From Terror Suspect to Harmony Preacher

on Jan 20, 2010

As Published in 'IslamOnline.net & Newspapers'

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"I was happy that I was an imam even though I was in jail," says Yahya.

Imam Ghulam Ilahi Baksh was arrested from his home and thrown in jail for four years before being declared innocent.

"I still don’t understand why I was picked up," he told the Indian Express on Tuesday, January 19.

Last week, a fast track court acquitted Baksh, a 52-year-old imam from southern Mumbai, of all charges and he walked out a free man.

An anti-terrorism squad raided Baksh's house on January 13, 2006, on accusations of harboring terrorists and financing terrorist activities.

He was forced to sign on papers before being arrested and thrown in the Arthur Road Jail, without being told anything about his alleged crimes.

Baksh later discovered he was jailed based on intercepted telephone calls between him and people accused by Indian of links to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

India labels as "terrorist" attacks by Muslim groups opposed to its rule of Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan.

The UN and Pakistan support self-determination in Kashmir, while India opposes any such option.

The imam tried in vain to prove his innocence for four years before he was finally vindicated in the Sunday court session.

"There is no evidence to show that they were members of any outfit," ruled the judge.

"Maulana, there is no witness against you. You are being acquitted for lack of evidence," he told a tearful Baksh who prayed in the court corridor in the presence of several policemen to thank Allah.

There are some 140 million Muslims in Hindu-majority India, the world's third-largest Muslim population after those of Indonesia and Pakistan.

Many complain that they are detained, abused and tortured to confess to "terror" crimes or because of their relation to Kashmiri activists.

Spreading Tolerance

Imam Baksh still remembers how he was put in solitary confinement once in jail.

"Imagine a barrack where it is just you and no one else for months.

"I craved for somebody’s company," said the imam who now believes "there is nothing more punishing than forced loneliness."

After submitting several appeals, he was finally shifted into another cell that housed many murder convicts.

Baksh, who worked as imam for 24 years, found himself a good cause to serve while waiting for justice: spreading tolerance between Muslim and Hindu inmates.

"There were Hindus, Muslims and Christians in the barrack. But there was some problem as the timings for Hindu prayers and the namaz [Muslim prayer] clashed."

He worked out a scheme to assign time for each group to pray.

"When I requested my Hindu brothers to time their prayers just before or after the namaz, they readily agreed.

"Everything went off smoothly after that."

Baksh says that doing useful things and reaching out to others helped him go throw the toughest time of his life.

"I was happy that I was an imam even though I was in jail."

Courtesy:http://www.islamonline.net

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