By TCN Staff Reporter,
Patna: Braving scorching sun thousands of people on Wednesday (30th May) came out on streets in Darbhanga district of Bihar to protest against terror arrest of local Muslim youths. It was first big protest in the state on the issue. In last 6 months about one dozen local youths have been arrested in connection with some unsolved terror cases.
Protestors were shouting against the police and governments for picking in illegal fashion young boys — whom they say are innocents — in terror cases. From Badh Samela village alone under Keoti police station in Darbhanga, four youths have been picked in terror cases since November 2011. The latest is Fasih Mahmood, the local youth, who was picked on 13th May from Saudi Arabia where he worked as an engineer at a company.
“This was the first big protest on the issue. Anger is growing among the people against arrest of innocents. This massive protest will instill some confidence and courage among the villagers who were frightened and shocked following these arrests,” Shakeel Ahmed Salafi, president Muslim Bedari Karwan, told TCN over phone. The karwan had arranged the protest demonstration today which originated from Qila Ghat area in the city and culminated at Hartali Chowk near DM’s office.
In their speeches, local community leaders raised the issue of Fasih Mahmood and other youths who have been arrested so far.
At the end of the demonstration a delegation of the karwan met DM and handed over a memorandum of demands.
Giving details about the memorandum, Salafi said: “We told him that in the name of terror probe police and agencies are targeting a particular community. The way youths have been picked is nothing but a kidnapping. We demanded an end to such arrests. If agencies are honest in terror probe they should show transparency. But it seems they are arresting innocents. We demanded action against guilty police officers. We also demanded the government to set up a tribunal under judge of Supreme Court, and the tribunal should look into all such terror arrests in last 15 years. The tribunal should be given a time frame to dispose of the cases.”
Salafi who writes in Urdu newspapers and also brings out Al-Huda Urdu monthly said people are very angry against politicians irrespective of their parities as they are not raising the issue at higher levels.
Resentment against politicians over the issue is so deep that when local JDU MLA Izhar Ahmed reached to address today’s gathering, people hooted him out, and he had to take refuge in police and district officials, he said.