{"id":98372,"date":"2020-01-28T16:45:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T23:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=98372"},"modified":"2020-01-28T16:45:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T23:45:16","slug":"for-february-martyrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/28\/for-february-martyrs\/","title":{"rendered":"FOR FEBRUARY MARTYRS"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALI SUKHANVER<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Why\ndo the people of Pakistan observe the 5th<\/sup> February as a Black Day\nevery year; it is a frequently asked questions. The fact of the matter is that\nit is not only the 5th<\/sup> February, but each and every day in that\nmonth is a Black Day because every day of February has a new story of cruelty\nand brutality to share with us. The cruel judicial murder of Afzal Guru, brutal\nhanging of Maqbool Bhatt, burning of the innocent passengers of Samjhota\nExpress and above all the Massacre in Gujarat; February always proved very\ncallous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maqbool\nBhatt was the first victim to February\u2019s brutality. He was one of the most\nprominent leaders striving for freedom and liberty of the Indian Occupied\nKashmir. If today, the movement for the liberation of Kashmir is still alive,\nit is because of Maqbool Bhatt\u2019s fiery speeches, charismatic guidance and the\nseed of desire for freedom he sowed in the hearts of Kashmiri youth. He was accused\nof killing a CID officer Amar Chand and in 1968 was awarded the death sentence\nby Judge Neelkanth Ganjoo. His punishment could not be acted upon for the next\n16 years and ultimately he was hanged in Tihar Jail in New Delhi on 11 February\n1984. The Indian authorities were so frightened of the Maqbool Bhatt\u2019s dead\nbody that they buried him in the jail premises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

27th<\/sup>\nFebruary 2002 was the first day of the Gujarat massacre and  the Muslim community living in that vicinity\nwas the basic target. The bloodshed ended\nwith 1,044 dead, 223 missing and 2,500 injured. According to an official\nreport, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were among the dead in the Gujarat Riots. The\nConcerned Citizens Tribunal Report estimated that as many as 1,926 might have\nbeen killed. Other sources estimated death tolls in excess of 2,000. Many\nbrutal killings and rapes were reported on as well as widespread looting and\ndestruction of property. The Chief Minister of Gujarat at that time and the\ncurrent Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, was accused of initiating the\nviolence. Reports say that police and other government officials were involved\nin giving instructions to the rioters and providing them lists of Muslim-owned\nproperties. Mr. Modi simply turned a blind eye to whatever was happening there\nin the streets of Gujarat and his deliberate ignorance added a lot to the loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More\nheart rending and more brutal story is of Samjhauta Express burning. That was somewhere around the midnight on\n18 February 2007 when the Samjhauta Express was heading towards Pakistan. Just\nafter the train had passed Diwana near the Indian city of Panipat, bombs already\nfixed in two carriages started exploding. Both carriages were over-loaded with\npassengers. Blazing flames of fire engulfed the fast moving train. Some of the\npassengers lost their lives in an attempt to jump out of the train; others who\ncould not jump out also had to meet the same fate but in a more agonizing way;\nthey were all burnt to ashes alive. There were reports that when the train\nslowed down, some unknown people were witnessed pouring kerosene oil to the\nalready burning carriages. Most of those who lost their lives in the incident\nwere Pakistanis. India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) charged eight\npeople in the terrorist attack, including Swami Aseemanand, a Hindu cleric\nformerly affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) but he was very\nsoon released on bail. Three others charged in the case remained absconding. The\nalleged mastermind, Sunil Joshi, was killed in 2007 by unknown killers. Overall\na Hindu fundamentalist group in India Abhinav Bharat was held responsible for\nthis brutal incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohammad\nAfzal Guru was a very popular Kashmiri freedom-fighter. He was blamed of\nplanning and designing the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament in 2001. His\nconfession statement presented before the court became the basis of death\npenalty sentenced to him. He was executed on 9 February 2013. Guru’s advocate Sushil Kumar later claimed\nthat Guru had written a letter to him in which he had told him that he had made\nthe confessions under compulsion as his family was being threatened. The same\nthing Guru claimed in his interview with a journalist Vinod K. Jose in 2006. Guru\nhad said that he had been subjected to extreme torture which included electric\nshocks in private parts and being beaten up for hours along with threats\nregarding his family after his arrest. During the investigation he was\ncontinuously warned that in case of his non-co-operation, his brother would\nalso be fixed in the same case as he was already in the custody of security\nagencies. Recently, the Indian security agencies have arrested a DSP of J&K\npolice Davinder Singh on charges of having links with the freedom-fighters and\ndoing cooperation with them. Afzal Guru had told in his interview that the same\npolice-officer was the central character behind all that torture inflicted upon\nhim. It is something very astonishing that the same police officer involved in\ntorturing Afzal Guru was awarded National Police Medal for his gallantry a few\nmonths back. Now he has been arrested for his links with freedom-fighters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nstory starting from Maqbool Bhatt has reached the recent arrest of DSP Davinder\nSingh of J&K police. There are so many hidden links among all these\nincidents which certainly make the situation more complex and more complicated\nbut one thing is very much clear; life for Muslims in India was never a smooth\nsailing and never would it be. Same is the situation with other minorities too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALI SUKHANVER Why do the people of Pakistan observe the 5th February as a Black Day every year; it is a frequently asked questions. The fact of the matter is that it is not only the 5th February, but each and every day in that month is a Black Day because every day of February […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ali-sukhanver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}