By TCN News,
Patna: As a part of movement against draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a convention is going to be organised here at Anjuman Islamic Hall, Ashok Rajpath, Patna on March 03, 2014.
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is a breach of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution as an accused booked under the Act can generally be detained by security agencies for up to 180 days without bail.
A meeting of more than 80 prominent community leaders, activists and lawyers from across the country held at India International Centre in New Delhi on January 23 last decided to undertake nationwide campaign to repeal the ‘UAPA’. The meeting observed that after the repeal of draconian laws namely POTA and TADA, the amended version of UAPA has become a new tool to falsely implicate innocents’ youths in fabricated cases.
In the meeting a joint platform called ‘People’s Movement against UAPA’ was announced with a purpose to coordinate the activities. Maulana Muhammed Wali Rahmani, Secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board was unanimously nominated to be the chairman of the core committee of the Movement. Kamal Farooqui and Mr. Muhammed Shafi were named convener and joint convener respectively.
The members of the proposed Central Committee would include: Maulana Mohammad Wali Rahmani, E. Abubacker and E. M. Abdurahiman (Both from Kerala); A. Sayeed, Kamal Faruqui, Dr. John Dayal, Mahmood Asad Madani, Niaz Farooqui, Mahmoud Pracha, Mufti Mohd Mukarram, Harmindar Singh, Adv. Ashok Agarwal, Salar Khan, Harsh Mandar, Sabbak Subhani, Manisha Sethi, Dr A.S. Narang, Mrs. Seema Mustafa, Aruna Roy, A. K. Khan, Maulana Arshad Madani, Teesta Setalwad & Virender Grover, (all from Delhi); Muhammad Shafi & Mrs. Mehrunnisa Khan (both from Rajasthan); Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Tamil Naidu); Sarwar Chishty (Ajmer); Baman Mesh Ram, Bhai Tej Singh, Fr. Dominic, Lenin Raghuvanshi (Varanasi); Prof. Arshi Khan (Aligarh); Shafique Mahajir (AP); Battin Rao, Ram Puniyani, Bala Chauhan and Shabnam Hashmi, the announcement stated.
Patna’s convention is jointly organised by Imarat-e-Sharia, Jamiat-ul-Ulema, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Imarat-ahle-e-Hadees, Idara-e-Shariah and others. A national level convention of Social Activists, Intellectuals, political leaders and Human Rights Activists will be held at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi on 5th March. Many Human Rights Activists’ organizations have associated with this movement.
Talking to this correspondent Mr. Jauhar, a human rights activist from Patna said that there were around 80,000 persons booked under the Act and despite such huge numbers, the conviction rate is only 0.8 percent. Under this Act bail will not be granted, unless a public prosecutor hears the application for release,”. “The onus is on the accused to prove his innocence. Victims of the Act are poor dalits, tribals and minorities,” he added. Mr. Jauhar was instrumental in organising candle march in Patna on February 21 last.
In his statement M Naushad Ansari of Peace Foundation, Patna appealed to all the national and religious political parties and Human Right Activists to support this movement so that the political parties could include this issue in their election manifestos for the next General Election.