Hyderabad bride bazaar is global

By U. Sudhakar Reddy

Hyderabad, Oct. 11: Sleuths who raided the office of Qazi Waheed Qureshi were shocked to discover that Hyderabad's "bride bazaar" had been catering to "clie-nts" from across the world, including the US, Somalia and Ethiopia. This is in addition to grooms who constantly sneak in from Yemen, Oman, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. They arrested the qazi for marrying off two young women from Hyderabad to a pair of Omani twins and hiding the fact that were epilepsy patients.

The police arrested a total of three qazis and two brokers for marrying off the two young women. Sameena Begum, 23, and Nazia Begum, 20, are reportedly leading miserable lives at Alkhaboora, in Sohar town in Oman, and have informed their parents that they were being physically tortured by their husbands. The police swung into action after the parents informed them that they had received desperate calls from their daughters, who are virtually imprisoned in their husbands' houses in Oman.

It was discovered that Qureshi himself performed eight marriages in the past two years for grooms from a variety of the countries. "Earlier they used to conduct these marriages over the phone," said a police officer. "Now they are giving power of attorney through a representative and conducting the marriage in the presence of photographs." Qureshi was accused in a similar case in 2005 at Kalapattar police station, where he authorised the marriage of an Oman national to two girls together.

"Without such marriages the parents of these girls will never be able to construct such big houses," said Qureshi, who is now in the custody of the Santoshnagar police. "The bridegrooms come from many countries across the globe."The police also discovered that Qureshi's authority to continue as qazi was put on hold in August, but many marriages were performed prior to that. The seized documents from his house revealed that grooms from Yemen, Sudan, the US, Ethiopia and Somalia had married several women from the city in the last two years.

"We will translate these documents into English to find out whether irregularities have taken place," said Mr Sai Krishna. "We are going to trace the brides to find out if they are being victimised."The girls were married to the Omani twins on July 18 this year. The grooms claimed to be government officials but were epilepsy patients living on meagre social security. "The qazis and the brokers concealed facts," said inspector S. Sai Krishna.

"They told the parents of the girls that the Omani grooms were rich."Apart from Qureshi, alias Sajid, 43, a qazi staying in Old Santoshnagar Colony, Syed Shanawaz, 50, a marriage broker of Riyasatnagar, his sister Mumtaz Begum, 40, Mohammed Zaheeruddin, 50, a chief qazi of Nacharam, and M.A. Rasheed, 33, a nayab qazi of Nallagutta, were arrested.The police has also registered cases against the Omani grooms, identified as Yousuf Bin Salim Thani Al Busadi, who married Nazia, and Mohammed Bin Salim Al Bussaid, who married Sameena. The marriage was performed in the absence of the grooms. Only their photographs were present.

Nazia's mother Surayya Begum, 42, said she had objected when Mumtaz and Shahnawaz suggested that the marriage be performed with a photograph. "But chief qazi Zaheeruddin convinced me that it is permitted in our religion," she said. Nazia left for Oman on September 27. "A day later she called up and said that her husband was a madman," said her mother. "He is torturing my daughter."Sameena's father, Syed Mustafa, said he could not read the marriage documents since they were in Arabic. "The parents of the girls got Rs 4,000 each and the mediators Rs 8,000 each," said inspector Sai Krishna. "Qureshi was paid Rs 26,000 and he gave Rs 1,000 to Rasheed."Qazi Zaheeruddin, however, said the documents brought by the representatives of the Omani grooms were legal. "There is no fault on our side," said Qureshi, adding, "Even the waqf board gave its certification for the marriage."The police said the Indian embassy in Oman has been informed of the plight of the girls. "Our priority is to get them back to India," said Mr Sai Krishna.

A senior police officer said the poverty and greed of the parents were the main reasons for such marriages. "In the latest incident, one girl's mother is a maid servant and the other's father is a radio repairman," he said.

