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Journalism of Courage
AHMEDABAD, April 11: The Haveli Police on Sunday arrested Mohammed Yasin Gulam Mohammed Falahi, former editor of an Urdu monthly, Islamic Movement, on the charge of provoking communal passions at a March 20 seminar at which supporters and opponents of cow slaughter debated the issue.
The seminar 8212; meant to find a way for Muslims and Jains to both celebrate Bakri-Id and Mahavir Jayanti, which fell on March 29 8212; was organised by Students Islamic Movement of India SIMI at the Vasant-Rajab Hall in Ahmedabad. Falahi, as mediator, had summed up the proceedings saying that Muslims would sacrifice their lives for the right to slaughter cows.
This had brought one of the speakers, staunch anti-slaughter proponent Bachubhai Rambhia, to his feet. He had declared that people opposed to slaughter, too, would willingly sacrifice their lives to protect the cow.
Tempers had flared. Speakers had exchanged angry words. The audience had grown restive. But things cooled off in a few minutes, and Falahi and Rambhia had parted shaking hands.
But March 28 and 29 saw communal violence in Ahmedabad in which two people were killed. One was a Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist in a group that was guarding the highway to prevent the entry of trucks bringing slaughter animals to the city. The other was a youth driving a pick-up rickshaw used for ferrying slaughter animals.
Falahi was arrested by Inspector M.I. Paya near the Juma Masjid, and charged under section 152 A of the Indian Penal Code. Police had been tipped off that he was to attend a religious meeting at the mosque. Police is on the lookout for another accused, Asif Shaikh, who was also a speaker at the seminar.
The case had been filed by the Gitaben Rambhia Trust, named after Bachubhai Rambhia8217;s wife, who was killed some years ago by two butchers whose slaughter animals she had had seized by police.
Meanwhile, SIMI has condemned Falahi8217;s arrest. The organisation has also condemned the police for entering a religious place when a discourse was on. SIMI secretary Arif Kagzi said his organisation had in fact organised the seminar to find an amicable solution to the question of whether slaughter should be allowed on March 29, given the fact that the sentiments of two communities were involved.
Kagzi also said that the police was making haste in this case, while no one had yet been arrested for the killing of Bakhtawar Khan, the pick-up rickshaw driver who was killed on March 29.
