Habibullah: On a mission

New Delhi, June 20: The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) will send teams to Bihar to investigate the June 3 police firing near Forbesganj in Araria district.

At least four persons died in the firing.

The NCM team, led by its chairperson Wajahat Habibullah, will leave for Patna tomorrow.

In a letter to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on June 14, Habibullah had written: “The commission is entirely dissatisfied with the report received from Araria district SP Ms Garima Malik, which fails to explain why it should have become necessary for the police to open fire so indiscriminately as to target women and babies, and disappointed by the communication received from Shri Amir Subhani, home secretary, Bihar.”

Nitish today refused to speak on the firing, saying he had already ordered a judicial inquiry.

Habibullah told The Telegraph that the NCM team would first meet the district administration and then the chief minister. “We will see what remedial action has been taken. Our goal is to ensure that this never happens again,” he said.

Asked whether the firing was an act of communal violence, Habibullah replied: “This is yet to be established. We are going to investigate this. All the victims were Muslims. This is also a Muslim majority area.”

The NHRC has also asked its director-general (investigation) Sunil Krishna to depute a team for conducting an inquiry at Bhajanpur village where police fired on villagers protesting against the blockade of a road by a starch factory owned by the son of a BJP MLC.

The NHRC said its decision to order an inquiry came after complaints about the incident from CPM MP Brinda Karat, rights activist Mohan Lal Panda and Lok Janshakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan.

A delegation of parents of those killed in the firing, led by Shabnam Hashmi of the non-government organisation Anhad, met NHRC chairperson K.G. Balakrishnan today. The victims also met vice-president Hamid Ansari, parliamentary affairs minister Ashwani Kumar and Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed.

Araria is one of the 90 minority-dominated districts in Bihar which get the multi-sectoral development programme grants from the Planning Commission.