Sunday 20 November 2011

We need justice and not just compensations, says acquitted Muslim youths

From TwoCircles
Hyderabad: Hyderabad police were in now way different from their colleagues in other parts of the nation, by their usual routine habit of torturing Muslims, over every offence heard and every issue raised. Soon after the Mecca Masjid, Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park blasts; the Hyderabad police, without any proof arrested 150 Muslim youths from different parts of the city being booked under different cases. With the crime branch taking up the case 52 were let free and 98 of them were taken in to custody. Around 40-50 of them were booked under blast related cases and 26 among them were acquitted after one and half year long torturing and sufferings as the Honourable Court realised that the police couldn’t even lodge a logical case against them. Some among them got released soon but others had a long stay behind the bars; though they all had a common fortune, the humility in the society and the total loss of future.


L-R:Junaid, Rayeesuddin and Abdur Raheem

Though there are no compensations sufficient to enough to satisfy them, taking in to account the humiliation, physical and mental torture they undergone during those days; the High Court order could well have given them a sigh of relief. But until now they have not yet received the justice they deserved. Though they demanded compensation to start a new life and strict actions against those police officers who implicated fake cases against them, every thing went to the deaf ears of the authorities.
In July this year, and It brought a ray of hope to those youths, chief minister even apologized to those youths in the assembly, but apology is not just enough, when many Muslim leaders from the congress approached the chief minister to implement the recommendations, he said on 25th august that the file is under consideration of the law department and decision will be taken soon, till now 3 months are passed but there is no further development from the government side.
Last July the National Minorities Commission headed by Wajahat Habibullah had sent a letter to the Chief Minister recommending compensation of at least three lakhs and a govt job as per their qualifications, to the Muslims who were wrongly implicated in the blast cases. The letter demanded actions against those police officials for being biased against a particular community and for targeting them in the most heinous manner. It brought a ray of hope to those youths and as a result Chief Minister even apologized in the assembly. But apologies haven’t done anything good enough until now. When many Muslim leaders from the congress approached the chief minister to implement the recommendations, he said on 25th august that the file is under consideration of the law department and decision will be taken soon, till now it has been 3 months, but not a single development from the government side.
TCN spoke to some of the Muslim youths who were arrested and then acquitted, to know how they feel regarding the compensation issue. Syed Imraan Khan, an engineering student being arrested had to spent 18 months in jail, he said that “I am not interested in compensations, those few lakhs can’t bring back the honour which I had lost in the society, more than me it was my family who suffered a lot, I want those officers who had tortured us and arrested us in fake cases to suffer the same pain which I went through, I want strict actions against them”.
Abdul Kaleem was the man as per Assemanand who moved him to give his confession, he said “we had suffered a lot in the society, now on there can’t be a good future for us, we cant try for good jobs now, nor we will be able to get any loan from the banks. If government could give us compensations, we could at least start some business and could try to lead a dignified life, Police Officers were working under the orders of the government, so the govt is equally responsible, government had done a grave mistake they should pay for it and the police officers should be punished as well.”
Dr .Ibrahim Ali Junaid, a Unani medical student said that, “We have no hope at all that the government will compensate us because it is full of communal minded people, and also we find no ray of hope that government is going to act against those communally biased police officers. Recommendations of the NCM is of no use and they gone to end in the dustbin of the chief ministers office”
Mohd Rayeesuddin said, “There is no sign from the government for the compensations as they are not at all serious about it, if they would have been serious about justice they would have compensated us long before the recommendations of NMC. I want those officers in the criminal branch who had investigated this case to be punished”.
Abdul Raheem another among the acquitted said, “Forget about compensations; we are not even sanctioned with loans. Executive Director of the Wakf board, Akram Ali khan promised us a loan from 90,000 to 2,50,000 but they later had their steps back from it. Government is not serious on the issue and they are impartial towards us, even our community leadership seems not bothered, we are feeling helpless and alone”.
It is now believed that the compensation to these innocent victims too would turn out to be a mere promise or just another topic for the blame game before elections

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