Have you ever heard of persecution of Muslims is
Saudi Arabia or Pakistan or Bangladesh? The answer is “No”. We have not heard
of persecution of Muslims in a Muslim country because no such thing happens. Now,
let’s come to the other question: Have you heard of persecution of Hindus in
their own home land? Unfortunately, the answer this time is “YES”. The Hindus
in the Muslim-majority regions of Kashmir, Pakistan, Bangladesh and others countries
have suffered persecution.
Attack
on temples and Hindu culture:
Since the medieval age, India has faced temple
demolitions, mass executions of Hindus and enslavement of their dependents. Mahmud
of Ghazni, Ghori, Nadir Shah, Timur and Mughals all demolished and plundered
Hindu temples. Kings like Tippu Sultan are praised by people including Hindus.
But it is their ignorance. They do not know that Tippu Sultan issued edicts for
the destruction of Hindu temples in Kerala. This was an attempt to snub the
Hindu culture. In 1788, Tippu ordered his governor in
Calicut Sher Khan to begin the process of converting Hindus to Islam, and in
July of that year, 200 Brahmins were
forcibly converted and made to eat beef.
Our history is tainted by hundreds of such
incidents. On the other hand, Muslims did not have to fight for their religious
places like Mecca and Madina. Christians did not have to fight anyone for the
Vatican. But in Hindu majority India, Hindus have been fighting for their legal
claim on Shri Ram Janam Bhoomi for many decades. Though there are thousands of
temples which were demolished by Muslim invaders, the Hindus are not asking for
all the sites. They just want control over the Ram janam bhoomi, which is one
of the holiest places for the Hindus.
Era
of Nizam state of Hyderabad:
Hindus were severely repressed under the autocratic
rule of the Nizams in Hyderabad state. The Hindu majority were denied
fundamental rights by the Nizams. Hindus were called gaddaar (traitor) by Muslims in the Nizam state. Many Hindus were
murdered, looted and thrown to jail. Construction of temples was declared
illegal and Hindu scriptures like Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana were banned.
Persecution
in Jammu and Kashmir: Amarnath pilgrimage massacre
The Kashmiri Pandit population living in the Muslim
majority region of Jammu and Kashmir came under threat from Islamic militants after
the Babri masjid demolition. These attacks were considered retaliation for the
demolition of the Babri Masjid. These militants had the support of the
Pakistani security establishment. The incidents of violence included the
Wandhama Massacre in 1998, in which 24 Kashmiri Hindus were gunned down by
Muslims disguised as Indian soldiers. Hundreds of Kashmiri Hindus have been
killed and thousands of children orphaned over the course of the conflict in
Kashmir. Around 250,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced out of their homes in
Kashmir. The 2000 Amarnath pilgrimage massacre was another such incident where
30 Hindu pilgrims were killed en route to the Amarnath temple.
Even
Christians not sparing Hindus:
After the
1992 movement, persecution of Hindus took place in North East India too. In
Nagaland, Hindus are not allowed to celebrate Durga Puja and other religious
festivals due to killings by Christian terrorist groups. In Tripura, the NLFT -
National Liberation Front of Tripura has targeted Hindus and attacked many temples.
They also forcefully converted Hindus to Christianity.
Killings
of Hindus in Punjab:
When there was insurgency in Punjab, there was a
demand for a separate state for Sikhs. Terrorists targeted Hindus and there
were many incidents of selective killings of the Hindus. In 1987, 32 Hindus
were pulled out of a bus and shot in Punjab by Sikh militants. Sikh militants
bombed the Hindu majority areas and markets. The orders for killing Hindus were
given by a fanatic Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale from the complex of the Golden
temple. The common point between Sikh militants and rioting Muslims was that
both were funded by the ISI of Pakistan.
Massacre
of 1990:
The Janam Bhoomi movement did not only include the
demolition of Masjid. It included many other sides of the same problem. In 1990
thousands of Hindu karsevaks became victims of police firing. Their bodies were
thrown in Saryu river with sand bags tied to bodies so that the dead bodies get
drowned and not float. Hindus were dragged out of their house to be
slaughtered. This was done on the orders of Mulla Mulayam. This was a massacre
for which no trial was conducted. Mulayam Singh did not face court of law or
any investigation. In fact the tragedy is that there is not even a confirmed
number of Hindus who were slaughtered.
Riots
after riots:
After the demolition of Babri Masjid, there were
communal riots in New Delhi, Mumbai and many other cities. In Jan. 1993,
there were multiple cases of stabbing, arson, mob violence and attacks on
private and government properties. On
Jan.8, 1993 in a gruesome incident one of the Hindu residences in a chawl
popularly known as Radhabai Chawl in Jogeshwari were locked from outside and
set on fire by Muslims. One male and two female members of a Hindu family were
charred to death. One of the victims was a physically handicapped girl.
