Shehla Masood (Hindi: शेहला मसूद ) (1973–2011), was an environmentalist, wildlife and RTI activist. She was shot dead around 11 am on August 16, 2011 by unidentified person/person(s) in front of her house in Bhopal while she was sitting in her car and was about to leave.[1][2][3]
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Winston Churchill said that I am willing to meet my MAKER but whether my MAKER is willing to face the ordeal of meeting me is a different matter altogether…Shehla Masood had the same belief and the same spirit, she lived by it and she died believing it, that I’ll do my job, so be it that I have to meet my MAKER, be it for environment, wild life conservation, RTI, Police high handedness, corruption and all such issues that plague Indian society and common people like you & I. And being close to her, I know for sure that her MAKER is having a tough time because she will, in her after life, will still be tenacious to ask probing questions to her MAKER… She was threatened by one and all but she never conceded, she was harassed but she never lost her zeal, she was killed but her spirit lingers on and on…her relentlessness, her motivation, her self-belief is a beacon of hope for all those who want to carry on the flickering flame of justice for poor & downtrodden.
Zauq in one of his famous poems said that:
Laai Hayaat to aaye qaza le chali chaley, Apni Khushi se na aaye na apni khushi chaley' Shehla could not be the master of her ‘hayat’ and her ‘qaza’ but she surely mastered her life in between the two by doing and dying for what she believed in…rare are those fellows who have the heart for following their heart and she is right on top of the list… (By Rajat Kumar – http://in.linkedin.com/pub/rajat-kumar/24/55/130)
Join the Shehla Masood Memorial http://www.facebook.com/Shehla.Masood.Memorial
Shehla was an activist working on primarily on wildlife conservation, and also supported other causes like good governance, RTI Act, Police reforms, environment, women's rights & issues, transparency and sexual minorities rights. She had recently sat on a fast in support of Anna Hazare's India Against Corruption campaign. She was actively involved in raising issues related to the deaths of tigers in the various sanctuaries of Madhya Pradesh. Shehla herself was working for the RSS backed Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Trust, organizing events for them from Srinagar to Kolkata to Delhi.[4] She had asked for details about Narmada Samagraha, an NGO backed by the BJP Rajya Sabha MP. She was about to leave for Boat club in Bhopal to join the anti-government protest to bring the Jan Lokpal Bill when she was killed.[5] She co-founded RTI Anonymous, a service for whistle blowers for filing anonymous Right to Information (RTI) Applications with Indian Government departments without getting victimized, with her friends just a few days before her death.[6]
She was the secretary of NGO Udai[7][8] and was the CEO of a company called 'Miracles' which was involved in "Events and Media related services", according to her public Linked profile. Although NGO Udai was created in 2004, it was recently it ventured into tiger and forest conservation.[7]
Shehla was constantly living under threat, as revealed by her in an interview before she was shot dead.[9]
On August 16, 2011 at around 11 AM, she was shot by an unidentified assailant from point blank range. Shehla was about to leave in her car when she was shot. Nobody heard the gunshot indicating a silenced gun. It was only when the car didn't move for a while that the family members came out. Shehla was found collapsed on one side and was bleeding from her chest. She was of about 38 years of age.[1][3]
According to Police, the motive of the killing remains unknown. However, as per media, the possible cause could be her RTI activities and for protesting illegal diamond mining done by Rio Tinto in connivance with government officers and fighting to save tigers, leopards and forests, who were killed for their skins in connivance with forest officers[7][8][10][11]
In an indication of the seriousness of this high-profile murder, for which no arrests have yet been made, the Government of Madhya Pradesh transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, who recreated the sequence of events leading to her murder, but have yet to find any leads to the murderer.[12][13][14]
Shehla Masood was aged 38 years old, unmarried, born into a Muslim family. She lived with her father, Masood Sultan and her aunt in Koh-e-Fiza locality of Bhopal. She had a sister, who lives in the United States of America.