By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh police and Special Task Force (STF) officials have resorted to inhuman and brutal methods to seek forced confessions from Ulema and madrasa students who are languishing in Lucknow district jail, say their families.
Most of them were arrested as terrorism suspects in the wake of terrorist attacks in the state over the year. Many were arrested after Varanasi blast, some others after serial blasts at court premises in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi. They were exposed to police atrocities and torture.
Khalid Mujahid and Tariq Qasmi are two such Ulema who have faced mental and physical torture and inhuman treatment at the hands of the police and STF officials. Crossing all limits, the officials poured alcohol into their mouth, at gun point, to make them confess, said Zaheer Alam Falahi, Mujahid’s uncle, talking to TwoCircles.net from Lucknow. Giving details of their arrest and interrogation, Falahi blasted police claims about the suspects.
In the wake of serial blasts at some district court premises, Mujahid was arrested from Jaunpur on 16th December 2007 in full public view. Similarly, Qasmi was arrested from Azamgarh on 12th December. But after a full one week, the police produced them before the media on 22nd December in Barabanki and said they were arrested on the day. From their arrest to their presentation before the media, these two were brutally tortured, says Falahi. They were given electric shots and other physical atrocities.
The revelation about the torture was made through the letters written by these two detainees. Some of the letters are in possession with his uncle Falahi who can be contacted on 9450084200.
Zaheer Alam Falahi and Mumtaz Ahmad, Qasmi’s uncle, who were accompanied by U.P president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Mohammad Ahmed and advocate Mohammad Shoaib, held a press conference in Lucknow on 18th March. They condemned the police atrocities and their methods to get forced confessions from the detainees.
Not that Mujahid and Qasmi were tortured only in the intervening period of December 12-22, even after being shifted to Lucknow from Barabanki jail, their miseries continued unabated. Talking to this correspondent on phone, Falahi said the two have been kept in a dark room at the Lucknow jail. They are not allowed to move within the jail premises and are not allowed to intermingle with other prisoners.
The police claim that these two were arrested with arms and ammunition in Barabanki on 22nd December is baseless as hundreds of people have petitioned that they were arrested in two different places and on two different dates. About 600 people in Jaunpur have signed a petition saying that Mujahid was arrested from Jaunpur on 16th December 2007. More than 1,000 people are witness to the arrest of Qasmi in Azamgarh on 12th December.
Giving details of the legal aspects of the case, advocate Mohammad Shoaib, who has decided to see the case of Mujahid and Qasmi, told this correspondent that the trial is yet to be started. He has challenged their clients’ illegal detention. He has filed a Habeas corpus in Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. In the writ, he has challenged the detention and Uttar Pradesh Bar Associations’ decision to keep lawyers from pleading for the suspects. After the first hearing on 15th March, the bench sent notices to the state government and STF in this regard.
Meanwhile, succumbing to pressure to look into the illegal detention of these two Ulema, the state Chief Minister Mayawati has announced the constitution of a judicial enquiry into the arrests made by STF. Victims’ families and Muslim organizations have welcomed the decision. But they have demanded that these two detainees must be released immediately from the jail. In case they were not released within a week, the jail will be gheraoed, they warned.