Jamaat-e-Islami Hind expresses concern over Law and Order Failure in many part of India.

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Delhi has expressed extreme concern over the violence in Manipur, the failure of the Haryana government to stop the violence in Nuh, Gurugram and the killing of passengers by RPF jawans.

Report : Moin Ahmed Khan, Correspondent ITN :

New Delhi, 5th August, 2023: Today Jamaat-e-Islami Hind organized a press conference and expressed serious concern over the prolonged violence in Manipur in the Northeast, failure of the state government in preventing violence in Nuh and Gurgaon districts of Haryana, cold-blooded murder of three passengers and a Railway Protection Force (RPF) jawan on a running train in Maharashtra, missing of lakhs of women in the last few years and gagging of media.

JIH vice president Prof. Mohammad Salim Engineer expressed his deep concern over the distressing and tragic situation unfolding in Manipur. The violence in Manipur highlights several issues that minorities in India face, including insecurity, increased discrimination and marginalization and lack of representation in governance and political space. The government must be held accountable for its failure to protect minorities from violence, the use of discriminatory language and policies against them; the lack of opportunities in education, employment, and the absence of any efforts to counter the prevalence of stereotypes and prejudices against minorities in the state.

National Secretary Mohammad Shafi Madani expressed deep concern regarding the communal violence that erupted in Haryana. The violence in Sohna and Nuh, Haryana, which resulted in the loss of six lives, including two home guards, was triggered by a procession organized by a pro-Hindutva organization. The use of religious processions to provoke and perpetuate violence is highly condemnable. Such attempts to foment communal clashes are both predatory and suicidal and aimed to garner political mileage through communal polarization. JIH demands adequate compensation for the families of those killed, including Maulana Saad, an Imam at Gurugram’s Sector 57 mosque, who was murdered, and the mosque was set ablaze during the violence. JIH calls for an immediate high-level enquiry into the matter and strict action against police officials who failed to protect the citizens despite prior intelligence. Jamaat also expresses concern over the biased arrests of random Muslim youth instead of apprehending the real culprits responsible for the violence. A delegation of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, led by its national secretary Maulana Shafi Madani, visited Gurugram, Haryana to assess the situation. The delegation met with Gurugram Police Commissioner Kala Ramachandran.

JIH feels that the situation in Gurugram is a failure of intelligence and coordination with the police department. There is a climate of impunity in Haryana as anti-social elements indulge in violence because they feel assured that no action would be taken against them as they enjoyed political patronage. JIH calls for serious efforts towards the initiation of dialogue across communities and strict action to be taken against anti-social elements fomenting violence.

Malik Moatasim Khan condemned the cold-blooded and targeted shooting of three citizens belonging to the Muslim community and an officer of RPF on a running train by an Indian Railways Protection Force (RPF) constable. Reports about the accused praising the Prime Minister and the UP Chief Minister after the killing as extremely troubling and damaging. The climate of hate and malice in the country has been created by the policies of exclusion, majoritarianism, division, hate and polarisation further exacerbated by a pliant media, jingoistic films, literature and books leading to such incidents.

Secretary (women’s wing) Rahmathunnissan A expressed grave concern over the report, compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) that from 2019 to 2021, a staggering number of girls and women, surpassing 13.13 lakh, went missing across the country. According to the Union Home Ministry, 10,61,648 women over 18 years old and 2,51,430 girls below the age of 18 were reported missing during this period. Madhya Pradesh accounted for the highest number of missing females, with nearly two lakhs reported missing, closely followed by West Bengal.

The report highlights that in Madhya Pradesh, 1,60,180 women and 38,234 girls went missing, while in West Bengal, 1,56,905 women and 36,606 girls were reported missing between 2019 and 2021. Other states also recorded alarming numbers of missing girls and women. In Maharashtra, 1,78,400 women and 13,033 girls went missing during the said period. It appears that calls for “Beti Bachao” remain election slogans and various initiatives by the government like the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, that imposes more stringent penalties, including the death penalty, for the rape of girls under the age of 12, is not having the desired effect. Similarly, initiatives like the Emergency Response Support System with a single internationally recognized number (112) for all emergencies, Safe City Projects, the cybercrime reporting portal and the National Database on Sexual Offenders were launched to facilitate the tracking and investigation of sexual offenders across the country by law enforcement agencies, appear to have limited success.

Jamaat calls upon the people of India to avoid treading the path of the West, which deprived women of their true dignity in the name of freedom and liberty. Women must get their due rights and be empowered but not at the cost of their modesty and distinctive role in the family.

Prof. Salim also expressed grave concern over the recent Lokniti-CSDS media survey. The survey reveals that 82% of journalists think their employers support the ruling party. The mental and physical health of journalists is not in good shape, and around 75% of journalists are anxious about losing their jobs. 70% of journalists experience mental stress. The accusation that the present political dispensation is trying to choke the media and prevent it from discharging its duty as a watchdog of democracy, can be attested by the finding that 16% of respondents disclosed that their colleagues had to leave their jobs due to their political leanings, while over half of the journalists expressed concerns about potential job loss based on their political views. In the digital media sphere, 69% of journalists believed that the coverage of opposition parties was unfavourable.

26% fully agreed that news media unfairly targets the Muslim community, while an equal percentage fully disagreed. The report raised concerns about the proliferation of fake news online, with nearly three-fourths of journalists expressing serious concern about encountering inaccurate information on social media. The survey also uncovered instances of online harassment and trolling. 64%t of respondents reported experiencing harassment at least once, with digital journalists being more likely to encounter such abuse (78%) compared to TV (55%) and print journalists (54%). Additionally, more than half of female respondents felt extremely unsafe about their privacy on Twitter and Facebook, and they perceived more significant risks compared to their male counterparts while using WhatsApp. Some of the findings in the report reveal the current media ecosystem in India and corroborate our poor standing in the World Press Freedom Index.

The press conference addressed by JIH Vice-presidents Prof. Mohammad Salim Engineer and Malik Moatasim Khan, national secretary Mohammad Shafi Madani, national secretary(women’s wing) Mrs Rahmathunnissan A etc.