(Published in Deccan Chronicle and Asian Age on 12/10/2006)

2 Bilals: Police says terrorist, father says no

By U SUDHAKAR REDDY
Hyderabad, May 19: Mohammed Abdul Shahed, alias Bilal, the man on whom the police seeks to pin the blame for Friday's blast at Mecca Masjid, seems like two persons.
The police claims 39-year-old Shahed is Andhra Pradeshs most wanted terrorist and has asked the CBI to ask for an Interpol red alert. He is believed to be operating from Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. The police claims he is the head of operations in South India for Jaish-e-Mohammed and a key operative for Bangladesh's Harkat Ul Jihad Al Islami (Huji).
A welder while he was in Moosarambagh in Hyderabad, Shahed, the police claims, is a bombmaker who trains youth from Hyderabad in terror camps in the Sunderbans and Bandarbans and Chittagong forests in Bangladesh. His main area of operation is said to be Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The police pins practically every major incident on Shahed: the attack on the IISc at Bangalore, the suicide bombing at the Hyderabad task force office in October 2005 and a plot to kill BJP and VHP leaders.
The police claims that Shahed sneaked into India and went to Bidar a few days before the suicide bombing. Shahed's brother Zahed is in jail for alleged involvement in that bombing.
Mohammed Ibrahim, alias Khalid, a classmate of Shahed, is said to be the main conspirator in a plot to kill then state BJP chief N. Indrasena Reddy and was arrested in Secunderabad in 2006. A month ago, the police arrested one Maqsood who reportedly recruited youth for Shahed.
But the picture that his father draws of Shahed is different. Abdul Waheed says Shahed left home five years ago as "the financial situation was not good". He said Shahed is 25 years old, and not 39 as the police believes. "Shahed never did welding work," said Waheed, denying another police claim. At that time he was an intermediate student of Mumtaz College. "He is less than 25 years old now," Shahed's father Wahed said. "We never saw him or spoke to him after he left home. He has never called us or met us," Wahed told this correspondent.
Shahed has six brothers and three sisters. Zahed is in jail in Visakhapatnam, a daughter Hafeez and youngest son Majeed stay with him. "Majeed couldn't continue his studies after Class 10. He is a cellphone mechanic," Wahed said. Of his other sons, Ahad, Samad, Majid and Khaled stay in Saudi Arabia doing ordinary jobs. The family stays near a mosque in Moosrambagh and is very religious. Waheed made all his sons study in Urdu schools. Waheed is a retired teacher and lives on his pension. "We have never discussed jihad in the house. Shahed was a normal, well-behaved youth. I can't believe that he has become a terrorist. I don't believe that he is involved in the Mecca Masjid blast."
"The media and police have been saying so much about him. We don't know what happened to him. Sometimes they said that he was caught in Bangalore and sometimes in Delhi. The police even alleged that we met him in Bidar when he was reportedly here. It is not true. We have not met him. If he had done something wrong, he has to be punished if it is proved," said Waheed. "We are in real trouble for the past three years. Relatives and neighbours are afraid to talk to us because of the police branding of the son," said Waheed
(Published in Deccan Chronicle, Asian Age on May 20th 2007)

Maoists blog faster than cops can delete

By U SUDHAKAR REDDY
Hyderabad, Dec. 30: The cyber duel between the police and the Maoists has turned into a cat and mouse game. Every time the police gets a website or a blog closed, Maoist sympathisers set up another one and continue as before.
The cyber catch-me-if-you-can hotted up last week after the police got People's March, the most popular pro-Maoist site, blocked through Central agencies. Its editor Govindan Kutty was arrested in Kerala.
The website used to carry interviews with top Maoist leaders, including Ganapati and spokesperson Azad. It was blocked a year ago but emerged again and was blocked last week.
The Special Intelligence Branch says People's March and other websites act as communication links between the underground cadres and sympathisers.
The service provider has left a message stating that the action was taken for violation of programme policies.
Following this, however, Maoist sympathisers set up maoistmovementinindia.com. The new site carried a warning to the police to release Kutty or he would go on a hungerstrike.
A senior police official said, "Maoists are using the Internet to propagate their ideology. The network is big." The Maoists are under pressure in Andhra Pradesh with the police evicting them from most of their bases.
The Internet offers a safe way to get the Maoist message across. "Several Maoist sympathisers from AP are writing columns using pennames," the official said.
The state police suspects that Maoist leaders in hiding in Andhra Pradesh frequently visit Kerala, where most of the pro-Maoist bloggers are based.
Sources pointed out that Maoist leader Raji Reddy was picked up in Kerala earlier this month. Following this, the Revolutionary People's Front complained to the Kerala government which resulted in the police announcing Raji Reddy's arrest.
Pointing to the close links, the police noted that the AP Revolutionary Writers Association had condemned the arrest of Kutty of People's March.
Sources in the police said the bloggers have close links with Maoist sympathisers and this has been detected by sniffer software.
Resistance India.blogsot.com, a Maoist blog, was hacked in August, and the role of the law enforcing agencies is suspected. Following this, the Maoist sympathisers created maoistresitance.blogspot.com. The police has also blocked Naxal revolution.blogspot but expect another blog to replace it.
From the police side, www.naxalwatch.blogspot.com, an anti-Maoist website supported by AP-based police officials, is a popular anti-Naxal blogspot.

