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No
sight would have been as brutal for a mother than to see her son
lying in a pool of blood , taking his last few breaths. The mother
crying for help to the bystanders and trying to pour the last few
drops of water in his mouth, that which he spills out as the soul is
on the verge of leaving the body. The men and women who have
gathered stare at the blood soaked body of the man, the same man,
Shahid Azmi who was the soul of their colony, Mumbai's taximen
colony, home to predominantly Muslim families. The mothers cry for
help does not yield any response, those gathered just stand still in
a state of inertia , perhaps again waiting for divine intervention
than themselves taking the first step.
These are the people , for whom Shahid Azmi , my dear friend
struggled night and day to get them justice. The same men who the
next day in his funeral procession said loud “Shaheed Ka janaaza hai,
shaan se niklega”. Yes, you called him a martyr, you sported black
bands around your arms, you shouted loud how Shahid Azmi was the
victim of the systems injustice and conspiracies galore, and you
went back home that night to savour a dinner of perhaps dalgosht or
gosht ka saalan. And then you went back in the same state of
inertia.
As I make another frequent trip to the same colony, its been seven
days since the incidence, this time around I do not call Shahid that
I have been caught in a traffic jam and shall be late by ten
minutes. I know my phone call would not be answered. I know nobody
would pick up the call and ask me the first question “How are you
doing?”.
As I walk past the conversation has already changed to
India winning the match against South Africa. The same society which
was seething with anger a week before seems to have reconciled
itself to the justice given to Shahid Azmi. Justice in the form of
three hit-men of the Bharat Nepali gang being arrested. The case is
almost shut. No questions asked. We are asked to be content that
the investigation was done in the most speedy way possible. Within
three days the police was able to nab the killers who were wanted in
earlier cases. Hit-men who were contract killers and had been evading
the police in various other cases suddenly are caught by the police
within three days of committing the crime. And the surprise does not
end here.
The killers after shooting Shahid do not leave the city as per
practice but stay back in the city in fact in the very area as the
shootout took place. And our Mumbai Police’s efficiency does not
stop here. It is so confident that it has arrested the right people
that it does not even bother to call the main witness in the case
‘Inder’ to identify those arrested. The Mumbai Police tells us that
it would now try and impose MCOCA on the accused arrested, the same
law on whose misuse , I and my colleague had done an expose in
Tehelka with the able help of Shahid. Confessions would be taken
again, the accused would spend some time in jail and perhaps get
bail after an year, after which perhaps they might just abscond and
look for another Supari. But where does this investigation which has
been a disgusting eye wash answer the questions? Who was the mind
behind killing Shahid Azmi. What proof does the police have to say
that this act was the mastermind of Bharat Nepali beyond the
confessions of the three arrested? Does the police have any proof to
say that Bharat Nepali, one time most trusted aide of Chhota Rajan
who was even present at his bedside in Bangkok has broken away from
him.
It is no secret that Chhota Rajan has been actively working at
the behest of the IB and the RAW. Does the police have any proof to
negate the fact that Chhota Rajan did not kill Shahid Azmi. The
answer is “No”. Our agencies which have been arresting Muslims in
the name of being terrorists be it in the train blasts or the
Malegaon blasts had been most troubled with the fact that Shahid was
exposing their fake cases and was on the verge of winning a historic
judgment not just in the train blasts case but perhaps also in the
Faheem Ansari case. Would they not be the only ones benefiting from
the death of Shahid Azmi, then a lesser known Bharat Nepali who had
been living a life of convenience in Bangkok and Nepal courtesy
Rajan. Bharat Nepali would in possibility have heard the name of
Shahid Azmi the first time when the orders would have been passed on
to him.
But, who is going to ask these questions?
The media has been busy in
publishing what is being selectively fed to them. In fact after
reading my and my colleagues write up in Tehelka on the case and
Shahid Azmi, a supposedly ‘secular’ journalist friend sent me an SMS “Why is Tehelka hell bent on proving Shahid Azmi to be a hero? I
did not answer for I need not. For I did not need to prove Shahid a
hero. For me he became a hero when he called me late in the night on
the eve of Eid. I had thought it must have been to wish me. In a
very upset tone he said “ Rana, you should do something on the
condition of women convicts in jail”. He gave the example of a lady
convict in the train blast case who was not even given enough cloth
to cover herself to offer namaz. He kept the phone.
An hour later I
got an SMS from him “Eid ul Adha is the Eid of Sacrifice and
commitment to Allahs orders and to the cause of his helpers . Let us
dedicate this Eid to those bravehearts who are fighting injustice
and repression. I wish you Eid Mubarak with all my revolutionary
fervor”. Today as I sit back and read the message again and again, I
just do not know how to stop my tears from flowing.
As I write this,
I am not doing it as a piece of journalistic writing but as a means
of communicating to all those who he fought for to please wake up
from this state of inertia. Please wake up at least now. Shahid saw
perhaps the worst that any individual could see in his life but that
did not deter him. What is deterring you? Speak up. Do not just
cry hoarse while sitting in your drawing room sipping chai that
Shahid's investigation was shoddy and this is what happens to Muslims. Agitate. Demand a judicial probe.
Protest. Write. And take that one
little step and it will make a difference.
I remember one of my last
conversation with Shahid in the beginning of this month at a café
close to Sessions court where he practiced. “Rana , if just one
individual from every family takes that one little step, we wont
need any other help. And I am sure it will happen” he said as if
having a premonition of what was to happen to him. Let Shahid's work
not go in vain. Let not the tears of Shahid's mother go in vain.
As I
left Shahid's room after having sat with his mother a day after the
funeral, she took my hands and whispered “Beta tum apna kaam jaari
karna , Darna mat, Mera Shahid bhi nahi dara beta.”
These
words were not just for me . I was the medium. You , my brethren
were the means.
The writer
is senior journalist and works at present with Tehelka.
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