Author: Subhash Mishra in Azamgarh
Publication: India Today
Date: October 7, 2002
Introduction: Obscure Azamgarh,
home of crime, grapples with the limelight after Salem's arrest
For a district flung into obscurity
like any other in Uttar Pradesh, Azamgarh is bizarrely flush with opulence.
A study in brazen contrasts, its labyrinthine, dusty bylanes are dotted
with palatial bungalows, with swimming pools set amid swathes of green.
The Pathan Kot mohalla in Sarai Meer is one such locality. As lustily conspicuous
is a multi-storeyed structure that towers over the adjacent homes. But
in a strange defiance of its flashy exterior, a submissive silence sits
on the house today. It may have something to do with the fact that it belongs
to Abu Salem, one of India's most wanted criminals recently arrested in
Portugal.
Much like a disdained infection,
the silence has spread to the entire locality. The men walking to the nearby
mosque are unwilling to talk-about Salem, the mohalla or indeed Azamgarh.
From being a repository of culture-writers and poets of global repute-the
district has turned into a hotbed of criminals, a haven for terrorists
and hawala operators with strong networks abroad, particularly in the Gulf.
That Azamgarh runs a special bus to Lucknow airport for a flight to Sharjah
is no coincidence. "Almost every family has at least one male member working
in the UAE, Saudi Arabia or Sudan," says Dawa Sherpa, SSP, Azamgarh.
It has helped these families move
from penury to luxury, with some like Abul Qalam, 60, owning a dozen cars
and over 100 bighas of land. It has also spawned a thriving hawala racket,
with lakhs of rupees seized from the district. Illiterate or semi-literate,
most migrants find the hawala route easiest to send money back home. The
official channels are too cumbersome and time-consuming. The hawala operators
simply make a call, say, from Dubai to Azamgarh, and the money is delivered
to the family within a day.
For the police, the prime concern
is the siphoning off of the petro-dollars for illegal activities. Over
the years, Azamgarh has become the catchment area for the Mumbai underworld.
Youth from the district in hundreds have been held by the police in Maharashtra
and Gujarat for kidnapping, extortion and contract killings. Investigation
invariably leads to a link with Salem. The don, who has a strong network
in Sarai Meer, recruited the youth, who would arrive in batches of four
or five in Maharashtra or Gujarat, carry out the assigned tasks and return
home. The successful were handsomely rewarded, but those who failed were
killed to avoid identification or tracing.
The district is also said to have
links with terrorists, with two Harkat-ul-Mujahideen members recently held
from madarsas here. "Madarsas with students from abroad and states like
Jammu and Kashmir are under surveillance," says a senior IPO officer. Under
scrutiny is also the diversion of foreign funds for the madarsas' development
which, like the houses, reflect the growing inequality in the villages.
Many villages have no electricity, regular water supply or roads. Despite
a population of over 40 lakh, Azamgarh district does not have any industry
and half of its agricultural land is barren. So work is hard to come by.
There are, of course, thousands of pcos, but they only cater to the affluent.
So most people are tempted to migrate in search of jobs or take the easier
way out: crime. Which, as the residents of Azamgarh are finding, doesn't
always pay.
