She said, “I know that this is worse than it looks. It is overwhelming, but you can’t let it break you. If you break apart, who will look after all these people? You are their DSP; they need you now more than ever to be their strength.”
He nodded and put his hand on top of hers and then looked ahead. He got up and put his hands on Aditi’s shoulders.
“Look, just go back and rest. It is bad enough that you had to see all this on your first day here,” Ali said, “Where are you staying?”
“I am staying right here,” she replied, “I didn’t come here to rest. I want to help. You are helping these people, making sure that they are safe and I am here for you.” She looked into his eyes and smiled.
He took a deep breath, and then said to her, “Okay, check on the relief work, make sure all the people are getting medical attention and emergencies are being transported to the hospital immediately. I will talk to the fire department; get an update on the fire situation.”
They both hurried over to check on things and stabilize the situation while bright flames still engulfed the night sky.
~*~
Fortunately, everything was under control in a matter of a few hours. Fires had been extinguished, keeping the foundation of the other buildings still intact. There were more casualties under the debris, but most of the people were recovering in hospitals. The builder was very helpful, and they set up shelters for all the people in the two buildings that Ali was talking about.
Experts employed by the builder were there, inspecting the damage the next day so that they could plan repairs immediately. Ali had discussed with the SP, and he had assured him that relief work was already underway. Ali hadn’t slept the whole night and stayed on the move to make sure that the proper authorities were present with the required aid whenever necessary.
He had also dispatched the policemen all over the city to gather Intel. They were looking especially for the Prasad brothers as Ali was sure that something like this wouldn’t even touch the ground without going through them. It felt to him though that there was more to the story because Laxman would die before getting linked to this type of heat. He had to know the whole story, but he was glad that the worst part was over.
Little did he know that although they had stopped the fire from last night, some sparks were still flying which were slowly trying to ignite a whole other issue.
Ali had come back to his office in the early morning hours when everything was much stable. He had crashed onto his desk when one of his inspectors arrived with troubling news.
Several groups of the Muslim community were standing outside the Hindu homes, and grocery and other shops. They were holding colored banners in some kind of protest and shouting and uttering curses in unison.
“When did it start?” Ali asked, holstering his gun.
“About an hour ago,” the inspector reported.
“And you are telling me now?” Ali’s eyes widened. The inspector replied, “I didn’t think it could be something like this. I thought people were just out for some supplies or food.”
Aditi came in, “Wha- what happened? Is everything okay?”
“Something has come up; I need to check it. They need me there,” he replied. “I will be back soon.”
“Do you need me there?” she asked, “I will come with you.”
He put his hands on her shoulders, “No, you stay here and rest, okay? They just need to run something by me; it is nothing.” He smiled and added, “You have done a lot, and you need some rest. Do you want me to book you a hotel room?”
“No, no, I am fine here,” she smiled back.
Ali whispered to Manoj on his way out, “Gather as many officers as you can in the station and they should be ready with riot gear. You three, you are coming with me,” he ordered three of his officers, and they left in his jeep.
It was not looking good when he arrived at the scene. A huge mob was gathered at the small market inside the housing complex with banners and was shouting which was indistinct until Ali reached the mob.
“We already knew you couldn’t stand us, we were living with that but why attack us?”
“Did you really have to stoop so low to commit the act of murder and destruction? Allah will never forgive you!”
It was alarming as some were even carrying hockey sticks and bats which Ali saw as he was crossing the mob with his officers to come between them and the shops. The shop owners and other people also gathered together and started retaliating back.
They were saying, “Why are you behaving like a bunch of idiots? You have been coming to our shops since forever, right? You have been working with us in this community forever. How can we pull something like this off? Packaged bombs? Setting fire to houses? Why would we do that if you think logically?”
One of the people in the crowd shouted, “Because you want to drive us out of here, you don’t like living with us. The discrimination never ceased, did it?”
People agreed in unison and started shouting comments aggressively. Some of them waved their hockey sticks angrily, and a few others picked up and threw rocks at the Hindu shop owners. Some of the people got hit and fell down, bleeding.
“Hey!” Ali shouted through a megaphone, standing in front of the crowd along with his officers who launched into the mob to hold the people who had thrown the stones.
He continued, “Have you all gone mad? What is this outburst about? Are you proud of yourselves? Your family is suffering, maybe hungry after the grave tragedy of last night, and rather than attending to them, you are fighting a completely unnecessary battle here.”
“Ali Bhaijaan, but they-” one of them started, but Ali cut in, “They what, huh? Do you have any proof? Are you the police here?”
There was a pause, then Ali said, “Aslam bhai, you too? You are the most sensible and mature person I have ever met. I have myself learned a lot from you. I respect you a lot.”
A middle-aged man from the crowd said, “But we do not know what to make sense of anymore after last night. We have lost many of our loved ones; many are still fighting for their lives in the hospital.”
