In protest, CPIML calls for three-day protests across Bihar
Dev Raj, Patna: The CPIML Liberation has called for a three-day “people’s resistance” across Bihar from July 21 to 23, questioning the police claim of busting a terror module at Phulwarisharif on Patna’s outskirts last week and accusing the force of targeting Muslims without evidence.
It said the entire state administration was acting to further the BJP’s interests and lambasted JDU chief minister Nitish Kumar for his silence on the subject.
On Monday, the police’s claims about at least one of the five suspects arrested in connection with the alleged module, 24-year-old Marghoob Ahmad Danish, had been contested by his parents.
The agitation was announced after a 17-member delegation from the CPIML, All India People’s Forum and the Insaf Manch visited Phulwarisharif and met the families of four of those arrested, including Marghoob’s.
Marghoob’s family had told this newspaper the youth was mentally ill and had no passport although the police had claimed he had been in Dubai for 10 years since 2006 — when he would have been just eight — hobnobbing with terror groups.
Phulwarisharif station house officer Ekrar Ahmad told this newspaper on Monday that the claim about Marghoob having been in Dubai was “a slip of the tongue”.
The CPIML-led delegation met senior police officers and asked them for evidence against the accused. They wanted to know why they had not been arrested earlier.
The police had claimed they had known about the alleged module’s activities at least 15 days ahead of the first arrests on July 11, a day before a visit to Patna by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The building that is claimed to be the centre of terror activities has not been sealed yet. The police officials were unable to explain how arms training could be imparted in a confined space of 600 square feet that also has two pillars,” the delegation has said in a report.
It has asked the state government to make public all the evidence against the accused, ensure that no innocent person is arrested, and act against those that want to destroy communal harmony.
“This entire episode is a part of the BJP’s mission for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections which involves the targeting of the minority community again to promote polarisation on religious lines,” CPIML state secretary Kunal said, flanked by the other delegation members.
“Things are being inflated for that purpose. An unfortunate aspect is that the entire administration is working on the directions of the BJP.”
Kunal said the police had no concrete evidence and were unable to provide it when asked, and yet the whole of Phulwarisharif was being projected as a terror hotbed.
“Chief minister Nitish Kumar is silent despite gross administrative negligence and an attempt to target and tarnish the Muslim community. We will register our protest through a three-day people’s resistance across Bihar from July 21 to 23,” Kunal said.
Kunal led the delegation, which included CPIML politburo member Amar, legislature party leader Mehboob Alam, MLAs Gopal Ravidas and Sandeep Saurabh, and leaders Kumar Parvez, Kayamuddin Ansari, Afsha Jabeen and Nasreen Bano.
