The Hindu : Frenzy leaves its scar on him

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 17, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Frenzy leaves its scar on him

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD July 16. Only for namesake he's Bheem. For, this frail teenager does not have the frame of the legendary warrior. He is, in fact, yet to recover from the knife injury inflicted on him allegedly by a hotel owner that almost sparked a major communal conflagration in the twin cities early last month.

``It's still painful and the doctors have been changing the bandage every week. They have assured me that my wrist will become normal again,'' says Bheem. Though he appears calm the thought of the bread slicer coming down at him still sends a shiver down his spine.

``It was aimed at my neck but fortunately, I avoided and got hit on my wrist,'' he recalls. Bheem insists that the fracas was only because the waiters abused him for a silly reason upon which Mir Alam Ali pounced on him and his two friends, Vijay and Sanjay.

After that a complaint was filed by his Mangar community leaders at the Humayunagar police station and he was sent to the hospital where he spent a month recuperating.

The communal tension, stone peltings, killing of Majlis leader Ghouse and so on followed soon after.

Bheem relived his horrific tale along with 13 others before the K. Padmanabha Goud Committee enquiring into the communal incidents of the Old City in June during the one-man panel's sitting inside the Mangarbasti of Afzalsagar here on Wednesday.

In contrast to the depositions made on the first day at Habeebnagar, the Mangar community people blamed the Muslim mobs and the hotel owner for the violence. Rena, the sister of the dead Ganga, suffered a head injury during the free-for-all hurling of bottles during the funeral procession, was one of them.

The Mangar people even while claiming that the police "saved them from the mobs'' charge them of not taking action against the Mir Alam Ali. ''It was a fight over a cup of tea and there was nothing communal about it. If only the police acted upon the person responsible for hurting our boy there would not have been any trouble,'' claims U. Shagrid, marshalling his people near the camp site.

A `Maithri' committee member, Satyanarayana, said that the deceased Mohd. Ghouse was injured fatally when he tried to drag the then Habeebnagar Inspector Madhu over arguments on tackling the volatile situation. "When his name plate was ripped off a constable hit him due to which Ghouse fell down. Immediately, a few youth kicked him,'' he claimed. He also alleged that there were several outsiders from among the mob that gathered in the area and started stone pelting. Ram Yadav, a milk vendor, whose house was attacked by the mob, alleged that the deceased had earlier assaulted his brother and father and was a known offender.

Later, the one-man commission held a sitting near the State Bank of India's Agapura branch where those who had suffered loss of their property deposed. These include Venkatesh whose hair saloon was destroyed, Triloknath Sharma whose `chat bandar' shop was gutted, Jagadish Kumar whose car was burnt and others.

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