Inside Mumbra, again on terror radar

Getting a deal done hastily in a slumped market by turning a blind eye to a two-year-old directive of the police commissioner was what got three real estate dealers and a caretaker of a commercial space in Kausa of Mumbra in trouble with the police. The four were released on bail. However, the label of facilitating the renting of a commercial space to Mohammad Arif, one of the alleged members of the terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen, will not fade easily. Incidents of Arif and those in the past such as the encounter of Ishrat Jahan, the arrest of alleged Kashmiri terrorist acquitted by high court got Mumbra its ill fame.

8220;In Mumbra you have the affordability and the anonymity. There is a sizeable population living in rented premises that have to keep changing their residences. The familiarity among residents in apartment with permanent occupation, is conspicuous by its absence in buildings with rented accommodations,8221; says Hanif Pitalwala, principal of Holy Crescent High School at Kausa.

Residences on rent could be acquired for as less as Rs 3,000 to 4,500. Incidentally Mumbra after Ulhasnagar is one of the places in Thane district, which boasts of more number of unauthorized structures than legal ones.

8220;The official plan of a building takes as much as five years to get approved while on the other hand the officials and elected representatives eagerly facilitate unauthorized construction,8221; said Hiralal Gupta, a noted figure and civic activist in Mumbra. According to Gupta, it is the step-motherly treatment given to Mumbra in terms of poor civic amenities that has forced the house owners to flee and put their residences on rent.

A stone8217;s throw away from the Shimla Park, the complex where Arif hired a commercial place, commanding a table outside the Ashrafiya Mosque is 36- year-old Imam Maulana Abdul Salam. 8220;When I had come to Mumbra four years ago, things I had been told about Mumbra would have scared me. However, I realized after coming here that people are the same like everywhere else. This place has got a bad reputation it does not deserve,8221; says Imam Maulana Salam. The cleric said that he was not aware of the facts of Arif8217;s case, however he volunteered that strictly following the directives of the police by the house owners and real estate agents was the only way to check on outsiders who come to Mumbra with bad intentions.

8220;We cannot call them Muslims as those indulging in terrorism and other anti-national activities are not Muslims,8221; he adds.

Besides the Mumbra people there are also senior officers in the police who feel that Mumbra should not be isolated as a terrorist hide out.

8220;Following the ghettoization of 1992-93 there was migration from Mumbai by Muslims to places such as Bhiwandi, Mumbra, Jogeshwari, Lokhandwala and Malegaon, that were willing to give them cover. The stigma would only make the people turn more defensive all the time,8221; says a senior police officer who has dealt in anti-terrorist activities.