“And when they recover and come back?” Ali continued, “What will they see here? Will they feel good when their loved ones have died in mob fights here? This was a result of some sophisticated planning. I have my best people on this case to get to the bottom of it. At least let me get some answers, will you?”
Some of the crowd nodded, but the man held by Manoj pushed him away and shouted, “Leave me, don’t touch me,” he then turned to Ali and said, “Really Bhaijaan, I am surprised you are taking this so lightly. I saw you last night. The death and destruction affected you so much, doesn’t it anger you? These people never could bear the likes of us, and you can’t deny that they might not be involved to drive us away from our homes, from our Jannat. Yes, listen to us carefully, you pricks! This is our home, and it is you who should go.”
Many of them shouted again in agreement. The crowd had gone dense at the Hindus side as well as many had joined to aid the injured, and the anger was rising. A few people of the Hindu mob had been stopping the rest from bursting out up until now and let Ali speak. That changed though after they heard that man’s statement and Ali’s voice drowned in the noise of the arguments.
“Listen, everyone,” he shouted desperately into the megaphone, “Please calm down. I told you, we are on the case.”
“Waah! Ali Bhaijaan, waah!” another man spoke into a megaphone as well. He got the attention of the mob and they turned to see that Laxman was leaning on his car with the megaphone and Mangal was smiling from behind the wheel. They had several of their goons with them and what looked like their own mob of residents.
He continued, “You appear to be protecting all of us, but at the end of the day, you have shown us that you could be as discriminative as the rest of them. Just what is expected, blame the Hindu local gang because he won’t blame the Muslims.”
The brothers’ mob was also looking enrag
ed which could be the result of manipulation. The shop owners and other people who had gathered before and those who had got injured, all of them started joining the new group.
Someone from the previous mob retorted loudly, “Do you seriously mean that we killed our own people?”
“What makes you believe that some of our Hindu brothers didn’t get killed?” Mangal remarked this time, “And how could we know about what you all could be capable of? You talk about this being your home? Well, India is our home so you are the ones who should leave it.”
This remark gave way to a dangerous outburst of rage between the Hindu and Muslim brothers of the community, and the mobs which had now gradually grown were shouting curses and throwing things at each other, shaking the banners and weapons vigorously.
Ali had to load a rubber bullet and fire his gun at the sky to demand silence, making most of them gasp and run in panic to take cover. Then he screamed, “STOP IT, stop it, all of you. Look around you, what have we done to this happy community in mere minutes. Please stop this fight and let us solve this case. You don’t want to listen to them; they will manipulate you to their agenda. They don’t care at all. Manoj, take them into custody.”
Unknowingly, Ali had drawn the last straw. Before Manoj could proceed, Mangal shouted, “Look, look, still arresting us and no word to his own people. Are you still going to stay quiet and bear this humiliation, just get them already!” he barked to the crowd.
It had now gone beyond words and small projectiles, and Ali and Manoj were thrown in the middle as the mobs charged against each other with deadly intentions.
“Get a team here with riot gear, as many officers as you can,” Ali said, before getting a bat straight to his face, which knocked him down.
As he lay down on his right elbow among the crowd pinching his throbbing nose to stop the blood, he could faintly see thumping of footsteps all around him, some of them running over him on the way to thrash each other. He rolled over a few meters and lay spread-eagled with a burning pain on the left side of his forehead where he felt a nasty gash. His vision was much clouded, and all around him was a blur before his eyes closed.
~*~
A week passed and the madness grew to such a level that the news reached the capital. Aditi wrote a bunch of articles which had helped get the attention of Devraj Singh, a minister from Delhi. People were getting the word that he was planning a major peace-keeping and relief operation here.
Till then, the police could not even focus on the bombing case. It remained a mystery while people died, more homes and cars burnt, properties got damaged, and Ali felt helpless. He had more bruises than one could count but he refused to go the hospital and kept running and fighting for what seemed like the losing side. Aditi was there to support him at every step of the way and had lost track of her own agenda of finding Suresh. She was running her own campaigns so that she could bring some sense of peace into people but couldn’t improve the situation. Laxman and Mangal could nowhere be found. People were terrified; nobody had witnessed something that big in a small city like Mirzapur.
Ali visited SP’s office for the umpteenth time, this time furiously flinging open the door.
“Have you lost all manners and teachings?” the SP barked, “What is your problem?”
“That is it,” Ali replied, breathing heavily, “I can’t say about myself. If I talk about you though-”
“You choose your next words very wisely, boy,” the SP warned.
“I have given it some thought, if you must know,” Ali started, “I think you are part of the conspiracy too. You aren’t causing anything directly though; you are just doing your job of turning a blind eye when their gang wreaks havoc.”
“You dare accuse me? You think I knew about the blasts?” the SP said slowly.
“I don’t know,” Ali replied, “But I am getting little to no help from your side, and that makes me wonder where does your loyalty lie?”
“I think you should take leave for a few days and clear your head. Otherwise, you will keep getting these crazy ideas,” the SP said, “You are dismissed.”
