Curfew in Hyderabad Old City

The riots in the old city of Hyderabad started during the weekend and it is continuing unabated despite the presence of 10,000 police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) Personnel.
2 persons were killed and more than 50 people, including women and children are injured in the riots.


One of the casualty was identified as K Satyanarayana, a 22-year-old cash collector for a private organization who was stabbed by unidentified persons at Kilwat near Charminar on Monday afternoon. He was rushed to the nearby Esra hospital where he was declared dead. They are a poor labour family which migrated from Medak District to the City. He is a sole earning member of the family.

According to the police, at least 14 houses were looted and one house burnt in Aliabad by the rampaging mob. Twelve vehicles, both government and private, were burnt or destroyed in the day's violence while stone pelting was reported from Shamsher Gunj, Aliabad, Lal Darwaza, Shalibanda, Kilwat, Charminar bus stop, Moghulpura and Hari Bowli. In a couple of places, the police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the violent mob.


In all, 16 persons were admitted to Osmania General Hospital on Monday with stab injuries and another six with head injuries. "The condition of two of them is critical," OGH duty RMO Mohammed Rafi said. Since Saturday night, 80 persons have been treated at the hospital.

The government imposed an indefinite curfew in all the 17 police stations falling under the South Zone police limits in the Old City effective 7 PM on Monday.


This is how it started:

Muslims have put up banners on a huge scale on account of Milad-ul-Nabi (birthday of Prophet Mohammad) and they have not removed the banners. Hindus wanted to put up their own banners on occasion of the birthday of Lord Rama and for today's birthday of Lord Hanuman. So, they started removing the banners put up by Muslims as their festival had already passed away.

Trouble started when Muslims objected to this. They thrashed the Hindus who were putting up the banners and also ransacked the Hanuman Temple nearby. This enraged Hindus and thus the trouble started. Police reached and cooled down the tempers but once they left the place, trouble again started.


It spread to entire old city within a very short span of time. Hyderabad is witnessing curfew almost after 6 years.

List of Riots in Hyderabad past two decades:

* Heavy competition between the Muslim fundamentalist party, Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (MIM) and Hindu Nationalist, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led to riots during the 1983 elections. 4 people died while 17 people were injured during these riots.

* Riots broke out during Ganesh Nimarjan Procession in 1984 in which curfew was imposed in 50 police station limits throughout the city. 12 people perished in those riots while more than 60 were injured.


* In 1990, famous rowdysheeter, Mohammad Sardar was killed during a police encounter. Riots started on a very very large scale and the then Chief Minister, Mr.Chenna Reddy declared on the floor of the house that politicians opposing him are behind these riots. In these riots, more than 150 people were killed while more than 500 were injured. Curfew was imposed throughout the city for more than 20 days !!

During that time, people in our galli in Ram Nagar area spent sleepless nights voluntarily patrolling the area and trying to secure it from rioters. Local police also helped us during the patrolling. Couple of streets away, local Muslims were patrolling their areas. Pretty tense situation.


* Curfew was again imposed for two days in 1992 during Ganesh Nimarjan. During those years, it was quite common to see Muslims throwing stones on Ganesh processions !!

* In the same year 1992, 5 people were killed when protesters were marching against the destruction of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh State.

* 144 Section was promulgated during the Ganesh Nimarjan Processions in 1995 to control riots.

* In 1997, two people were killed during protests commemorating the destruction of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992.

* In June 1998, some people distributed pamphlets denigrating "some religion". Riots started immediately in which 5 people were killed. Curfew was imposed for 4 days.

* In December 2003, riots broke out in Kishenbagh. One person died due to stab wounds.

* In the same year, riots broke out when Muslims took out a protest march commemorating the Babri Masjid demolition. 5 people were killed and more than 30 injured. Curfew was imposed throughout Old City.

* Between 2008-2009, small scale riots broke out in the areas of Chintal Basti, Habib Nagar, Asif Nagar and Madannapet.


Role of Police:

Earlier, only people from Hyderabad who know the local culture, politics and geo-political situation were made as Circle Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors. That was put away by the Government and it hired non-locals who have a very poor understanding of the areas. These are from the Andhra regions who have very little or no knowledge of the city and also the language.

Police personnel themselves donot know lot of areas under their jurisdiction. If that is the case then what sort of policing they would do ??

This shows Government's utter lack of responsibility in taking care of the security situation in the state capital.

Role of Politicians:

It is common knowledge that Hyderabad is ruled by the Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (MIM) and its goons. Since this Muslim fundamentalist party supports the "Secular" Congress Party Government, they were given a very very free hand.

This party believes to bring back the rule of Nizam to the city of Hyderabad when Muslims ruled over their Hindu subjects. The Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA's) of this party act as a pure rowdy sheeters. They attack those who criticize them with impunity.

