raj Thackeray: Maharashtra crime rate has increased in the last 10 years. Examine from where the people perpetrating the crimes come from. Every time we can not blame the police department or failure of intelligence as it is not possible to control the number of people due to migrants. I trust the Mumbai Police but the influx is so much that there will be intelligence failure and such type of terror attacks would keep happening.
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POSTED BY NewsEd
ON Jul 14, 2011 AT 23:21 IST, Edited At: Jul 14, 2011 23:21 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Jul 13, 2011 AT 19:26 IST
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Edited At: Jul 13, 2011 19:26 IST
Three explosions in Mumbai — Zaveri Bazar 6:54 pm, Opera House 6:55 pm, Dadar 7:05 pm. — left 21 killed, 141 injured. Also see: Some photos of the grim scenes in the city. Also Check out the chronology of major terror attacks in Mumbai and India
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Jul 13, 2011 AT 19:26 IST, Edited At: Jul 13, 2011 19:26 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Jan 11, 2011 AT 12:08 IST
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Edited At: Jan 11, 2011 12:08 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express hits the nail on the head:
the BJP needs to learn a political lesson. Nothing diminished L.K. Advani before the last election more than his artless, passionate and entirely a priori defence of Sadhvi Pragya. Their attack on Hemant Karkare haunts them to this day; it suggested a level of pre-commitment, small-mindedness and a lack of institutional judgment not befitting a leader. Nitin Gadkari’s equivocations and Ravi Shankar Prasad’s defensiveness are in the same vein.
The BJP has to recognise that a strong and credible state is incompatible with any form of community partisanship. It could have turned this crisis on the head by at least being consistent on the issue of possible miscarriages of justice. It could have shown equal concern for Muslim youths falsely arrested...
...Let us, for a moment, even suppose that the Congress is playing cheap politics with the timing of these revelations. But even cheaper politics, in return, will do more damage. In some ways, for us as citizens, the charge that the investigation is politicised is also a psychologically easy let-off. It prevents us from fully confronting the significance of all that is being revealed.
A few self-selected crazies on the net notwithstanding, there is little reason to believe that the activities of the terror groups being identified has wide political support. If anything, there is likely to be revulsion. But there is a danger that this revulsion will be overshadowed by embarrassment, producing a silence that smacks of complicity. This silence can only add to the political damage we have already inflicted on ourselves.
Read the full piece at the Indian Express
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Jan 11, 2011 AT 12:08 IST, Edited At: Jan 11, 2011 12:08 IST
POSTED BY NewsEd
ON Oct 05, 2010 AT 22:43 IST
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Edited At: Oct 05, 2010 22:43 IST
General Pervez Musharraf in his much-talked about interview to Spiegel:
Musharraf: The West blames Pakistan for everything. Nobody asks the Indian prime minister, Why did you arm your country with a nuclear weapon? Why are you killing innocent civilians in Kashmir? Nobody was bothered that Pakistan got split in 1971 because of India's military backing for Bangladesh (which declared independence from Pakistan that year). The United States and Germany gave statements, but they didn't mean anything. Everybody is interested in strategic deals with India, but Pakistan is always seen as the rogue.
SPIEGEL: Why did you form militant underground groups to fight India in Kashmir?
Musharraf: They were indeed formed. The government turned a blind eye because they wanted India to discuss Kashmir.
SPIEGEL: It was the Pakistani security forces that trained them.
Musharraf: The West was ignoring the resolution of the Kashmir issue, which is the core issue of Pakistan. We expected the West -- especially the United States and important countries like Germany -- to resolve the Kashmir issue. Has Germany done that?
SPIEGEL: Does that give Pakistan the right to train underground fighters?
Musharraf: Yes, it is the right of any country to promote its own interests when India is not prepared to discuss Kashmir at the United Nations and is not prepared to resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner.
Read on at Spiegel
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POSTED BY NewsEd
ON Oct 05, 2010 AT 22:43 IST, Edited At: Oct 05, 2010 22:43 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Feb 20, 2010 AT 21:58 IST
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Edited At: Feb 20, 2010 22:06 IST
First Mr B. Raman, who has repeatedly brought attention to it. And now Vir Sanghvi who argues:
America has infiltrated terror groups, encourages them to fight with each other, kidnaps and whisks away important terrorists (‘rendition’) and sub-contracts the job of executing terrorists to friendly secret services.
