l'uomo che mantiene la pace

[stuart mill]

MUFTI MOHAMMAD Ismail (44), Imam (head priest) of Malegaon’s largest mosque, the Jama Masjid, had just finished the Friday prayers at 2.15 pm on that fateful day last week, when bombs ripped through the powerloom township. Hearing the commotion, he rushed out. “I saw people talking excitedly about the blasts. Many were agitated and had started attacking police vehicles,” says Ismail.
In no time, Malegaon was on the brink of another communal flare-up. Sensing that the situation was getting out of hand, the police approached Ismail requesting him to accompany them on a quick tour of the township to appeal to people to maintain calm.
Ismail and his colleague Maulana Muhammed Zahir Nadvi (37) went around in a police jeep appealing for peace. They also requested people to donate blood to the blast victims. “People were angry at the inadequate security arrangements. We pacified them,” says Nadvi.
With the township’s troubled past and record of communal riots, it was Ismail and other community leaders like him who ensured that anger did not spill out on the streets this time. Agrees Inspector General of Police (IGP) S.P. Jain: “The local maulanas have been a huge help in keeping peace.” Two days after the September 8 blasts, when a 2,000-strong mob blocked the roads demanding the arrests of the culprits, Nadvi, Ismail and Maulana Abdul Bari of Hamidiya Mosque, where the blasts occurred, joined Superintendent of Police Rajvardhan in appealing for calm. As Rajvardhan stood facing the irate crowd, the 60-year-old Bari and Ismail stood by his side, trying to ensure that the crowd’s anger did not result in violence.
Similarly, on Wednesday, when two unidentified packages were found abandoned at a place close to a mosque and a madrassa, things seemed to be spiralling out of control. Again it was Ismail who joined the police in keeping the crowds at bay and ensuring that the area was cordoned off.
Says Nadvi: “People are fed up of communal disturbances. They want development. The police, too, have tried to make people understand the futility of violence. And Malegaon, perhaps for the first time in its troubled history, has stayed calm.” He adds: “People have realised that the terrorists want to create disturbances in the country and now, they don’t want them to succeed.”

[stuart mill]

fonte hindustan times edizione di Mumbai