The Report of the National Minorities Commission (NCM) on the Latehar Hangings in Jharkand severely indicts the Jharkand Police and the Political Class for Failing to Reign in the Gauraksha Samitis who are taking Law into their own hands

Deep and widespread communalisation of sections of the Jharkand police force, and slogans like ‘go-to-Pakistan’ were frequently used by the local police against the Muslims, pointing towards a larger communalisation of the state police, says a report of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) after a team visited Latehar on the brute violence. The report, finalised on May 18 is an indictment of the authorities. Chairperson of the NCM, Naseem Ahmed speaking to Sabrangindia said that the findings contained in the report were self-explanatory. The Report can be read here.

Farida Abdulla Khan member of the team that visited Latehar was categoric. “Sections of the police are seriously implicated,” she told Sabrangindia, “ and there is palpable anger among local Muslim residents against them. “But much more crucial is that this is a communal issue that has been consistently and deliberately fanned politically. So it has to be tackled by the political establishment. The Gau Raksha Samitis etc are on the rampage and unless a clear and direct message from the political establishment is sent out, this kind of violence is not going to stop.

In an incident shockingly reminiscent of the Dadri lynching, a 12-year-old Muslim boy and a Muslim man herding eight buffaloes on their way to a Friday market were beaten up and hanged to death from a tree by suspected cattle-protection vigilantes. The initial report and photographers were pasted on facebook by Ashif Nawaz. The double murders  of the two Muslims [Mazlum Ansari, 32, and Imteyaz Khan] took place in Balumath, Latehar district of Jharkhand on March 18-19.

Mob rule has been the name of the game since the NDA II government came to power.   On April 2, the mutilated body of Mustain Abbas, was found in a drain near Masana village in Kurukshetra, Haryana, after the family belonging to Nai Majra in Uttar Pradesh had spent nearly a month looking for the 27-year-old. Both Jharkand and Haryana are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In what the report terms “brazen communal reaction”, there is an instance where one sub-inspector of the Chandwa police station, Ratan Kumar Singh, who is said to have “physically attacked several of the protestors and used extremely provocative, abusive and communally charged language against the Muslims”. Many local Muslim residents of the area talked about Singh’s communal prejudices and said that his presence at the protest aggravated the violence. Ms Farida Khan pointed out that the Muslims of the area were so angry that the families of the victims refused to take the compensation of one lakh rupees that the state government had announced.
It is almost two months after the gruesome lynching of two cattle traders in Latehar, Jharkhand, that this fact finding report turns the gaze again on this brutal killing that had fallen off the national media map. The NCM has questioned the role of the state police in containing the simmering communal tension in the area. The two NCM members who led the fact finding team, Farida Abdulla Khan and Praveen Davar, found that the police ignored several complaints from the Muslim community against regional cow vigilante groups prior to the incident.

Two cattle traders, Majloom Ansari (32) and Imtiaz Khan (13), were beaten and hanged to death by some cow vigilantes in Jhabbar, Latehar on March 18, 2016 when they were travelling to the nearest fair to sell their cattle. Five men, all allegedly belonging to the local Gau Rakhsha Samiti, have been arrested in the case.

A prominent Hindu seer associated with a cow protection vigilante group is accused of fomenting hatred against cattle traders and directing his followers to target and kill them in Jharkhand’s communally sensitive Latehar district that saw two cattle traders murdered on March 18.  Family members of the victims, Muslim villagers, political leaders and rights activists of Latehar on Monday unanimously held Acharya Gopal Maniji Maharaj, a katha vachak (preacher) of the Bharatiya Gau Kranti Manch, responsible for the gruesome killing of Mazlum Ansari, 32, and Imteyaz Khan, 13.The Hindustan Times  reported that Latehar police have arrested five suspects, including a member of a local cow protection vigilante group, for the murders. Police superintendent Anup Birtharay declared it a criminal incident aimed at looting cash and cattle. But ruling parties are crying foul over the police probe.. “We have concrete information that a few Bajrang Dal activists from Balumath block had recently gone to Delhi to meet the seer,” said Madan Pal, member of a prominent human rights group Jharkhand Jansangram Morcha. He alleged the activists returned on February 28 and carried out the killings.

Recommendations:
(A) Pertaining to the incidents in Hazaribagh
 
1. Loss in each shop/house should be properly assessed and adequate compensation be paid to each victim.
2. State Govt must issue strict instructions to the District Administration to explore if the Ramnavmi celebrations could be restricted to only one day as in other parts of the country.
3. All perpetrators and instigators of violence must be identified and proceeded against as per law and a speedy trial.
4. Mohd Hafeez, whose forearms have been shattered in an attack should be provided urgent medical attention by referring him to AIIMS, Delhi. 

(B) Pertaining to the incidents at Latehar:
1. Adequate compensation should be given to the victims’ families at the earliest possible.
2. All efforts be made to punish the guilty and all those associated with the crime either directly or indirectly.
3. Immediate steps to be taken to monitor the Gau Rakshak Committees and to take serious action against those who are attempting to create communal tensions and encouraging vigilante groups into taking the law into their own hands.
4. The Muslim community must be reassured about their physical safety and protection of their livelihoods.
5. The events of 18/03/2016 should be properly screened and charges against the innocent to be dropped.
6. Serious allegations against Ratan K. Singh Sub-inspector Chandwa Thana be investigated and appropriate action be taken.

