By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: The government of Andhra Pradesh issued Memo No.2451/V&C/A1/2011 on 3rd Jan. 2012, containing the names of Muslim youths who are going to be provided compensation by the state government for their wrongful implication in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case. The list of 70 such youths is full of flaws.
The list excluded many Muslim youths who were arrested by the police in connection with the blast, and put some of the youths who were put in illegal detention and torture for days in the category of “let off within 24 hours”, meaning they will get compensation amount of just Rs 20,000. The list seems to have been made by the government of A.P. not as a serious ‘confidence building measure’ but a mere tactic to win some Muslim votes.
Sameer Khan and Shoaib Jagirdar: The list of 70 youths doesn’t include Sameer Khan and Shoaib Jagirdar who were the first to get detained by the police in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case. A narco analysis test was conducted on both of them, later they were acquitted by the court. Both of them are from Maharashtra, so it is obvious that government of A.P. doesn’t find it necessary to provide them compensation because they are not part of local vote bank which government wants to attract.
Mohd Naseeruddin was a spare parts sales man. He was arrested by the police on 03-09-2007 3.30 a.m. but police claimed he was arrested on 05-09-2007. He was detained illegally for two days. He was produced before magistrate on 05-09-2007. Details of torture inflicted on him, according to the civil suit, are severe beating on soles of feet, slapped, stripped naked, threatened with implication in false cases and further torture, abused in filthy language, “third degree” treatment. His name is not even included in any of the lists while he was in jail for nearly one year.
Mohd Masood Ahmed was detained by the police on 1-9-2007 at 2:30 p.m; he was put in illegal custody for five days during which he was severely beatend, he was stripped naked and given electric shocks. He was produced before the magistrate on 6-9-2007. He was in the jail for six months, but his name is not included in the list.
Imraan Khan was an engineering student at the time of his arrest. He spent18 months in jail and even police had taken him to the Bangalore for the narco analysis test. He was later acquitted by the high court of all charges. He has recently received an award by the CNN-IBN which recognized his determination to fight back even after so serious cases. But shockingly his name is not recognized by the government. He is not included in the list. TCN spoke to Imran Khan. He said he is surprised by the government’s inefficiency to recognize its own wrong. He said he is not interested in those 3 lakhs because it won’t be proper compensation until the government acts against those guilty police officials. But he wants that character certificate and the recognition of the wrong which government have committed.
Syed Ismail Baig and Syed Zulfiqar Ahmed, who were put in illegal detention for over six days by the police and spent nearly 1 ½ years in jail are not included in the list of youths who will get compensation.
Abdul Raffey and Abdul Wassey are brothers. They were taken into custody by the police from their house on 31-08-2007. Both were put in illegal detention for 4 days, they were produce before magistrate on 05-09-2007, both were released from jail after a year. Now the government has decided to pay the compensation only to Abdul Wassay, the second brother Abdul Raffey’s name is not in the list.
Mohd Shakeel was a volunteer of an Islamic organization. He was picked by the police on 08-09-2007 at 9.30 pm. He was held in a police camp and tortured for six days, that includes severe beatings on body, soles of feet, stripped naked, hung from ceiling, threatened with implication in false cases and further torture and even death, abused in filthy language, electric shocks administered on ears and chest, blindfolded and kicked and slapped till he fell down. The government has put him in the “let off within 24 hours” list and is going to give him Rs 20,000 while the fact is that he was released after 1 ½ years in jail.
Abdul Saleem is in “let off within 24 hours” list of 50 youths. He will get compensation amount of Rs 20,000. But the fact is that his name is included in the civil suit filed by some human rights organization in the civil court, according to which he was not called for mere questioning, he was in fact detained by the police during which he was tortured by electric shocks. He was released after more than 24 hours.
Flaws in the compensation list don’t end here.
The list includes the name of Sheikh Mehboob Ali, founder of Darsgah Jehad-u-Shadath, a banned organization in Hyderabad. He was called by the police for questioning in the blast related case. His name is included in the list of persons who are going to get the compensation of Rs 20,000. But the irony of this fact is Sheik Mehboob Ali has died a long time back, but still the government has put the name of a dead man in the list and forgot the names of the persons who have spent years in jail, a monumental inefficiency shown by the Andhra govt.
Mohd Muneeruddin Mujahid is head of an Islamic organization. After the blast he was called for the questioning by the police His name is included in the second list. TCN spoke to Mr Mujahid to know his views on the list. He said he was shocked to know that his name was there in the list. He said police called him for questioning and he spent only 2 hours in the station, and his name is included in the list. He said he knows many persons of his organization who were taken into illegal custody and spent lot of time in jail, but their name is not included in the list. He said it is a prime example of how government is serious in its “confidence building measure”. This clearly shows that government wants to allot compensation to the influential [even if they are dead] but the poor Muslim youths who have spent years in jail, and hardly have any say don’t matter for the government.
Mohd Abdul Majid is the brother of Shahid Bilal, an alleged Hizbul-Mujahedeen commander. Abdul Majid was picked by the police after the blast, he was put in illegal detention for 6 days, after when he was produced before the magistrate, the magistrate was shocked to see the condition of Majid, plasters were on his whole body, his right knee was broken and he can hardly walk. It clearly showed what happened in those six days. According to the police version at that time he was the kingpin of the blast. Later he was acquitted by the court, his name is included in list of persons who will be considered for the compensation after the criminal cases pending against them will be dismissed, in the remarks column of the list it is written that he had “Fled to Riyadh (KSA) on 12-09-2009”. One fails to understand how a one time terror accused and the alleged king pin of a major blast was provided passport and allowed to leave the country. The answer comes from his father. According to him he was not allowed to stay in Hyderabad. According to his father police officers themselves made his passport and arrange his ticket for Riyadh and forced him to fly out of Hyderabad. Obviously to save the police from further implication, so till he doesn’t return back to Hyderabad he won’t get the compensation amount and that is what police won’t allow to happen at any cost.
Abdul Sattar is said to be an infamous police informer of the city. Before the Mecca Masjid bomb blast he worked for the police for seven years. After the bomb blasts he was sent by the police to the Bangladesh to search for Shahid Bilal and to persuade him to surrender in the blast, as he was once close to Shahid. While returning from Bangladesh from his mission he was caught by BSF in the Indo-Bangla border. He made statement to the BSF that he is Andhra police informer and was despatched on a mission to Bangladesh, which was started reporting in all the major papers in Hyderabad. A.P police in damage control mode arrested him and shown him as an “ISI agent”. He was brought back in Hyderabad and booked under blast related cases, police made him pawn in the whole blast case, they made him to give the names which they desire in his confession statement, later on the basis of his confessional statement many Muslim youths were arrested by the police. Later when the whole blast case fell down in the court, police voluntarily lifted all the cases from him and released him. Now his name is in the first number of the list of the persons who will get the compensation amount of Rs. 3 lakhs.
From the point of announcement of the compensation to till date, the confidence building measure of the chief minister is running into lot of controversies. From allotting compensation amounts from the Mecca Masjid funds, his decision of not to attend the program in which Muslim youths will get those meagre amounts, organized by his government and now by releasing this flawed list. All the acts of the government till now in Mecca Masjid bomb blast case have proven to be a serious “confidence destructing measure” in the Muslim community.