Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Muslim community protests against random arrests


The Milli Gazette
Published Online: May 28, 2012
New Delhi, 28 May 2012: Muslim community leaders today sent a strong letter to  Mr P Chidambaram, Union Home Minister and Mr Wajahat Habibullah, Chairman, National Commission for Minorities protesting against the continuous saga of arrests of Muslim youth on unproven "terror" charges. The following is the text of the letter signed by a number of community leaders:
28 May 2012
New Delhi
Respected Sir,

Alarmed as the Muslim community is at the resumed serial, at random and unending saga of arrests of Muslim youth from various parts of the country on apparently no tangible charges, two more such recent incidents are agitating the community and we find it necessary to bring the same to your kind attention for urgent redressal:
1. Mr Fasih Mahmood, an engineer in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, according to media reports in both Saudi Arabia and India, was deported to India on 13 May this year at Indian government’s request on alleged “terror” charges and so far there is no information about his whereabouts.
2. Two very young Kashmiri students, studying in a reputed madrasa (Jamiatul Falah at Bilaryaganj, district Azamgarh, U.P.) were arrested by some unknown security agency at Aligarh station on 24 May while travelling on Kaifiyat train from Azamgarh to Delhi to visit their ailing cousin who had come to the capital for medical treatment. The name of the agency and the two boys’ whereabouts are not known despite efforts at both Delhi and Lucknow.

The Muslim community is pained to see this continuing saga which has earlier seen Journalist Kazmi’s arrest while seemingly there is no evidence against him. We request you to kindly look into the above two matters on an urgent basis in order to offer some solace to the families of these victims who have fell foul of the security agencies’ ultra vigilance where victims are picked up on mere suspicion without any real, hard and tangible proof and thereafter they are kept under illegal detention while the agencies try to somehow obtain some incriminating “evidence” or secure their forced confession via torture which is illegal and against India’s international obligations. These illogical incidents are seriously eroding the Muslim community’s goodwill towards UPA.
Yours sincerely,
 
 Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, President, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat
For and on behalf of
 Mujtaba Farooq, Chairman, Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims
 Muhammad Ahmad, Political Secretary, Jamaat-e Islami Hind
 Abdul Hameed Nomani, Secretary, Jamiat Ulama-e Hind
 Dr Tasleem Rahmani, President, Muslim Political Council of India
 Dr SQR Ilyas, General Secretary, Welfare Party of India
 Zaheer Zaidi, President, Shia Point
 Maulana Muhsin Taqwi, President, National Council of Shia Ulama
 Shuaib Shaikh, Secretary, Students Organisation of India
 AK Kidwai, Secretary, Association for Protection of Civil Rights
 Maulana Ataur Rahman Qasmi, Director, Shah Waliullah Institute
 [End]

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