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Terror strikes fail to divide communities
Published on Sun, May 18, 2008 at 01:55, Updated on Sun, May 18, 2008 at 02:11 in Nation section
Tags: 30 Minutes, Terror , New Delhi
TOGETHER WE STAND: In Malegaon, Hyderabad and Varanasi religious leaders appealed for calm after the blasts.
New Delhi: Malegaon is one of Maharashtra's most communally sensitive towns. It saw riots in 1992 after the Babri Masjid demolition, in 2001 when America invaded Afghanistan, and also over several other smaller incidents.
When Police Inspector Naseem Sheikh heard that a bomb had gone off during the Shab-e-Barat festival on September 8, 2006, he feared the worst.
"Peopel were scared. If we opened fire, then people used to turn against the police so we did not fire," Sheikh says.
Even the police could have done little if the head cleric of the city's Jama Masjid, Maulana Mufti Mohammed Ismail, had not stepped in.
As news of the blast spread, the cleric took to a loudspeaker, soothing the angry crowds, and urging them to stay calm.
"Incidentally a police van with loudspeaker fitted in it came. I took that van and appealed to the people to stay clam and return to their homes. We went all over the city appealing for calm," Ismail says.
For 15 years, Ismail says, he has been trying to win over bigoted minds. And the warmth he saw between strangers that night made it worthwhile.
Bite, Maulana Mufti Mohammed Ismail:
"After the bomb blast I realised that if an appeal is made then people listen to it. This encouraged us a lot," he says.
Local Hindu leaders too pitched in to help that day - providing medical aid and organising much-needed blood donation camps.
"With one and a half hour we collected 167 bottles of blood. This message also spread in Muslim-dominated areas and the tension abated," Dada Bhuse, a local leader, says.
The Mecca Masjid blast a year ago, claimed 11 lives.
Anger spilt onto the streets and near Moghalpura, tension turned to tragedy when police opened fire, killing five people.
More clashes would have followed if local leaders had not intervened.
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi is a growing influence over an increasingly insecure Muslim community.
He claims that keeping a lid on popular sentiment is not easy.
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