By Mohammed Shafeeq, IANS
Hyderabad : Nearly a month after two bomb blasts killed 44 people here, the police continue to indiscriminately arrest and harass Muslim young men, community groups allege, but the authorities deny the charges.
The families of arrested Muslim youths and the community leaders allege that the youths have been illegally detained and subjected to torture.
In the latest incident, a police team reportedly picked up Mohammed Naseeruddin, 28, from Mallepally area of the city Tuesday. The family members have not been informed of the arrest and the youth is yet to be produced in a court.
The family alleged that policemen in plain clothes caught Naseeruddin when he went to a school to fetch his nephew. He works for an airline in Saudi Arabia, but was looking for a new job in Muscat after his marriage recently.
Muslim leaders and civil liberties activists allege that there were dozens of youths suffering like Naseeruddin, being detained illegally in farmhouses on the city outskirts.
According to them, about 50 youths have been arrested for questioning since the Aug 25 explosions at a park and a popular eatery, but only half of them were produced in court.
The police are denying the charges.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said the police were acting within the purview of law and advised vernacular dailies to be careful while publishing such reports.
The commissioner promised to take action if specific instances were brought to his notice. In response, ‘Siasat’, a leading Urdu newspaper, published a list of police officials allegedly linked to illegal detentions and torture of youths.
A delegation led by Zahid Ali Khan, editor of ‘Siasat’, visited Cherlapally Jail near here Wednesday to meet a few of the arrested youths, who alleged there were tortured in custody before they were produced in courts.
The young men told the delegates that the police gave them ‘electric shocks on their private parts’ to force them to own up responsibility for the bomb blasts.
The arrested youths also spoke to a committee set up by the state human rights commission.
The committee, led by advocate Ravi Chander, visited Cherlapally Jail to record the statements of the youths and also met the family members of those who have gone missing, apparently after the police picked them up.
About 25 youths lodged in the jail told the committee about the police torture during their illegal detention while family members of other youths expressed apprehension about their safety.
Family members of Mohammed Shakeel said he was picked up on Sep 8 but is yet to be produced in court.
“My son was picked up without any reason by policemen in plain clothes. He was tortured before he was produced in court,” said Arifunnisa, mother of Ibrahim Ali Junaid, a student of Unani medicine in his final year of college.
Police say Mohammed Shahid alias Bilal is the mastermind behind the Aug 25 blasts as well as the earlier May 18 blasts at the Mecca Masjid.
One of those now allegedly arrested is Bilal’s brother, Majeed. The family says he has not been produced before any court.
The Muslim Women United Forum, an umbrella group of women’s organisations, has warned that they would be forced to take to the streets if the ‘repression’ was not stopped.
Muslims constitute 35 percent of the 6.5 million population of the city.