By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad : Abdul Majeed, the younger brother of terror suspect Abdul Shahed alias Bilal had an emotional reunion with his family when he stepped out of Charlapally jail in the outskirts of Hyderabad on Friday morning after spending nearly nine months in prison.
Abdul Majeed was released by the authorities two days after the Andhra Pradesh High Court had granted him bail on two sureties of Rs 20,000 each and asked him to mark his presence once in a week at a city police station.
Abdul Wahed, Majeed’s father said that the release was delayed because it took time for him to arrange the money for surety.
As soon as Abdul Majeed came out of the prison, his waiting family members and relatives took him away to their home in old city. A visibly happy Abdul Wahed said, “We are thankful to Allah for his mercy that my son could survive all this trauma and come out of jail”.
Expressing his happiness over the release of Abdul Majeed on bail, Lateef Mohammed Khan, general secretary of AP Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee said that with this 18 of the thirty youth arrested in the aftermath of last year’s blasts in Hyderabad have come out of the prison.
APCLMC has been waging a battle both at the legal and political level for justice with the arrested youth. “The charges leveled against these youth are baseless and fictitious. There arrest was wrong and police booked false cases to save its face”, he said.
None of the 30 arrested persons were charged in connection with the bomb blasts in Mecca Masjid, Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat in which more than 50 people were killed. Instead they were booked in different cases including attempt to murder, attack on police, criminal conspiracy and possessing objectionable material.
Abdul Majeed was grilled by the police about his elder brother Shahed’s whereabouts and his possible links with the terrorist acts in Hyderabad and other places in the country. He was also subject to Narco analysis test but he could not provide any worthwhile information to the police.
His family on the other hand alleged that Majeed was subjected to third degree torture by the police for a week before his arrest was declared.
Police say Abdul Shahed alias Bilal was a key operative of Laskhar-e-Tayyaba and Bangladesh based Harkatul Jehad-e-Islami and was shuttling between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. His name figured in the suicide bomb blast in police Task Force office in Hyderabad on October 12, 2005. Another brother of Shahed, Abdul Zahed was arrested on the charges of helping in the attack and he is facing trial along with six others. The police has also named Shahed as a prime suspect in the blast in Mecca Masjid on May 18 last year and twin blast in Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat on August 25. More than 50 people were killed in those incidents.
While his family has expressed its ignorance about Shahed’s location and his activities, some media reports during last few months have claimed that Shahed was shot dead by unknown persons in Pakistnai city of Karachi.