The chapter of ‘Pehle hijab, fir kitab’ banners being flagged in Maharashtra is not over yet. Now the same banners supporting hijab and burqa have appeared in Mominpura area of the Georai town of Beed district in Maharashtra. It is notable that earlier the banners had appeared in the Bashir Ganj area of the Beed city – the district place; while now they are seen in the Taluka place Georai. This happens to be the hometown of Abu Jundal who is one of the six key conspirators of the terrorist attacks of 26/11 on Mumbai that claimed 166 lives.
Islamists in various parts of the country have openly come ahead to support the hijab after the Karnataka hijab row. One such place that attracted the attention was the Beed city where the banners were raised by a local student leader of AIMIM in support of hijab and burqa. However, the banners were removed after the police intervened.
Now, in Georai town which is a Taluka place situated at 30 KM from Beed, similar banners are seen in the Mominpura area. The banner reads ‘Pehle hijab, fir kitab’ which means ‘Hijab first, books later’. On the banner, it is also written that ‘hijab is our right’ and ‘har keemati cheez parade me hoti hai’ which means ‘every precious thing is kept covered’. The banner also reads the names of the organizations that have raised this banner. The organizations are named as ‘Mominpura Youth Club’, ‘International Human Rights Protection Council’, ‘Hazrat Tipu Sultan Youth Forum’ and ‘Maulana Azad Youth Forum’ of Georai.
So far, there is no news of any police complaint or intervention by the police themselves taking cognizance. Georai is situated on Dhule-Solapur national highway and was first became famous – rather infamous – after it was revealed that Zabiuddin Ansari alias Anu Jundal alias Abu Hamza hailed from this town.
Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal alias Abu Hamza
This Islamic terrorist came into focus after his involvement in the terrorist attacks of 26/11 was revealed. He hailed from Georai. His family still lived in Hathi Khana mohalla of Georai which is not far away from the site these banners are flagged today. Zabiuddin Ansari had studied in the Urdu school of Georai till class 10th. He then moved to the district place that is Beed where he did electricians course in the Industrial Training Institute.
Zabiuddin Ansari was indoctrinated to the terrorist organization Lashkar E Taiba by Fayaz Kaghzi, his college senior. He left for Pakistan in 2000 soon after he completed his college education. He was trained there before returning to India in 2002 and joining the terrorist organization SIMI. He later stayed in Saudi Arabia and in Bangladesh for some time with as many as ten aliases.
He had managed to escape the Aurangabad police and the Maharashtra ATS on 8th May 2006 when the joint team had seized 30kg of RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles, and 3,200 bullets from a Tata Sumo and Indica car on the way to Malegaon. The three associate terrorists were captured while Zabiuddin Ansari who was driving the Indica car managed to escape. The plan was to eliminate the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and then Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadiya.
Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal later went to Pakistan where he conspired the 26/11 attacks of Mumbai. He helped the members of ISI and Lashkar E Taiba in training the Hindi language, especially in Mumbai accent to the ten attackers including Ajmal Kasab. He also guided, in detail, the terrorists in the Taj hotel to make demands through media against the people trapped in the hotel being kept as hostages. Details of calls intercepted by the security and investigation agencies revealed that Abu Jundal was present in the control room at Karachi from where the terrorists were getting the instructions.
Coincidentally, the then Lok Sabha MP of Beed constituency Jaisingrao Gaikwad was also trapped in the hotel that day. But the NSG commandos secured the people and killed the terrorists. Abu Jundal was arrested in 2012 and he has been sentenced to imprisonment till death.
Beed is situated right in the center of the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. This region was a part of the Nizam territory before getting independence on 17th September 1948. It has been a safe hiding place for and source land of many sleeper cells and terrorists like Abu Jundal.
