Jaipur, 22 August 2014: Leaders of eminent civil society organizations on Thursday strongly condemned the malicious move of the Rajasthan Police to malign the image of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and some eminent Muslim businessmen here in the city of Jaipur. While addressing a press conference, they unequivocally deplored the targeting of Muslims. Besides Mohammad Salim Engineer, national secretary of JIH and Dr. M Iqbal Siddiqui, State Media Secretary, Rajasthan JIH, the press conference was addressed by Ms Kavita Srivastava, national secretary, People’s Union For Civil Liberties, Prem Krishna Sharma, State President, PUCL, Sawai Singh, Convener, Sadbhav Manch Rajasthan, and Er. Rashid Husain, State President, Welfare Party of India.

A ‘secret’ letter from the office of Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) carrying serious allegations against a state office bearer of the Jamaat and some prominent businessmen of the city was leaked out to the media last week. The letter claimed that properties of poor and needy Hindus are being purchased in Hindu areas adjacent to Muslim areas and mosques are being constructed upon them. PUCL conducted a probe and found the allegations were baseless, malicious and aimed at creating communal tension in the Pink City.

“This is a completely false and baseless allegation and a conspiracy towards targeting Muslim organisations and prominent Muslims,” said Mohammad Salim Engineer, National Secretary of JIH while addressing the joint press conference.

Mr. Salim said that it is obvious that the motive behind leaking such a letter and getting it published in a newspaper was nothing other than shattering the communal harmony of the state. He said that “this kind of letter is an indication of the communal mentality of our top officials and approach of the communal forces to their offices.”

The letter dated 14 July 2014 was written by ADGP (Intelligence) to the Police Commissioner and Collector of Jaipur, in which he instructed the officials to investigate and act accordingly. The letter said that the poor Hindus living in areas adjacent to the Muslim localities were being allured and their lands being purchased for constructing Masjids. The letter further alleged that a fund has been established under the supervision of Dr. Iqbal of JIH to buy land and construct Masjids on them. The letter also alleged that some prominent Industrialists and other persons are supporters in this effort whose names were also written in the letter and that they conducted regular monthly and weekly meetings in a hotel nearby. However, the letter got leaked and its content appeared in a leading Hindi newspaper on 15 August.

Dr. Iqbal denied any of the allegations mentioned in the letter. He said he was not aware of any mosque that was under construction in the said area.

Ms. Kavita Srivastava presented a fact-finding report before the journalists and said that the letter of the ADGI was “baseless and was trying to create a situation of communal fallout.” She further said that the allegations against Dr. Iqbal were “absolutely fabricated there was no relationship between the Masjids, their committees and Dr. Iqbal and it is sinister to malign Dr. Iqbal and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind as they are the loudest voice against the atrocities to the Muslims.”

The organisations jointly demanded immediate withdrawal of the letter, action against those who maliciously worked on this to target a particular community, certain individuals and the JIH and its workers. They also demanded a probe into how the letter got leaked from the Police Commissioner’s office and came into public domain.