By V A Mohamad Ashrof for TwoCircles.net,
Kochi: The United Front Against Oppression of the State, a conglomeration of various human rights groups in Kerala, conducted a one day conference on March 14, Saturday at KSEB Hall, Ernakulam on ‘state terrorism’.
The immediate thrust of the conference was the arrest of the leaders of human rights movement in Kerala, namely Advocate Thushar Nilmal Saradhy and Jaison C. Cooper. They were arrested and have been kept in jail under draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) laws from January 30, 2015 onwards.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor SAR Jeelani said that more than 90 per cent of the under-trials kept in Indian jails are innocents. Those who have dissenting political views are suppressed by entangling with black laws including UAPA and AFSPA,” he said, while chronicling the history of UAPA and also mentioned the brutalities of TADA and POTA.
C.S. Murali, chairperson of the United Front Against Oppression of the State, was on the chair. Jolly Chirayath (Convener of the United Front Against Oppression of the State) welcomed the gathering.
In many terror-linked cases, innocents are acquitted after 16 or 18 years’ languishing in jails, Professor Jeelani, added.
He also criticised the Judiciary for not questioning the official version, which looks weak from its very appearance.
MN. Ravunny, leader of Porattom and CRPP, warned that fascism is fast approaching in India and more and more innocents will be put into jail for the sake of the corporate. Parties like CPI (M) must come forward to resist UAPA, he added.
Advocate Madhusudanan questioned the anti-democratic nature of UAPA by calling it as the move “towards democratic despotism.” He mentioned that both Thushar and Jaison are stalwarts for human rights.
He also mentioned Panayikulam SIMI case (2006 August 15) wherein, he observed, evidence were fabricated to prove that a meeting held for “anti-national purpose” while it was really public programme with printed notice on the ‘role of Muslims in the freedom struggle.’
The police department is heavily communalized and government establishment is using it to whip the enemies by brute force, he said.
Gouri wife of Ashraf who was recently booked under UAPA, explained police and media are playing in the hands of communal fascists. Her husband, she claimed, was not part of Maoist activism, but indicted as such just to appease some powerful elements.