By Abdul Hameed, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: Seeking the earliest release of the accused in the Malegaon 2006 blasts case, a delegation of their family members yesterday met the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and the Chairman of the National Minorities Commission Mohammad Shafi Qureshi. Both of them reportedly assured the delegation of fulfilling their demands.
As per media reports, the delegation comprising of Badrunnisa Raees Ahmad, Aafia, Dr. Farogh, Qamar Jahan, Shabbir Ahmad Maseehullah, Makhdoomi Iqbal Ahmad, Samreen Bano, Noorul Huda, legal advisor Advocate Momin Mujeeb Ahmad and religious advisor Mufti Muhammad Ismail Qasmi, among others, met P Chidambaram and Shafi Qureshi and handed over a memorandum to them.
In the memorandum they demanded that in the light of the Bhikko Chowk blasts charge sheet and the new affidavit of Abrar Ahmad, the lone approver in Malegaon 2006 blasts case who later turned hostile, the Muslims arrested in Shab-e-Barat case should be released at the earliest.
Mufti Ismail reportedly told that the family members of the accused yet have full trust in the judiciary but the one-sided probe conducted by the Anti Terrorism Squad and the Central Bureau of Investigation has created anger among the Muslims.
‘…Due to highhandedness of ATS chief and the CBI head Raman Tyagi, innocents are still behind the bars. Though they staged hunger strikes, they are yet to get justice,’ ‘Inquilab’ daily reports advocate Momin Mujeeb Ahmad to have said.
The accused have been kept in Ratnagiri and Kolhapur jails where they have to face prejudice according to the wives of the accused. The wives claim that the details of the troubles meted out on the accused in the jails are being given off and on to the state and the central governments.
On September 8, 2006 Malegaon was shattered with a series of blasts which took place at Bada Qabrastan and Mushawarat Chowk on Shab-e-Barat after Friday prayers. The explosions that claimed 31 lives and injured more than 250 persons were allegedly attributed to some alleged SIMI outfits. The ATS arrested 8 Muslim youths, imposed MCOCA on them and sent to jail.
A 34-member Malegaon delegation of various political and non-political organizations met the home minister Jayant Patil and ATS chief Raghuvanshi on 4th February and handed over a memorandum demanding a re-probe in the September 2006 blasts and release of innocent Muslim youth who were arrested in the case. The delegates had said that they were representing the people of Malegaon.
Giving into the persistent protest by the Muslims who expressed their no-confidence regarding the ATS investigation, the state government finally handed over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which after some excuses accepted it as though reluctantly. The CBI is yet to finish its investigation.
National Minorities Commission Chairman Shafi Qureshi promised to send a two member NCM delegation to Malegaon in few weeks.