August 16, 2013, 7:01 pm
Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen has sent a CCTV footage which, according to him, contains evidence of police inaction during a recent mob attack on a mosque at Grandpass, to IGP N. K. Illangakoon. The former insists that the latter has promised to order a probe if allegations against the police could be substantiated. This is an interesting development.
Minister Bathiudeen has also said, in his letter to the IGP, that there are several people who saw ‘armed hoodlums attack the mosque, enter the sacred precincts of the place of worship, assault the worshippers and thereafter get away under the watchful eye of a number of police personnel on duty around the mosque’. Therefore, he is of the view there is enough ground for an investigation.
Bathiudeen has articulated the position of all Muslim politicians in the government on last week’s dastardly attack which put the country to shame. They insist that the Grandpass disturbances could have been prevented if the police had made a timely intervention to scatter the unruly crowds converging on the scene. What one gathers from their version of the incident is that the police just stood by while the mosque was being attacked and then intervened to prevent a counter attack. This is a very serious allegation which the police have to counter, if they could. There have been similar allegations against them previously that they looked on while mobs were attacking mosques and business places belonging to Muslims.
By no stretch of the imagination could Minister Bathiudeen and other Muslim politicians who have rightly taken up the cudgels for their community under threat be accused of having a hidden agenda. They have always stood by the government. They are only demanding justice.
Now that he has got the CCTV footage containing evidence, the IGP is left with no alternative but to honour his pledge. His failure to do so will be tantamount to an attempt at a cover-up. The public may not take calls for his resignation seriously in that public officials and politicians seldom resign in this country. An IGP once took the responsibility for a brutal attack on a workers’ protest at Katunayake, where a youth was killed. In so doing he made a virtue of necessity and got a diplomatic posting in return for services rendered. He couldn’t have asked for more!
However, IGP Illangakoon is duty bound to order an investigation into the serious allegation that police inaction helped mobs carry out the mosque attack with impunity. There is no reason why the police personnel detailed to maintain law and order at Grandpass should be allowed to go unpunished if they have either failed to carry out their duties or collaborated with politically motivated violent mobs. Only an impartial probe will help the government get to the bottom of it. Such action is sure to send a strong message to ethno-religious fanatics that the sky is not the limit.
The police leave no stone unturned in their efforts to gather ‘evidence’ against Opposition politicians and activists who are prosecuted amazingly fast. (This is what Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem has famously called ‘selective efficiency’ of the police.) Therefore, they cannot justify their foot-dragging on the promised investigation into alleged police inaction at Grandpass.
Let Minister Bathiudeen be urged to call a press conference and officially release the CCTV footage to the media so that the public could see for themselves what really happened at Grandpass. They have a right to know the truth.
