As the faithful sporting skull caps or covering their heads with a piece of cloth make their way through the arched entrance of historic Mecca Masjid near Charminar for offering prayers, the beep of the door frame scanner and the security guards frisking the visitors bring back the grim memories of the past.
It was exactly on this day ten years ago that a deadly bomb blast ripped through the rows of worshippers killing nine of them. As the fearful and panic stricken people ran helter skelter to save their lives another ghastly scene unfolded on the road outside as police opened fire on the group of people protesting against the blast. Five more died in the firing with automatic weapons drowning the city into terror, anger and dismay.
It was May 18, 2007 when as soon as the Friday prayers ended the bomb connected to a cell phone and kept under a marble bench in the courtyard of the mosque exploded.
The toll could have been much higher if the terrorists had succeeded in triggering two more devices kept at other places in the mosque.
Today as the families of the victims and others mourned and prayed police had made elaborate arrangements in the old city specially in the immediate vicinity of the mosque. More than a thousand policemen were deployed in all the sensitive areas of the old city under the supervision of top police officials to prevent any protests or untoward incidents.
Additional Commissioner of police Swati lakra who supervised the security arrangements said that the situation was totally peaceful.
However, the occasion brought back different memories to different people. For the family of Irfan Shareef, who died in the bomb blast, it was yet another day of toiling as the family’s never ending wait for the promised Government job continues.
“He could have been 27-years-old today, said 60 year old Osman Shareef remembering his eldest son. The Government had promised us a job but so far it has not been fulfilled. I am running from pillar to post but no official seems to care.”
In another part of the city, Dr Ibrahim Junaid sits reminiscing the day when plainclothed policemen picked him from Yakutpura Railway Station. While being taken blindfolded to an unknown location policemen told him that he was picked up in connection with the bomb blast in Mecca Masjid.
In the detention centre every protest and denial by Junaid, then second year medical student, brought another round of torture, beating, electric shocks on private parts. “They used to crush my face with boots when I recited Quranic verses to seek strength,” he recalled with a shudder.
He was not alone. With an unfathomable theory that the blast in the mosque was handiwork of Muslims, police had picked up 100 odd minority youth from different places and subjected them to third degree torture to extract confession.
After several months of public outcry and judicial intervention they were released on bail and courts eventually acquitted them.
It was almost three years after the blast the CBI unearthed the involvement of Hindu terror outfit Abhinav Baharat with the arrest of RSS pracharak Swamy Aseemanand and others.
Devendra Gupta, lokesh Sharma, Bharat Bhai and Rajinder Chowdhary were among those arrested in connection with the blasts in Mecca Masjid, Ajmer and Malegaon.
While the case was moving in the court at a snail’s pace all the accused have been released on bail. Swamy Aseemanand has recently come out of jail as he was also granted bail in other cases.
Prime accused Sunil Joshi another accused was murdered by unknown person in Madhya Pradesh.
The tenth anniversary of the blast also became an occasion for the police and the administration to review the security arrangements at Mecca Masjid.
“We are installing more cameras in and outside the mosque and strengthening the security,” said Abdul Qadeer Siddiqui, the superintendent of the mosque.