‘Dirty Harry’ executions rattle India

INDIA: India has been transfixed by the tale of rogue cops who allegedly shot dead a Muslim husband and wife, falsely accusing the man of plotting to slay the chief minister of Gujarat state.

The Indian press has likened the case to Clint Eastwood’s 1971 vigilante cop thriller “Dirty Harry,” with critics decrying the emergence of police officers ready to take the law into their own hands.

Gujarat’s anti-terrorist squad gunned down Sohrabuddin Sheikh in 2005 in the suburbs of the Hindu-nationalist-ruled state’s largest city, Ahmedabad, claiming he planned to assassinate chief minister Narendra Modi.

The police had alleged Sohrabuddin belonged to the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and wanted to kill the Bharatiya Janta Party leader in revenge for the deaths of Muslims in bloody Hindu-Muslim riots that swept the state in 2002.

One of the accused was reported to have told his subordinates the police were doing “their patriotic duty” in killing people such as Sohrabuddin.

But a petition by his brother in the Supreme Court of India prompted an admission by the state government in March that the killing was a “fake encounter” — or a staged gun battle.

The case is also drawing attention because it took place in Gujarat, which has been seeking to clean up its image since it was the scene of the anti-Muslim riots, which claimed at least 2,000 lives, according to rights groups.

Three top policemen — deputy police inspector general D.G. Vanzara, police superintendent Rajkumar Pandian and police superintendent M.N. Dineshkumar — have since been arrested on charges of murdering Sohrabuddin after he was seized from a bus by plain-clothed police.

Since then, the Gujarat government has admitted before the Supreme Court that Sohrabuddin’s wife, Kauser Bi, was killed shortly afterwards. She was reported to have been killed to silence her as a witness.

Sohrabuddin was no angel — he was accused of being an extortionist and faced charges of murder and kidnapping in Gujarat and other states, according to media reports.

But Indian newspapers say that is not the point. “The bodies of alleged militants become trophies of success in a war against terrorism,” said the Hindustan Times in an editorial on Wednesday.

“This warped reasoning can apply to both a criminal like Sohrabuddin Sheikh as well as a law-abiding citizen like you. It won’t make a difference.”

“Fake encounters” in which police stage killings are nothing new in India, with at least five similar cases coming to light in the revolt-hit state of Jammu and Kashmir earlier this year. Police there are also facing charges.

But the fact that the killings occurred in Gujarat, known as a religious tinder box, has given the case heightened significance due to its potential to stir Hindu-Muslim tensions.

“It does not take much logic to see that acts of injustice provide fertile ground for extremism to flourish,” said newspaper columnist Manoj Joshi.

The case is seen as becoming a major campaign issue in this year’s Gujarat state elections where Modi, the supposed target of the man murdered by police, is seeking re-election.

The killings are already reported to be stoking Hindu-Muslim ill-feeling in the state, and radical Hindu groups have staged demonstrations in favour of the arrested policemen.

Modi became a hugely controversial figure in 2002 — both domestically and internationally — when rights groups accused him of turning a blind eye to the riots in which victims were shot, burnt and hacked to death.

The Supreme Court called Modi a “modern day Nero,” a reference to the Roman emperor who fiddled while Rome burned.

Modi denied ignoring the butchery that lasted days and since the riots has worked quietly to rebuild the image of Gujarat, focusing on drawing investments to the wealthy state and making it one of India’s fastest growing.

So far, Modi has not commented on the vigilante killings that some newspapers have alleged were carried out with “political cooperation.”

“Cops who kill aren’t heroes. And the victims can’t but affect Modi’s makeover,” commented the Indian Express in an editorial.

New Delhi, Thursday, AFP