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Graves of Ashraf Ali Thanvi family demolished, desecrated
Urdu press roundup
By IndianMuslims.info Staff
One of the various problems Indian Muslims are faced with is the politics of hate and violence. And who earns dividends by playing this nasty game is an open secret. This not so hidden fact assumes added significance when one comes across an incident taking place as a result of this typical sort of politics selectively at a time when the UPA government at the Centre is taking at least some measures to better the socio-economic and educational condition of this neglected lot. December 17 witnessed one such incident in the northern Indian State of Uttar Pradesh when the graves of Late Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi and three others were levelled and desecrated – yes, the graves were literally dug, human waste thrown into them and the mud scattered. Add to it the BJP’s hardcore anti-Muslim stance reiterated during its 2-day national executive committee meeting held in Lucknow on December 22-23. The hate juggernaut is operating brazenly in the length and breath of the country despite law taking its own course as we find in the handing over of Nanded and Malegaon blasts probe to the CBI or the Babri Masjid demolition cases taking a new turn. Urdu press covered these developments all through the week with minute details.
On December 18 the Rashtriya Sahara and the Hindustan Express front-paged the levelling of the grave of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, popularly known as Hakim-ul-Ummat, and those of his wife, his brother Khan Bahadur Mazhar Ali and his friend Maulana Zahoorul Hasan in the dead of night at Thana Bhawan in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.
In its banner story the Express reports: “A few days ago some miscreants had pulled some bricks out of the (Maulana’s) grave. But the Mulayam administration remained a silent spectator. Goaded by the government (its silence) the miscreants at last razed the graves.�
The incident caused great panic in the entire area and the followers of Hakim-ul-Ummat started coming in large numbers to the Ashrafi graveyard in the private garden of the great Islamic scholar near Thana Bhawan railway station. Sensing the situation going out of control, the administration deployed PAC jawans in the area. The report alleges that the Mulayam administration wants to create communal tension prior to the Assembly elections in the State so that it might scare Muslim votes to vote for Samajwadi Party.
The renowned author of Bihishti Zewar has over one thousand books to his credit. He was a Fazil from Darul Uloom Deoband and an outstanding Alim of Khanqah Imdadiya. His direct disciples include Maulana Wasiullah Jalalabadi, Maulana Abdul Majid Dariyabadi and Hakimul Islam Qari Tayyab, etc., the report adds.
The Sahara, in its box story, says: “It was an unholy but desperate attempt to throw the entire country into the fire of communalism.�
The paper further says that all social and political groups as well as dignitaries including Maulana Muhammad Moosa, Mufti of Imam Sangathan Zulfiqar Ali, Hafiz Aftab of Tahreek Islah-e-Muashira, Gauhar Siddiqui of Secular Front, Shia Alim Maulana Asad Raza Qibla expressed their deep sense of agony on this mischievous conspiracy and appealed to the people to keep patience and fortitude.
In another report on page 4, the Sahara of the same date carries strong reaction to this ‘heart-rending’ incident expressed by renowned Ulema and Muslim leaders including All India Milli Council president Maulana Abdullah Mughisi, Tanzeem Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Syed Anzar Shah Kashmiri, In-charge Darul Ifta Madrasa Mazahirul Uloom Saharanpur Maulana Mufti Habib Rumi, State general secretary Deeni Taalimi Council Maulana Riyaz Nadwi, and Maulana Nisar Ahmad Mazahiri of Milli Council. They termed it as a planned conspiracy against Muslims and demanded immediate investigation into it and stringent action against those responsible for it.
Other Urdu papers like the Qaumi Awaz rose to the occasion a day later, on December 19. The Awaz reports Shaikhul Hadith of Darul Uloom (Waqf) Deoband Maulana Anzar Shah Kashmiri and general secretary Jamiatul Ulema Hind Maulana Mahmood Madni urging the government to arrest the culprits and give them due punishment. Maulana Abdullah Mughisi asked the Commissioner of Saharanpur to take immediate action against the culprits.
In another report on page 6 the paper says that chairman Minority Cell of the Congress Imran Qidwai also voiced his deep concern over this mischievous act. Expressing his utter surprise on the indifference and inaction of the Mulayam administration, he said it should have deployed a police party when the miscreants had pulled some bricks out of the grave.
The Express is carrying its follow-ups almost daily and sometimes 5 or 6 stories on different pages. A close study of all these follow-up reports reveals that all Muslim organisations and institutions and Muslim Ulema and dignitaries irrespective of the schools of thought they belong to, have condemned this ‘cowardly’ and ‘mischievous’ act on the part of the hate-mongers and demanded stringent action against the culprits. Some of them like president of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat Syed Shahabuddin termed it part of deep conspiracy and congratulated the Muslim community on keeping patience and maintaining peace in spite of the miscreants’ attempt to provoke them.
In one such story the Express (December 22) reports Jamaat-e-Islami Hind sending a delegation led by its assistant secretary-general Maulana Muhammad Rafeeq Qasmi to Thana Bhawan. At Khanqah Imdadiya the delegation was told that they have received wide condemnation of the act from all quarters of society and several government and political delegations have also visited them.
The Express of December 24 reports that the Muslims of the area staged a march at Meenakshi Chowk, Muzaffarnagar protesting the slow pace of investigation into the incident and also against MLAs Munawwar Hasan and Amir Alam Khan giving 15 days time to the administration to arrest the culprits. They raised slogans against the Mulayam administration as well as the MLAs and burnt their effigies. The police tried to disperse them. One police inspector took out his pistol and opened fire, as a result of which the protesters did disperse but a 45-year old woman Fatima w/o Muhammad Khalid Quraishi, who was standing on her roof, got injured and is now fighting for her life. However the District Collector Sudhir Kumar Srivastava and SSP Amrendra Kumar have promised to suspend the police inspector who had opened fire, and provide free treatment and adequate compensation for Fatima.
December 24, 2006
