"if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen
the side of the oppressor." - Desmond Tutu.

Rana Ayyub honoured in Canada Featured

Courageous author and journalist Rana Ayyub – who exposed the involvement of the Indian officials in the systematic killings of Muslims was honoured by Radical Desi in Surrey on Saturday.

She was presented with Courage in Journalism Award at a well attended event held at Dr. Ambedkar room in the Surrey Central Library. Those who presented her the award included Amandeep Singh- a lawyer and a human rights activist who was recently honoured by Radical Desi for drafting the petition seeking release of disabled Delhi University Professor G.N. Saibaba who continues to be persecuted by the Indian state for standing up for minorities and the oppressed communities. Others who joined Singh for presenting the award were one of the Radical Desi founders Parshottam Dosanjh and the leader of the Prof. Mohan Singh Memorial Foundation Sahib Thind.

Ayyub is the author and publisher of Gujarat Files – based on her undercover investigation of the administrative and police officers who were responsible for the murders of the members of the minority community had risked her life by taking part in sting operation for Tehlka magazine.

She was sent to Gujarat following the anti Muslim pogrom of 2002 and spate of murders of Muslim men by the police in staged shootouts.

Thousands of Muslims were targeted by the goons led by BJP activists. Human rights activists and survivours continue to allege the complicity of the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi in the mass murders. The bloodshed was followed by series of murders of Muslim men by the police in fake encounters. The slain men were frequently branded as Jihadist extremists.

Ayyub told the gathering how she posed herself as a Hindu woman with strong family affiliations with the BJP and befriended people in the police and administration. She later spoke to them about the violence against Muslims and found how thickly the BJP government and Modi were involved in these crimes. Being a Muslim woman,she was playing with the fire by secretly recording these conversations in an extremely hostile environment.

She added that the event being held in Dr. Ambedkar room was a fitting tribute to the author of the Indian constitution that is under attack by the BJP government and also because her book brings out the fact that how Dalits or so called untouchables were used for getting the dirty job done by the Hindutva forces.

She called upon the members of Indian diaspora to break silence over the growing threat of Hindutva extremism under Modi and urged all minorities to join hands to fight back against repression.

 

There was a pin drop silence in the room as she shared her story. Her speech was followed by a Questions and Answers session after which she signed the copies of her book.
Those in attendance included well known community activists, such as Chinmoy Banerjee of South Asian Network of Secularism and Democracy, former BC Human Rights Commissioner Harinder Mahil, Indians Abroad for Pluralist India founder and documentary filmmaker Ajay Bhardwaj, Sikh Nation volunteer Sunil Kumar, research scholar and activist Kamal Arora, besides Progressive Pakistani activists Shahzad Nazir Khan, Saif Khalid, Masood Punjabi and Fauzia Rafique.

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