'02 riot-hit Muslim ex-cop joins BJP

AHMEDABAD: Retired IPS officer Abdullah Ibrahim Saiyad, who was attacked by a mob during the 2002 Gujarat riots, has sprung a surprise by joining Abdullah Ibrahim
the BJP, in another indication of the image make-over that Chief Minister Narendra Modi is striving for ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

He told TOI on Tuesday that he joined the BJP because of Modi. “Modi belongs to the same district as I, and he is one person who does what he says,” says Saiyad, who is from Ganwada village in Mehsana district. “Modi has a way of doing justice,” adds Saiyad.

Saiyad, who retired in May 2008 as an additional DGP, had found himself mobbed in Vejalpur area of Ahmedabad in March 2002. Seeing his police vehicle with flashing red lights approaching, the mob had stopped him to complain about stone throwing from the other side.

But someone noticed the name on his badge and started screaming for revenge. As the mob stoned his car, the driver sped away to safety in a miraculous escape for this officer who was heading the Police Training Academy at Karai near Ahmedabad in those days. Recalling the incident in a chat with TOI on Tuesday, Saiyad said: “They were just mad people who had nothing to do with the BJP. I am thankful that God gave me presence of mind on that day. Had I opened fire with my service revolver, I would have been lynched.”

He attributed his joining the BJP to a “well-wisher” who wrote a letter to LK Advani saying that the BJP should enrol educated Muslims like him. A few months after he retired, he got a call from state BJP president Purshottam Rupala who told him that his entry into the party would be “timed properly”. Saiyad says he knew Modi from his days as Mehsana superintendent of police and he was always inclined towards the BJP.

Saiyad’s entry into the BJP is being seen in the light of developments in recent weeks where some Muslim leaders have endorsed the leadership of Narendra Modi and called upon the community to move on with their lives, even as the law takes its course in the Gujarat riots cases.

The state government’s recent move to appoint DGP Shabbir Khandwawala as the head of Gujarat police was also seen as an olive branch offered to the community. Among the important assignments that Saiyad held after his promotion
to the IPS in 1978 was as officer on special duty to KPS Gill who was appointed security adviser to the state government after the 2002 riots.