Selective Abuse & Application of Law For Indian Muslims

Judge P.D. Kode of the TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act) court has found Sanjay Dutt guilty under the Arms Act, for keeping an AK-47, a 9mm pistol and a couple of grenades in his house after hindus went nuts around Mumbai in Dec. 1992. They burned down Babri Masjid, razing, raping and slaughtering thousands of Muslims in Mumbai. All done under the protective vigil of the state machinery and to the cheers of the raving politicians.

Unfortunately for Sanjay, he is a half-n-half. His mother was film star Nargis, a Muslim. He reportedly received death threats from hindus, who consider him ’impure’ and thus guilty. If Sanjay went to Kashmir, he could be shot in cold-blood by the indian army, no questions asked under POTA. At a time when the state is burning and pillaging your community wholesale, it is quite understandable and reasonable to expect people to take up arms for self-defense. But self-preservation is apparently illegal for a half-Muslim in india.


Jawed Naqvi (Delhi) in his column this week examined the flip side of indian justice. A judge Srikrishna investigating the Ayodhya riots placed the blame squarely on the right-wing hindus, mumbai police and the Shiv Sena politicians. "Nothing happened. The report is gathering dust".

In Gandhi and Nehru’s india today, Hindus get away with mass murder of Muslims in broad daylight, while a half-muslim actor is thrown in jail for acquiring a handgun. Now compare this to the freedoms taken for granted and abused in Pakistan. Following, is a news report from Newsline:

Sub-clans of the Mazari and Bugti tribes who live along the Balochistan-Punjab border at Kashmore-Sui have been engaged in sporadic armed conflict for years. The Esani and Phonk factions got entangled in a feud some three months ago over a murder case. Later, an exchange of fire with heavy weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades, short range missiles and mortar guns turned the area into a battlefield between the two private militias.

The federal government asked the Nazim Dera Bugti, Mir Zulfiqar Bugti, to impose a night curfew on the whole agency. The Nazim refused to comply with these directives, claiming that the law and order situation was under control and no criminal case had been registered in any of the police or levy stations since June 2002.

"At the moment there is no move to conduct an operation in Dera Bugti. However, if the federal government launches an operation, the provincial government will oppose it. Any such move will create complications in tribal society," the home minister declared.

Bugti didn’t just have a handgun, or an AK-47. He had missiles, mortars and batteries. A private army that was openly challanging the Pak govt. But even then, many Pakistanis think it was high-handed of the govt. to have gone in and tried to hold Nawab Akbar Bugti responsible for the long list of subversive activities that he so often used to brag about.

Too many Pakistanis take their freedoms for granted. It would behove them to look over the border, at their Muslim brothers and sisters in india, who can’t even take a breath without a bania charging them money, or finding them on the wrong side of the law.