In a chilling rerun of the molestation of women constables at the hand of Islamist mobs inAmbur 2015 and Azad Maidan 2012, a woman constable was subjected to molestation and assault on 23 Jan by the anti-national mob who also set fire to Ice House police station in Chennai under the cover of Jallikattu protests.

As per media reports –

“When M Durga Devi on Tuesday first narrated her experience of being caught in the blazing Ice House police station the previous day, she hadn’t told the whole truth. On Thursday, the head constable held back nothing, revealing to a team of officers that many of those who set the building ablaze had molested her.

Based on the team’s report, police commissioner S George ordered a detailed inquiry. On Friday, the woman told TOI that she had been standing with five of her colleagues near the barricade in front of the station when nearly 200 men marched towards me. “They hurled stones which left me with injuries to my shoulders. They also grabbed and pushed me around,” she said.

Thinking about what may have happened, she said, “Had they cornered me inside the police station, things could have turned ugly. The horror refuses to leave me. They kept targeting me.“

On Monday, as the protesters advanced towards the station, Durga Devi and her colleagues stood behind the barricade, trying to stop them. But they were soon overwhelmed and the protesters were all over them. Many in the mob touched her inappropriately and kept hurling stones, she said, adding that the incident had kept haunting her. She could have handled them had they just hurled stones, she said.

Soon, the situation went out of control. Durga Devi was among those who ran into the station.Others ran to an adjacent street. The mob damaged the building, poured petrol over it and set it afire. In a darkened room, Durga Devi managed to get hold of a wireless and alert the control room. A team arrived after some time, chased away the protesters and pulled her out of the burning station after breaking a window.

As she stood on the road, the head constable was sobbing as as she recalled the trauma. Senior police officers who confirmed the incident said they had waited for her formal complaint.
“This act of the miscreants will not be tolerated. We have video footage of the people who charged at her. They will be taken to task,” said an officer.”

Where is the Ice House Police Station?

Ice House police station is roughly 1 km from the Marina beach – it is bang opposite Ice House Masjid which is located on Quaid-e-Millath road (named after partition-era Muslim League politician Muhammad Ismail who is referred in Tamil Nadu and Kerala as “Quaid-e-Millat” – Leader of the Nation).

The radical Islamist socio-political outfit TNTJ (Tamil Nadu Towheed Jamath) is known to be active in the area between Ice House police station to Zambazaar police station, Chennai. In 2012, TNTJ issued handbills in the same area with irreverent comments on saint, Ramalinga Vallalar. Members of Hindu organisations lodged a complaint with Zambazar police and the police booked a case against the complainant under non-bailable sections, while the accused was booked under bailable section after a mob besieged the police station. A police officer justified this action by saying that if a Muslim is arrested, they would mob the station in hundreds. 

Again in 2012, the banned American movie ‘Innocence of Muslims’ led to an attack on the American embassy which is around 3 km from Ice House police station; the arterial Mount Road was shut and vehicles and policemen targeted. Afternoon namaaz was offered on the main road. The embassy siege lasted four days. Chennai city has borne the brunt of other Islamic protests against movies such as Vishwaroopam, Thuppakki too.

This 14-part series of articles explains how the jihad virus has grown in Tamil Nadu – with countless Islamist outfits like TNTJ, TMMK, MNK, Al-Umma etc mushrooming under the benign gaze of the ruling ‘secular’ Dravidian parties.

Repeat of Vellore and Azad Maidan Attack on Police

What happened at Ice House police station is no random act of violence, but part of a pattern of such attacks which are gaining in frequency over the last decade. Many will remember the 2012 rioting in Azad Maidan, Mumbai where a massive rampaging mob of Muslims molested & stabbed 5 lady constables besides injuring dozens of policemen and destroying media vans/public property, and not even sparing Amar Jawan Jyoti memorial.

But what was an even worse Islamist mob attack in Ambur, Vellore district, TN in 2015 has gone unnoticed by most outside Tamil Nadu. An Islamist mob reportedly instigated by local MLA Aslam Basha, from Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) – the political face of the fundamentalist organisation Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), attacked police over the death of one Shameel Ahmed allegedly due to police torture. Ahmed, local head of Indian Tauheed Jamath, had been picked up for questioning by police for allegedly kidnapping a married Hindu Dalit woman who is missing till date – a love jihad case as per locals. Some junior police personnel, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Tamil daily Dinamalar  (30 June 2015):

“On 27th night we were only 800 personnel on duty. But those [who] indulged in violence were not less than 6000 people. When Superintendent of Police Senthilkumari was attacked, we acted in defence and tried to stop it. The violent people pelted stones on us and attacked us with wooden logs. As we were less in number, we simply couldn’t do anything.  We were forced to run for life. Many police women wept and cried out while they were running for cover and security. The Muslims burnt down buses and other vehicles which came that way.  They attacked the bus passengers. We had to remain as mute spectators for two reasons. 

“Firstly, we were instructed not to ‘lathi charge’ the violent men as the RK Nagar by-election (where Ms Jayalalithaa was contesting) was going on, not to shoot down the perpetrators and to talk to them and pacify them. The higher authorities have told us, ‘You must take the blows but should not return them or retaliate’. So, we had to withdraw.

“Secondly, we were very less in number. This must be the first instance in Tamil Nadu in which 54 police personnel have run away from the scene of violence after getting severely assaulted. We are ashamed of it. There was no mistake on our part; we had to abide by the orders of our superiors. After getting assaulted by the violent men, we had to take treatment at hospitals. Our superior officers came and met us at the hospital and consoled us. But they didn’t even enquire what happened and how we got hurt.”

How Chennai Jallikattu protests were hijacked

We have reported earlier about how the Jallikattu protests were hijacked and descended into violence amidst separatist, anti-national chanting, even after the TN & Central Government promulgated an ordinance in just one day to enable holding of the traditional sport, and despite original organizers who had been protesting peacefully until then calling off their protest.

 This is what TN BJP treasurer S.R. Sekhar had to say about the infiltration in the protests-

“Nearly 99.99% of protestors are spontaneously fighting for Jallikattu and it should be appreciated. But the struggle was infiltrated by Maoists, Tamil separatists and Muslim fundamentalists. There are at least 3,000 Muslims taking part in the protests and they hold Namaz prayers at the protest venue itself. Is it not an irony of sorts that those who eat beef are in the forefront of the Jallikattu struggle” he asked.

He further said the provocative slogans were a deliberate attempt to whip up passions against the Centre in general and the prime minister in particular. “All sorts of anti-national elements are participating in the protests. We don’t bother if you shout against Modi, but what about the nation? There are those in the crowd carrying placards which say that if you don’t allow Jallikattu, Tamil Nadu will secede. Portraits of bin Laden and LTTE leader Prabhakaran are rampant at the venue. Small children are carrying Modi’s placards with denigrating words about the prime minister.” he added.

The internal jihad in Bharat is now moving into a dangerous new phase – police of many large states like TN, West Bengal, J&K ,UP, Bihar etc are effectively helpless to protect their own in face of the rampaging Islamist mobs. We are now seeing the results of 70 years of Nehruvian secularism – the danger is clear, and it is present.

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