The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Lack of coordination to blame?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 06, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Lack of coordination to blame?

The Naseeruddin arrest affair could have been handled better by the police, writes Marri Ramu.

THE POLICE heaved a sigh of relief as last week's violence during a funeral procession at Saidabad could be contained within hours despite fears of it spreading to the communally sensitive areas in old city.

An analysis of the root cause of the trouble throws up many a question. Could the killing of Mujahid in the firing near the DGP's office have been avoided? Mujahid was allegedly in the mob that tried to free Maulana Naseeruddin against whom the Gujarat police executed a non-bailable warrant (NBW).

The funeral procession of Mujahid turned violent forcing the police to open more than 20 rounds of fire escalating tension in the city. The fact that a mob could assemble at the DGP's office, one of the highly protected places in the State, an d succeed in forcibly releasing an arrested person was indeed startling.

No adequate force

If this raised many an eyebrow, failure of the police to catch an accused, who was being taken away by the mob, puzzled everyone.

Why adequate force was not deployed at the DGP's office while executing the NBW against Naseeruddin? There were already instances of the police facing violent protests when he was arrested earlier.

There obviously was a communication gap among the police agencies. The CID did not inform the city police about the arrival of the Gujarat team to arrest Naseeruddin.

The Gujarat team lay in wait at the CID office and took Naseeruddin into custody when the latter came there to mark attendance.

Even if the CID had opined that there was no need to inform the city police about the cleric's arrest that had the potential of triggering trouble, why steps were not taken to make the arrest a smooth affair was another unanswered question.

It is said that CID officials had posted a platoon of City Armed Reserve at the DGP's office after learning about the Gujarat police party's plan to arrest the cleric.

On seeing the mob at the DGP's office, the Gujarat police van came out through a side gate.

All this confirmed that the police present there noticed the imminent danger, but still did not call in the local police for reasons best known to them.

The crowd allegedly threw stones at the van, barged inside and took Naseeruddin to the traffic signal post near Ravindra Bharati after crossing the road.

It was not understood what the security personnel and the CAR platoon posted at the DGP's office were doing all this while.

Despite the presence of the local platoon, it was the Gujarat police who chased the mob, opened fire, killing Mujahid and recaptured Naseeruddin.

Though Mujahid's family members charged that he was shot at point-blank range, forensic experts confirmed that bullets were fired from distance. Analysing causes of communal riots that broke out on December 6 last, the police opined that slackening of security in the evening gave scope for creating trouble.

The violence consequent on Naseeruddin's arrest seems another such example.

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Lack of coordination to blame?