~*~
The city saw hope when Devraj arrived himself and worked with the government to implement his plan to develop a task force for his operations. His team not only had officers of the law but a team of officials from public relations especially trained for this sort of situation.
His work began at the start of April and forces were already controlling the mobs so that the PR officials can talk to the people directly. A city-wide curfew came in effect; force was being used on the mobs but only to calm them using assurances that any and all of their demands would be heard in a session with a PR official. He even involved Ali and Aditi in his team as he knew so much about their efforts. Ali led the peacekeeping task force, and Aditi was made a key member of their PR team.
Within the second week, Devraj was already in correspondence and meetings with the protest leaders in order to hear their needs so that the violence could stop. He talked to them himself along with PR advisors from both communities and party leaders inside private rooms ignoring that even his life could be in danger, making them realize that even they don’t want this getting uglier and that they wouldn’t have wanted this life of riots for their family.
He promised resources and relief effort as long as they needed and showed them the good figures of donation collection which he had already started nation-wide. He had to aim for a wider reach as the damage report from the bombings and subsequent weeks of riots which had caused more destruction of property and loss of human life, were too extensive. They were shown how the people were ready to provide help in any way they could to the injured and homeless, regardless of different communities. Government and general public spoke their heart out in surveys and contributed whatever they could.
Devraj’s campaign made the protest leaders get teary-eyed and hug each other and forget the discrimination based on religion. They remembered that they used to be like brothers under the same roof and stayed under the unity of love. They surrendered to the law and arrests followed of all the people involved.
A stage was organized at the Jannat housing playgrounds where Devraj gave a speech, “Namaste, Mirzapur ke waasiyon! It is really a sight for sore eyes that so many of you are standing here together before me. It is quite overwhelming, to be honest, but in a good way. I know that the past several weeks have been hard and we lost a lot of our brothers and sisters in the midst of all the violence. I admit and feel bad that I was not here for the worst part, but I used to feel it every second as I was getting updates of the situation here.”
Devraj fell silent for a few seconds, then continued, “Then I decided to make it my mission to make things right and that I couldn’t do if I wasn’t at the holy heart of this place which is Vindhyachal,” people broke into a short applause, then Devraj continued again, “and look at us now, we have shelters set up for people, ongoing treatment is free, and many of them have recovered. We have so much of donations coming in from all over the nation for relief supplies, and I am still here seeing it through to completion. It will take time, my friends but like all of you brothers and sisters standing beside each other, if we work unitedly, we can restore Mirzapur to its former holy glory as one of the lands of the Ganges. Now, who is with me?”
There were loud cheers of acknowledgment and thunderous applause from the crowd. When it fell silent again, Devraj smiled and looked at Ali and Aditi and said, “Lastly, I have a few very important people to thank as this would not have been possible without their contribution, the Mirzapur government officials who worked hand in hand with me to facilitate my plan, their police force and their public relations team which worked with our capital’s own. Last but not the least, I would like to commend the two very important people who contributed a whole lot selflessly when I had not yet arrived and even after, our Hon’ble DSP Mohammad Ali who led our brave police task force and Aditi Mehta, a successful journalist from Delhi, who worked tir
elessly with my PR team to maintain peace and see that the people’s needs were met whenever required. Come forward, please!”
They both couldn’t believe that it was all over as they came forward and Devraj honored them with medals. It brought tears to their eyes, but they were of happiness, an emotion which had seemed long lost.
~*~
Riots cause havoc; hope in Devraj’s movement
New plant of Alchemist Industries had to stop operations and evacuate; employees safe
Local gang leaders Laxman and Mangal Prasad found dead; victims of the riot?
There were no limits to my shock as I kept reading from article to article. Aditi never mentioned that this had gone so serious.
Devraj’s peace and relief effort with the protest leaders and meeting their demands worked out for the best of the city. It would have taken time and effort to rebuild and get to normal lives, but they had already begun.
It didn’t turn out good for the DSP though. As per one report, some questionable clips turned out in which though he may be trying to broker peace in the community but they were made to look bad in the PR as though he was instigating and entertaining the riots.
One of them was his clip of accusing the local Hindu gangsters of their role in the blasts. Others had him in physical conflicts with groups to stop them from rioting, but it was made to look as though he was clashing with the Hindu people. I couldn’t find those videos anywhere though.
DSP Mohammad Ali suspended by the SP of Mirzapur – An ugly truth of bureaucracy
Aditi Mehta
Mirzapur, April 24, 2016
I dropped all the articles and slumped on the floor.
“Find anything?” John’s voice brought me back, and I looked sideways at him as he stood there, looking concerned.
“No! This is bugging me now. It is the strangest thing, just take a look. Everything substantial which is present online and which I have come across even using some of Tia’s tricks, it all comes up heavily redacted. Even his name, for god’s sake, he is a DSP, and there is no official mention of his full name too. There are only bits and pieces in the newspaper articles with a lot of missing parts; I can’t put this together,” I sighed heavily.
Death and Dishonor Page 17