Mischievous attempt to vilify Muslims here!

Indian allegations of Islamic terror attacks in Sri Lanka, South Asia

December 31, 2013, 12:00 pm 

By M M Zuhair PC, former Member of Parliament

Indian allegations of possible Muslim militant attacks in Sri Lanka over the hanging of a Bangladeshi political leader on 12 December 2013 is another mischievous attempt to portray, the Muslims of Sri Lanka as being in conspiracy with militants and terrorists. Such false insinuations vilifying the Sri Lankan Muslims are being made, from time to time, as part of a broader attempt to justify interfering in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.

What is disturbing in the Indian request for enhanced security for its missions in Sri Lanka, already provided by a strong contingent of Indian security personnel, is the need for India to link itself to events in Bangladesh. Abdul Qadir Mullah is a Bangladeshi, convicted by a Bangladeshi Special Tribunal in Bangladesh and hanged in Bangladesh! What has India got to do with matters that happened in Bangladesh, unless India wants to give Sri Lanka and the countries in the region a message!

India, it is well known, did play a major role in the division of the then Pakistan into two and the creation of Bangladesh. That was about 42 years ago! What has Mullah’s hanging in Bangladesh, after a controversial trial, got to do with India, for it to ask for enhanced security from Sri Lanka, except to remind Sri Lanka of India’s role in creating a new language oriented country, out of Pakistan.

India missed a more justifiable opportunity to ask for enhanced security for its missions abroad, when Mohamed Afzal Guru, a man portrayed by the better part of Indian media as an "archetypal Kashmiri terrorist", even before his trial began, was convicted and hanged in Tihar Central Prison in Delhi in February 2013 over alleged aiding of the yet unknown and unidentified attackers on the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001.Events in Bangladesh have little or no impact elsewhere in South East Asia, unlike Kashmir which always attracts far more universal concern.

India’s award winning author Arundhathi Roy, in the introduction to her book ‘Afzal Guru and the strange case of the attack on the Indian Parliament’ refers to the Indian Supreme Court, concluding a series of hearings over the question of executing prisoners who had already served inordinately long prison sentences and reserving judgment, which included in the cluster Afzal Guru’s case. She states, "The Supreme Court had reserved its judgment, but Afzal Guru was executed before the Court delivered its verdict". She states further, "A Man whose guilt was by no means established beyond reasonable doubt was hanged".

The Government turned down the request of Afzal’s family for his body. He was buried without ceremony next to Maqbool Bhat, the founder of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and the pre-eminent icon of Kashmir’s movement for Azadi, freedom. Be that as it may.

Mullah of Bangladesh was the assistant secretary of a political organization, the Jamaat-e-Islami in the then East Pakistan. His party stood against dismembering the country into two. Shockingly, the law was specifically amended to make the political party itself criminally liable and retroactively making it a treasonable offence for opposing the division of the country!

A Wiki leaks leaked US State Department cable of November 2010, reportedly stated, "There is little doubt that hardline elements within the ruling Party (Awami League) believe that the time is right to crush the Jamaat and other Islamic Parties.

Three days before Mullah was hanged, Human Rights Watch said, "Hanging Mullah on the basis of retroactive legislation and then denying him the right to appeal against this sentence is a grave violation of his fundamental rights."

Even the hanging of Afzal Guru, with alleged connections to Kashmiri resistance groups, did not produce any backlash regionally. To allege Mulla’s execution in Bangladesh will lead to militant attacks in Sri Lanka, is a far-fetched story, unless India’s own agents are using ‘Islamaphobia’ as a false flag and laying the ground work for such attacks. Such views gain strength following the recent claim by a former official of India’s Central Bureau of Investigations, Satish Verma that the Indian Government was behind the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, to push through Parliament tougher anti-terror laws.

Muslims here are deeply concerned by the continuous effort on the part of India and its intelligence apparatus to demonise the Muslims by alleging without reasonable evidence that Muslim militants will launch attacks in Sri Lanka. There were many similar allegations made by India in the recent past, all of which had passed without any incidents happening.