FRAMED AS A TERROIST
My 14-year Struggle to Prove My Innocence
Mohammad Aamir Khan with Nandita Haksar
Speaking Tiger
250 pages; Rs 250
Every now and again, a book comes along that challenges established canons and raises questions so obvious that readers wonder why on earth they hadn't been raised earlier. At first glance, Framed as a Terrorist by Mohammad Aamir Khan (with Nandita Haksar), does not look like it is that kind of a book. It is a slim paperback with a dull olive green cover embellished by a monochromatic portrait of a man. Judging the book by its cover, however, would be a grave mistake, for this narrative of a young man falsely accused of terrorism and incarcerated in different Indian jails for 14 years is one of the most thought-provoking stories of recent times.
When 19-year old Mr Khan was arrested near his home in Old Delhi in 1998, he had no clue that he was facing charges in 18 bomb blast cases. He was, in his own words, simply a boy who had been on a long-overdue visit to his sister who lived in Karachi. Instead, he was first kidnapped and illegally detained by the police, and then tortured and dehumanised in prison. Fourteen years later, one cold January evening, he was acquitted quite as suddenly as he had been charged, and he returned home to a changed world.
The book begins with Mr Khan's recollection of growing up in Old Delhi; a tale of a normal childhood surrounded by a loving set of parents and two doting older sisters. He recalls the young Alia, with whom he exchanged yearning glances and little else. Mr Khan was forced to leave all this behind when he was incarcerated. While he was in jail, his parents were ostracised by their community and neighbourhood. His father died and his mother fell gravely ill. Yet, Mr Khan was denied bail, even while high-profile celebrities like Salman Khan seemed to be cashing in all their Get Out Of Jail Free cards.
Mr Khan paints a picture of a bewildering legal system as a web that ensnares the poor and vulnerable while allowing the rich and famous to slip through with ease. While he was strengthened by the love of his family and the ever-faithful Alia, others like him found other ways of escape. Some of the bleakest passages in the book recount the suicide of Shakeel, one of Mr Khan's co-accused who had also suffered, like Mr Khan, the horrors of torture, uncertainty and seclusion in prison.
When in 2012, Mr Khan was released from jail, he returned like a stranger in a transformed world; the internet, the metro and mobile phones were all new to him. He was even amazed at how many channels there were on television, for when he had been arrested, there was only Doordarshan. Neither Muslim nor many human rights organisations came forward to help him pick up the threads of his tattered life. Eventually, in a triumph of hope and positivity, Mohammad Aamir Khan married Alia and began working for a human rights NGO.
Framed as a Terrorist underscores the critical need for better pre-trial procedures and jail reforms. Mr Khan's experiences in jail also clearly show the flaws of a punitive law enforcement system that seems to have forgotten the distinction between convicted prisoners and those under trial. Mr Khan also notes how over his time in prison, changes in the political climate reflected changes in the types of people being arrested. If at one time, the majority of new convicts were Kashmiri, at another time they were Sikhs.
Perhaps the only flaw in this otherwise compelling retelling of Mr Khan's story by Ms Haksar is her demand for the abolition of jails, given that they are misgoverned relics of a punitive society. This seems a rather unfair demand for a society that continues to battle crime and terrorism on many fronts. Mr Khan himself recounts meeting extremists of different faiths, making an especially disturbing reference to banter between Kashmiri and Sikh militants in Tihar jail. "The Sikhs boasted that they had killed their enemies but the Kashmiris only went for soft targets. The Kashmiris retorted that the Sikhs had a lot of resources and had taken refuge in the US and Canada..." Ms Haksar offers no suggestions about what the state should do with such people if not put them behind bars.
In fact, in the final reckoning, Mr Khan himself displays a touching faith in the very humanity that has failed him so utterly. Even in a solitary cell, he managed to appreciate the beauty of a guava tree outside his window. He had the will to continue his studies even though he had been tortured beyond belief. And when he finally emerged a free man, he retained an incomprehensible, but incredibly moving positivity and faith. It goes to show that even though the system denied him justice for 14 long years, Mohammad Aamir Khan remained, and will always be, a free man.
