Police get flak for 'Arabic' scarves of blast suspects

Tue, Sep 23 02:54 AM

The Delhi Police is being severely criticised for covering the faces of the three blast suspects-Saqib Nisar, Mohd Shakeel and Zia ur Rehman- with 'Arabic' scarves with many terming the act as "partisan" and "an attempt on the police's part to hint at a link between Islam and terror".

The police usually covers the faces of criminals, whose identity cannot be revealed, with a towel or a black cloth. However, when the three suspects were produced in court yesterday, their faces were covered with scarves usually sported by imams and religious leaders of the Muslim community.

Senior Congress leader Salman Khursheed told The Indian Express that such depiction was "unfortunate and created an impression of a stereotype at a time when images flashed by the media was being closely followed by the public".

Islamic scholar Dr Khwaja Iftekhar Ahmad, too, termed the use of the scarves as "offending". "It appears to be a design to malign the whole Muslim community and the Arab world. Making criminals wear such a scarf sends out a wrong message to other religions as well," added Ahmad.

The Delhi Police, however, maintained that it had no code of conduct as far as covering the faces of suspects go. "We do provide cloth to suspects to cover their faces with. But there is no code of conduct for it as such. The cloth could be red, black or white," said Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat.

"A terrorist should be severely punished. But to depict a suspect in a way that can be recognised as 'Muslim' is wrong. This scarf is usually slung on the shoulder or used to cover the head during prayers," says Firoz Bakht Ahmed, who runs an NGO, Friends for Education, and teaches in Modern School, Barakhamba Road.

Interestingly, police had said that Indian Mujahideen mastermind Atif had instructed his companions to remain without beard and dress in modern clothes in order to escape a "typically Muslim look".

The Urdu Press has also lashed out at the Delhi Police for this. The Hindustan Express has carried an editorial, 'Dilli Police Ka Arbi Roomal', criticising the police's action in its Monday edition.

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"Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power.
It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality."
- Dr BR Ambedkar
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