(Published in Deccan Chronicle, Asian Age on December 31st 2007)

South Colleges head dead north for bodies

By U. SUDHAKAR REDDY
Hyderabad, Nov. 24: Sales of unclaimed dead bodies from Hyderabad's Osmania and Gandhi General Hospital mortuaries have declined sharply because of a price war. Regular customers, including private medical colleges from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, now prefer to buy bodies from hospitals in Maharashtra and other northern states, which sell them cheaper.
The Andhra Pradesh government had directed mortuaries to sell unclaimed bodies to private medical colleges for dissection and anatomy studies at the rate of Rs 15,000 per cadaver. However, neighbouring Maharashtra sells a body for rates ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000.
"There is also a huge black market where bodies are being sold for even lower prices," said Dr M. Narayana Reddy, head of Osmania Medical College's forensic department.
At present there are seven unclaimed bodies lying in the Osmania mortuary, but there are no takers. Similarly, there are 15 unclaimed bodies awaiting buyers in the Gandhi Medical College mortuary. "We have more facilities in our new mortuary and there are more bodies for sale," said Dr G. Surender Reddy, head of the GMC forensic department. "But we don't have any requisitions at present."
For the past five years, Andhra Pradesh was South India's major cadaver seller. But the price war has changed it all. The official policy is to give unclaimed bodies to government medical colleges free and to sell them to private medical colleges. Preference is given to private medical colleges in the state.
"We haven't got any requests for bodies from private medical colleges outside the state in the past two months," said Dr P. Harikrishna a forensic doctor at the Osmania Medical College. "They are getting it for lower prices from Maharashtra and the northern states." He added that the hospital made Rs 20 lakhs this year through the sale of bodies. "Private medical colleges in the state also have a sufficient number of bodies till May," he said.
Local mortuaries in Kurnool, Guntur and Vijayawada are catering to the needs of private medical colleges in the neighbourhood. The director of medical education, Dr A.V.Y. Chary, said the drop in sales had not come to his notice. "The money made from the sale of bodies is used to develop hospitals," he said.

(Published in Deccan Chronicle and Asian Age on November 25 2007)

No prints taken from defused bomb

By U. SUDHAKAR REDDY
Hyderabad, Aug. 29: The city police blundered by not lifting fingerprints from the unexploded bomb found at Moosarambagh on August 25 after defusing it.
Latent prints from the unexploded bomb could have been compared with the existing fingerprint database of known suspects. It could even have served as solid evidence if the bomber is ever caught and put to trial. There are complains that the city security wing officials defused the bomb in the most unprofessional manner.
"We were not called to the scene by the police," said a fingerprint expert. "We could have taken fingerprints from the metallic foil and alarm piece after the bomb was defused."
He added that it would have been better if the bomb disposal squad had put on gloves while defusing it. "We did not have much role to play in Lumbini Park and Gokul Chaat Bhandar but the other case was different," said the expert. He added that it was not possible to take fingerprints from the unexploded bomb before it was defused. "Even if the bomb is handled by officers of the bomb disposal squad, we can eliminate their prints," said the expert.