Bombay
blasts:
After the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December
1992, riots broke out in Bombay and other parts of India. As soon as the news
of the demolition of Babri Masjid spread, Muslims in Bombay came out on the
streets and expressed their anger by attacking buses and other public property.
Some temples were attacked and partially damaged by Muslims. Null Bazar market
with 512 shops was set ablaze.
In Jogeshwari
West and East Muslims indulged in brick batting on Dec. 8 to express their
anger over the demolition of Babri Masjid. In Squatters' Colony in Malad
East, Muslim youth pelted bricks at about 11 p.m. on Dec11. Muslims
attacked a temple and badly damaged it. Sub-Inspector Nadaf, a Muslim,
lathicharged a Hindu mob to disperse it. Some 800 Hindus marched to the police
station demanding his transfer.
In 1993, there were Bombay bombings- a series of 13
bomb explosions. The coordinated attacks were the most destructive bomb
explosions in Indian history. In these blasts Hindu majority areas were deliberately
attacked. The single-day attacks resulted in over 350 fatalities and 1200
injuries, which is the official count. There were bomb blasts in many cities
like Calcutta. In 2003 two large bombs left in taxis exploded at the Gateway of
India and Zaveri Bazaar killing 52 people and wounding more than a hundred
others. This time too Hindus were targeted.
Supply
of weapons from Dawood in Pakistan:
Dawood Ibrahim
wanted Muslims to be armed with assault rifles and hand grenades used by
terrorists. Dawood, his brother Anees and three other smugglers — Tiger Memon,
Mustafa Dosa and Mohammad Dosa — were the main conspirators. Dawood sent
hundreds of young men from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra to Pakistan for
training in the use of arms and explosives. Till date, the police do not know
the exact number of those who attended the ISI -organized training camps. The Pakistan
based Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba were also responsible for the
attacks. Dawood and Co. then smuggled arms and explosives into the country and
distributed them to Muslims in different places in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Dawood
smuggled hundreds of assault rifles, hand grenades, pistols, AK -47s, AK-56s and
hundreds of tonnes of RDX into India through January and February 1993. In all
the blasts and shootings, the Hindus were targeted. In the riots, the police
also fired on people that led to killing hundreds of Hindus.
Provocative
pamphlet by Muslims:
On 25 December 1992 a pamphlet in Urdu language was
distributed around Jama Masjid in Mahim area. This pamphlet was communally
provocative and incited Muslims to fight against Hindus and called upon the
Muslims to the construct the Babri Masjid if necessary, with blood. Police
deliberately did not intervene to help Hindus. Police was instructed to protect
Muslims for the vote bank politics. Within two weeks of the destruction of the
mosque, 227 were killed in communal violence in Gujarat, 250 in Bombay, 55 in
Karnataka, 14 in Kerala, 42 in Delhi, 185 in Uttar Pradesh, 100 in Assam, 43 in
Bihar, 100 in Madhya Pradesh and 23 in Andhra Pradesh (Week 1992). The three
major riots that broke out were Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu in1997, Kanpur in U.P.
in March 2001 and Malegaon in Maharashtra in October 2001.
Burning
the karsevaks in Gujarat: the Godhra massacre
In Godhra, the train carrying karsevaks was set on
fire by Muslims on 27 February 2002. In this fire 59 people, including 25 women
and 15 children Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive. This was followed by 2002
Gujarat riots in which hundreds of Hindus were also displaced and killed.
Killings
in Kerala:
On 2 May 2003, Hindus were killed by a Muslim mob in
Kozhikode district, Kerala. Members of several political parties were directly
involved in planning and executing the killing. Muslim fundamentalist and
terrorist organizations were involved in the killings. The court sentenced 62
Muslims to life imprisonment for committing the massacre.
Terror
attack of 2008:
In November 2008, Pakistani terrorists attacked
south Mumbai. On the 20th floor of the Trident hotel, facing a group of guests
at gunpoint, one attacker shouted “Remember Babri Masjid?” according to a
witness. Then he started firing. Even after the first and worst terror attack
of its kind in this country, we have not been able to prosecute the
‘masterminds’: Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon and their benefactors in Pakistan.
Persecution
of Hindus in neighboring nations:
There were 8.8 million Hindus in Pakistan in 1951.