There is a strong case for us in India to follow that example. Let’s take the instance of the three terrorists who were freed in Kandahar in exchange for the passengers on IC 814. They travelled to Pakistan where they were welcomed as heroes. Should we not have pursued them and taken them out? Would this not have served as a warning to other terrorists?
Similarly, we know who many of the 26/11 masterminds are and where they live. Should we wait for the Pakistanis to move against them – assuming that Pakistan is so inclined? Or should we just send a hit team? We know where Dawood Ibrahim, the man behind the Bombay blasts, lives. Should we mount a large-scale operation to eliminate him?
Of course, it is a theoretical discussion for any such policy would fall foul of the courts. But it's a dirty war and this seems like an easy, sexy idea. Most people I know might wince, hold their noses, but ultimately go along with something like the above, with due caveats about how it could be a slippery slope and how obviously there needs to be a debate about who authorises such "hits" and what the "due process" in such a case would be. Clearly, even this is not something that anyone would want to discuss in public.
The R&AW would have to be really more incompetent than we think it to be, if it has not even considered such possibilities, and the fear of failure, of any such operation going horribly wrong, and its costs -- political and diplomatic -- would hopefully prevent any trigger-happy Bollywoodian adventurism, so our discussions can happily remain in the realm of speculation.
The other option that Vir Sanghvi mentions will not cut ice with most-- it doesn't with me. At the risk of being called a wimp, there is very clearly a moral line that we as a country or state policy should not adopt. Not even covertly, not even when we have full deniability and no fear of failure:
Similarly, should we not consider doing to Pakistan what it does to us? There are many Sindhis, Mohajirs, and yes, Baluchis, who have no affection for the Punjabi elite which runs Pakistan. Should we not finance them so that they can more forcefully express their discontentment? The more trouble there is for Pakistan from within, the more distracted the government in Islamabad will be.
No, even hypothetically, leaving the overall moral argument aside, even practically, do we want to take on the responsibility for killing of innocents and civilians and non-combatants, for those so financed may easily go wrong.
Yes, it is a dirty war and the "enemy" does not offer us similar courtesies, but we still want to fight it with our heads held high, even if it means keeping our fists tightly clenced and our teeth gritted. There are somethings that we just will not do. Else, will there be a difference between Pakistan which has used terror as state policy (albeit undeclared, but the war of a thousand cuts has been documented enough) and India which can still call itself a civilised nation?
But there are things that we can and should do in the meanwhile-- the much talked about police reforms, fixing our internal security apparatus and response time, co-ordinating intelligence inputs, hard-nosed investigations rather than spreading disinformation through politically motivated leaks. And of course ensuring that basic safety precautions on spotting unattended packages etc are propagated.
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Feb 20, 2010 AT 21:58 IST, Edited At: Feb 20, 2010 22:06 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Nov 19, 2009 AT 21:59 IST
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Edited At: Nov 19, 2009 21:59 IST
Joseph Tanfani in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Headley, born Daood Gilani, is the son of a prominent Pakistani diplomat and the late Serrill Headley, founder and former owner of the Khyber Pass pub/restaurant at 56 S. Second St.
Serrill Headley, who grew up in Bryn Mawr, split with her husband, and lost custody of her children in Pakistani courts. "In Pakistan, men own the children. There are no rights for women," she said in an interview in 1974.
After 10 years in Pakistan, Serrill Headley moved to Philadelphia, bought a 100-year-old tavern in 1973, and turned it into a bustling nightspot.
After two earlier attempts to get her son out of Pakistan failed, she succeeded in 1977.
In Philadelphia, however, he suffered from culture shock. Raised as a Muslim, he was having trouble adjusting to the idea that his mother ran a bar, an Inquirer column said.
"He has never been alone with, much less had a date with, a girl, except the servant girls of his household," an Inquirer column said back then.
Read the full piece at Philadelphia Inquirer: From Pakistan to Phila.: A terror suspect's journey
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Nov 19, 2009 AT 21:59 IST, Edited At: Nov 19, 2009 21:59 IST
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