Communal police actions
The report was finalised on May 18 and sent to the Jharkand government and the aministration, locally. The Centre’s standard response reportedly has been that this is a ‘state issue’.

The report notes that the police acted in a brazenly communal manner with the protestors who came to file a report after the killings. The protest had turned violent with the police resorting to lathi charge and firing in the air. “When we visited Balumath and Nawada villages from where Ansari and Khan came, the Muslims told us that its anger against the police was cumulative as the local police did not take any action despite their repeated complaints over the last few months against the cow vigilantes. ” Farida Abdulla Khan told Sabrangindia adding that villagers complained that the cow vigilante groups often threatened them to stop their business or face consequences.

She said that the Muslim residents have traditionally been in the cattle trading business. “They bought cattle from the market and sold them on a marginal profit. There is no slaughter involved,” she explained. The report says: “…attacks on the (Muslim) community, especially those dealing with cattle trading, have been taking place and increasing in number and viciousness over the last two or three years. Muslims rearing and trading in cattle are being threatened, harassed and physically attacked, and although they have approached the authorities over this, no action has been taken against any of the perpetrators.”
The report also says that the emergence of Gau Raksha Samitis in the area is a relatively new phenomenon. “The residents mentioned a Baba Gopal Maniji Maharaj from Dehradun who started coming to the region in 2012 and initiated this movement which has since become more widespread… the locals report that at meetings of these committees, there is incitement to hatred and an attempt to target Muslims in the name of protection of cows.”

The findings of the committee are in keeping with reports that cow protection committees are centrally managed  by Hindutva groups spread across India and have come to enjoy political patronage especially in BJP-ruled states.

Noteworthy is that the Jharkhand administration was reluctant to admit the association of the five people arrested with cow vigilante groups. “Gau Raksha Samiti activities are a parallel event and there is no direct link to the killing. The group’s members had assaulted some villagers earlier but there is no direct bearing of this on what has happened now,” Latehar superintendent of police Anoop Birthare had said.  The BJP chief minister Raghubar Das, too, towed the Hindutva line in the aftermath of the Latehar incident. “There is a lot of cattle-smuggling in the area. Just like Uttarakhand, in Jharkhand trafficking cows across the border is not permissible,” he had said in his initial response, while quoting the Jharkhand Bovine Animal Prohibition of Slaughter Act, 2005 that bans cow slaughter and transporting cows outside the state. It was only after it was pointed out that the two cattle traders had not violated the law that he asked his officials to take quick action and prevent such incidents in the future.

The NCM report has recommended that the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation to ensure quick delivery of justice to the aggrieved families. It also says that stern action should to be taken against Ratan Kumar Singh and any one engaged in incitement to communal violence. The team also recommended that compensation for the affected families be increased to 3.5 lakh rupees, already in the state government’s provisions.

Hazaribagh violence
The NCM team also visited Hazaribagh, witness to Hindu-Muslim riots during the Ram Navami procession on April 17. “Over a dozen shops and several vehicles were set ablaze by the mobs. We were told that the puja committees are advised every year to avoid playing songs that are directed against any community. All these check lists are given to them every year and although they agree to abide by these, they circumvent it by using one excuse or the other. Such songs with twisted lyrics were being played for last many years defying the orders of the administration. Though opinion varied, it appears the tenor of the songs played this time was much sharper in their anti-minority bias. A large number of participants consume heavy quantities of liquor which adds to making the situation more aggressive,” the report notes about the Hazaribagh violence.

“The minority community showed us damage that they had to bear because of the riots and that the state administration has not estimated their losses well. No compensation has been paid to them. They also complained that neither the police nor any of the neighbours came to their rescue when their shops and houses were being set on fire,” said Khan.

Communal riots had broken out when the members of a Hindutva group played certain allegedly anti-Muslim songs in the procession. Khan said that just like Latehar, the Muslims of Hazaribagh complained about frequent threats by Hindutva groups. “This ‘go-to-Pakistan’ slogan against Muslims and other such unpronounceable abuses, are slowly being used as the main weapon to attack the minorities in Jharkhand,” said Khan.

The NCM team has recommended adequate compensation for the riot victims and punishment for those who were involved in the riots. In addition, it has instructed the district administrations to “explore if the Ram Navami celebrations could be restricted to only one day as in other parts of the country”. Even in the past, Ram Navami processions have acted as the trigger for communal violence in many parts of the country.
Khan drew parallels between the Jharkhand incidents and the Muzaffarnagar riots and Dadri lynching case. “In all these cases, we have found that the minority community has lost faith in the administration. Despite the fact that they had to live under constant threat, they were absolutely stunned by the way the two persons were killed,” the NCM member said, while talking about the impunity Gau Raksha committee members enjoy in the present times.

That Hindutva groups have gained confidence after the BJP has come to power and enjoy a greater degree of impunity than in the times of the previous government is difficult to disagree with. The BJP-ruled states have increasingly become prone to communal polarisation in the last two years. Even certain BJP parliamentarians have resorted to making  hateful statements against minorities. Given this context, the NCM report pointing to the Jharkhand administration’s complicity in Hindu majoritarian propaganda or even lack of interest in protecting the rights of Muslim citizens is not just significant but a timely reminder of a volatile situation.