By IANS,
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Saturday condemned “the illegal detention and arrest” of Maulana Noor-ul-Huda, a respected cleric from Deoband who was deplaned from an Emirates flight “on the basis of a trivial complaint”.
The party demanded that “the case against Noor-ul-Huda must be withdrawn forthwith” and “he be fully compensated for the losses he suffered as a result of wrongful detainment”.
The cleric was arrested Thursday from a Delhi-London Emirates flight at the Indira Gandhi International airport here after a woman co-passenger complained about his “suspicious” talk over his mobile phone.
The CPI-M described the arrest and detention of the cleric as “a reminder of the deep-tooted prejudice that exists in sections of the law enforcement agencies against Muslims”.
“It was bad enough that he was off-loaded from the Emirates flight on the basis of a trivial complaint but for the Delhi Police to register a case against him and to have sent him to Tihar Jail is condemnable and unacceptable,” the party said in a statement.
It also asked the police to end community profiling.
“Clearly while caution and alertness is required from all official agencies against any terrorist threats, the kind of community profiling which is reflected in this case puts a question mark on the credibility of law enforcement agencies,” the CPI-M said.
“It is necessary for the home ministry to send a stern message against such community profiling,” the party added.