By Mahtab Alam, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: While negating the police claims and media reports that Salman is 21-years-old and pointing the gross violation of rights of minors by security forces in the case arrest of Salman Ahmad of Azamgarh, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association (JTSA) wrote a letter to Special Commissioner on Juvenile Justice, Harsh Mandar and urged to consider this case with the extreme urgency.
Salman has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad claiming his involvement in bomb blasts. The police claimed that, Salman on the directions of Atif Ameen( alleged IM mastermind killed in the ‘encounter’ at Batla House) planted bombs in Varanasi’s Court room on November 23rd, 2007, in Gorakhpur on May 22nd, 2007, in Jaipur on May 13th, 2008, in Ahmedabad on July 26th, 2008 and in Delhi on September 13th, 2008.
Salman Ahmad’s high school mark sheet
According to high school mark-sheet of Salman, he was born on October 3, 1992 conclusively establishing that he is a 17 years old hence he is a minor [a copy of his certificate is available with TwoCircles.net]. This also means that Salman was just 15 or 16 when he is alleged to have been planted bombs. Salman Ahmad was arrested on March 6th from Siddharthnagar, UP.
In its letter, JTSA writes, “We object to the remand of the boy granted to the Delhi Police, especially since the specific purpose of the remand is for “interrogation”. A minor cannot be left unprotected in the hands of an agency, which has unbridled powers of inflicting violence—we are only too aware how ‘interrogation’ routinely involves brutal mental and physical torture”.
JTSA feared, if necessary action is not taken then deliberate lies and misinformation may rob a minor of his basic rights. The Letter is signed by its President Dr. Manisha Sethi On behalf of Adil Mehdi, Ahmed Sohaib, Ghazi Shahnawaz, Farah Farooqi, Azra Razzak, Anwar Alam, Tanweer Fazal, Sanghamitra Misra, Ambarien Al –qadar, Shakeb Ahmed, Arshad Alam and others.