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| From
Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 32, Dated Aug 16, 2008 |
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| CURRENT
AFFAIRS |
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personal accounts |
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A Man Of
God, Not
A Man Of
Terror
The Centre casually links a
septuagenarian religious
leader with SIMI — and then
fails to sustain its reckless
accusation against him, reports AJIT SAHI
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ATTA-UR-REHMAN KURESHI
Home: Saharanpur, UP
Date of arrest: December 27, 2001
Charges: Government’s
background note alleges
Wahadat-i-Islami is a SIMI front
Evidence: No evidence |
A SCRAP DEALER in
the west Uttar Pradesh town of Saharanpur, 70-year-old Atta-urrehman Kureshi
hardly seems a candidate to be tempted by terrorist ambitions. Kureshi
set up Wahadat-e-Islami (Unity of Islam) in 1994 to propagate Islam.
In July-end this year, an outraged
Kureshi appeared before the
SIMI tribunal in New Delhi with a
plea with which the judge was by
now quite familiar: to strike off his
organisation’s name from the
background note, which had
claimed: “SIMI is reported to be
having many cover/front organisations.
At the All-India level these
[include] ...Wahadat-e-Islami.”
Kureshi told the judge he had
long passed the upper age limit of
30 years for SIMI membership
when it was
launched in 1977. He demanded
to be told the basis on which his
outfit was linked with it. (The
paragraph names 60 organisations
across India, including one
Association for Rural Development
and Research and Minority
Rights Watch in Kerala.) As ever,
the Central Government’s
lawyers hadn’t a clue who Kureshi
was and why their backgrounder
named his organisation. But surprisingly,
in his cross-examination,
the first question the
Centre’s lawyer asked him was,
“Are you Yasin Patel’s father-inlaw?”
Perplexed, Kureshi said he
wasn’t, but volunteered that Patel
was his friend’s son-in-law.
Patel, a former SIMI officebearer,
is the legal representative
of ex-SIMI president, Shahid Badr
Falahi, who contested the ban at
the tribunal. Sentenced to seven
years in jail and out on bail, Patel
was attending the tribunal hearings
in Delhi. Moments before
they stepped inside the courtroom,
Patel introduced Kureshi
to the SIMI lawyers as “my fatherin-
law’s friend”. Standing nearby,
the government lawyer perhaps
misheard and, in the absence of
any other evidence, decided to
use it to connect him with SIMI.
A year ago, the Wahadat-e-Islami
held a meet on the ‘Role of
Muslims in Indian Politics’ at
Lucknow. Two years ago, it had
organised ‘Islam and World
Peace — Programme against
International Terrorism’. Yet he is
the main accused in the infamous
Surat Case, a case that reflects the
never-ending persecution of these
Muslims and that is profiled in another
column. •
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From
Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 32, Dated Aug 16, 2008
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The Thin Red Line
TARUN J TEJPAL
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The Kafka Project
In a crucial investigation over three months, Editor-at-Large AJIT SAHI tracked the SIMI fictions across 11 cities
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Inside The Whale: State Vs Shahid Badr Falahi
In case after case, the ex-president of SIMI has been the target of the law agencies’ absurd yet sinister charges, Reports AJIT SAHI
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The Good Doctor's Complications
Absolved by several courts, a former SIMI office-bearer continues to face the stigma that bars him from home and job, Reports AJIT SAHI
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They just want Muslim boys to always be in jail
Moutasim Billah has been a police scapegoat for seven years, even though they acknowledge they have nothing on him, Reports AJIT SAHI
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A Doubtful Crime, And Years Of Unfair Punishment
Yasin Patel is the only SIMI activist to be convicted under POTA. His crime was nothing more serious than an offensive poster, Reports AJIT SAHI
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The Cry Of The Beloved Country
Chilling stories of fathers and brothers swallowed by midnight arrests, as family members lack the resources for legal redr, Reports AJIT SAHI
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The Haunt Of Our Past Lives
A leading Muslim outfit in Tamil Nadu is accused of killing Hindus. But the Centre’s lawyers can’t remember their own evidence, Reports AJIT SAHI
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SIMI Here, SIMI There, SIMI Everywhere
This SIMI litigation is an omnibus case in which the 100 plus accused are now always at hand to be implicated in future cases, Reports AJIT SAHI
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The History Appraiser Caught With His Books
Among Abdul Razik’s crimes: books, old issues of a SIMI magazine and a talk on Muslims in the freedom struggle, Reports AJIT SAHI
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A Man Of God, Not A Man Of Terror
The Centre casually links a septuagenarian religious leader with SIMI — and then fails to sustain its reckless accusation against him, Reports AJIT SAHI
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Dissent Or Don’t, You’re Damned Either Way
Since when did protest get you called a jehadi? Ask M. Elliyas, jailed under a ludicrous law, Reports AJIT SAHI
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The Left Hand Doesn't Know, Or Doesn't It?
The bizarre case of Ziauddin Siddiqui, injured in a clash with police, given compensation — and then accused of rioting and sedition, Reports AJIT SAHI
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The Case Of The Absconding Lawyer
Midway through the tribunal, a key SIMI lawyer is suddenly arrested in an old, forgotten case and released as arguments end, Reports AJIT SAHI
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A Judge Stirs A Hornet's Nest
Mere opinions, a stunning abscence of facts and gross violations of law in the Centre’s case against SIMI are what moved tribunal judge Geeta Mittal to reject the ban, Reports AJIT SAHI
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‘The Supreme Court’s stay is a murder of justice’
Despite the setback, SIMI’s ex-president Shahid Badr Falahi is confident the body will be legitimate again, Reports AJIT SAHI
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Terror Has Two Faces
A shadowy, pan-Islamic seditious organisation or merely a conservative Islamist and politically conscious student group? Read and draw your own conclusions on SIMI, Reports AJIT SAHI
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