They also attack anyone whom they believe they are against Islam. They are also against any sort of development in the city. While the Pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA, Mr.Kishan Reddy agreed to relocate Temples which are obstructing traffic, MIM simply said they are against any relocation of Mosques.


Roads in the Nampally, Darusalam, Jambagh and MJ market areas have the most numbers of religious structures. For instance there are 53 places of worship on the 1.5 km stretch between Ek Minar Masjid and Darusalam road, a city planner said.

Likewise, 38 religious structures stand in the way of widening of roads at Asif Nagar, Langer Houz, Toli Chowki, Puranapul, and Lakdikapul area. On the 1.5 km stretch between Purnapul and Toli Mosque at Karwan, there are 31 religious structures.


MIM president and MP, Mr Asaduddin Owaisi, who was educated in London says, “We will oppose the move to even relocate mosques. The Central and the State Wakf Acts stand as protection to existing mosques. First, let the officials come out with a list of religious structures that have been constructed illegally and those that have existed for decades with proper documents,” he said.

Being born in Hyderabad is a bad luck when we are people like Owaisi ruling us. The sad part is people still vote to the Congress Party despite the fact that they support fundamentalist parties like MIM and call themselves "Secular".

Thanks to: Eenadu & Times of India

Telangana Muslims back Separate Statehood; but MIM Keeps Quiet

Even as the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the Muslim political party with tremendous clout in Hyderabad, still keeping its cards on Telangana issue close to its chest, several other Muslim organisations have become active in support of the Telangana state.

Though Muslims in Hyderabad's old city, the bastions of the MIM are largely silent and aloof from the one month long agitation for Telangana state, the minority community members were participating in large numbers in protests and processions in other nine Telangana districts.


As the well established organisations like Jamat-e-Islami have declared their full support to Telangana on the grounds that smaller states will be helpful in providing good governance, several other Muslim groups like Muslim Forum for Telangana and Telangana Muslim Front have also come up to spearhead the movement.

The issue of Muslim participation in Telangana movement has always been sensitive and crucial as they constitute nearly 20 per cent of the four crore population of the region and were mostly concentrated in Hyderabad and other urban centers like Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Warangal, Karimnagar, Adilabad and Nalgonda.

Abdul Rahman Al Attas, the former Telangana Rashtra Samithi member of Legislative Council sought to dispel the impression that Muslims as a community were opposed to Telangana state.

"This is untrue. Muslims like the other people of Telangana region want Telangana state as their rights will be more secure and they will get back their due share in government jobs," he said.

He said that a Muslim Minority Joint Action Committee on Telangana was leaving for New Delhi on Saturday to meet Union home minister P Chidambaram , finance minister Pranab Mukherji and other senior leaders to spell out the stand of Muslims in favour of Telangana.

The MIM, which has one seat in Lok Sabha and seven in the state assembly, is among the eight recognised political parties of the state invited for the January 5 talks by the Central government. "We will not come out with our stand in the very first meeting as it will be a prolonged process," said the MIM president and Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi .


Even as nearly 90 legislators of different political parties in Telangana region announced their resignations to mount pressure on the Central government to form the state, MIM has kept silent and the party has made no such announcement.

MIM has traditionally been opposed to the division of Andhra Pradesh and formation of Telangana state on the ground that separate Telangana state will be more fertile ground for the Bharatiya Janata Party and other 'communal forces' and the people from Andhra and Raayalseema regions were 'more secular' than those of Telangana.

"If Telangana is formed, politically it will be beneficial for my party as it can win 15 to 20 seats in a 119 member assembly. But we are not looking at the issue from the angle of political benefit. We feel that it will not be in the interest of Muslim minority. BJP can never think of coming to power in an integrated Andhra Pradesh but they will have a chance in separate Telangana," Owaisi had said a few months ago.

"We are neither for Telangana state nor for a united Andhra Pradesh. We are just saying that when they sit for discussion to decide the fate of the state, MIM should have chair at the table and Muslims as a stakeholders should be heard," he had said.

But with the mounting pressure on the Central government from pro-Telangana forces and inclination in the Centre to positively consider the demand, the MIM is a bit worried about the future.

Jamat-e-Islami Hind's Amir chief of Andhra Pradesh Malik Moatasim Khan declaring Jamat's support to Telangana movement dismissed the fear of communal forces becoming communally strong and said that the communal forces were present all over the country and Jamat along with other forces will fight against them.


"The issue now is not that of creating political consensus on formation of Telangana. But now the time has come to think of the development of the Telangana state," he said, adding that the Central government does not have any option but to form Telangana state.

Movement for Peace and Justice, another active organisation, has come out in its support and said Telangana state should be formed on the basis of justice.

Sources: Rediff.com