In 1951, Hindus constituted 22% of the Pakistani population. But now it is 1.85%
of Pakistan's population. After Babri Masjid demolition, Hindus faced large
scale persecution in Pakistan. There were protests in Islamic nations in the
neighborhood, along the gulf and even in Britain. Anti-Hindu
riots raged in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iran. Indian diplomats came under
attack in these countries. There were demonstrations outside the Indian Embassy
in Teheran.
In Pakistan municipal bulldozers had been used to
destroy temples and the Government and the police forces connived in the
attacks on Hindus. In Karachi, mobs led by Muslim fanatics destroyed almost all
the temples in the city and ransacked Hindu localities. A procession led by the
Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam leader in Lorallai burnt six women and children to death.
There was carnage of Hindus in the far flung areas of Baluchistan.
Benazir Bhutto blamed the Babri Masjid incident on
Nawaz Sharif's poor foreign policy and boasted that had she been in power it
would not have occurred. The Indian consul-general's house in Karachi was
ransacked.
In July 2010, around 60 members of the Hindu
community in Karachi were attacked and evicted from their homes following an
incident of a Hindu youth drinking water from a tap near an Islamic Mosque.
Around 5,000 Hindus migrate from Pakistan to India
and other countries every year due to religious persecution. In all incidents,
religious books of Hindu minority and their places of worship were burnt. Scores
of Hindu women have been abducted in Sindh province and later married to their
kidnappers after forcible conversion. According to Ravi Dawani, general
secretary of the All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat, 99 percent of the abducted Hindu
girls are under 13 years of age.
In Nov. 2014, Hindu temple of Lord Hanuman in Tando
Mohammad
Khan town was torched. After demolition of Bbari Masjid, countless incidents
happened in which Hindus were persecuted in one way or the other but nothing
was done to protect the Hindus in Pakistan.
Persecution
in Bangladesh:
Before becoming a free nation, the Muslim forces of
Pakistan persecuted Hindus in East Bengal. In a report submitted to the US
Senate Judiciary Committee (November 1, 1971) Senator Edward Kennedy confirmed
this persecution of Hindus: “Field reports to the US government, countless
eye-witness journalistic ac-counts, reports of international agencies such as World
Bank and additional information available to the subcommittee document the
reign of terror which grips East Bengal (East Pakistan). Hardest hit have been
members of the Hindu community, who have been robbed of their lands and shops,
systematically slaughtered, and in some places, painted with yellow patches
marked ‘H.’ All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented
under martial law from Islamabad.” India owes a moral responsibility to the
Hindus left behind in Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1947.
While the Muslim minority of India became a part of
a secular republic with equal rights, the Hindu minority of Pakistan and Bangladesh
were relegated to second class citizens’ status. After the Babri Masjid
incident, many temples were attacked in Bangladesh. The miscreants desecrated
all the idols in the temples. The damaged idols were dumped in fields near the
temples. The Muslim thugs also mounted threatening notes on the walls and left hand
written flyers that Hindus must stop worshiping idols otherwise they will have
to face bomb attacks.
Millions of Hindus have been killed, looted, raped,
brutally tortured, evicted phase by phase since 1971 onwards in Bangladesh. One
Crore Hindus were massacred by Pakistan Army in Bangladesh Liberation War in
1971. Dozens of Hindu temples came under attack in Pakistan and Bangladesh after
the demolition of the Babri mosque in India. If that demolition was wrong, then
attacks on Hindu temples in Pakistan and Bangladesh were wrong as well.
The persecution of Hindus still goes on freely in
Muslim nations. Our thousands of temples were demolished at different places.
But no media covers this story. One mosque was demolished and it became a
“national shame”. Demolition of temples did not stop in these nations. In 2014
hundreds of angry Pakistanis attacked a Hindu temple and set it on fire in
southern Pakistan following a rumour that a member of the Hindu community had
desecrated the Koran. The Hindu Panchayat Council, a representative body of
Hindu minorities, later appealed to Hindus to keep a low profile while
celebrating their festivals like Holi and Diwali.
This is the situation of Hinduism in our own country
and in neighboring countries. Now, the question rises that was one mosque more
important than thousands of temples and idols demolished with in India and
outside India too. If demolishing one mosque was a national shame then why
demolishing temples is not a shame or crime? Why people involved in attacking
Hindus are declared mob and no action is taken? Why media does not cover such
incidents taking place?
All these questions need to be answered. But that
will happen only when Hindus themselves stand up against such misdeeds.
Courtesy: http://tribune.com.pk/story/475964/babri-mosque-demolition-tight-security-in-ayodhya-20-years-after-riots/
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http://archive.tehelka.com/,
http://www.hindustantimes.com/,
http://www.frontline.in/,
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime,
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