By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: Reacting sharply to the acquittal of all accused in Parbhani masjid blast case, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind blamed the Maharashtra state for its lack of interest in prosecuting the accused.
Jamiat said it would challenge session court’s finding before the high court and will try to deliver justice to the victims of the blasts.
On Thursday, a session court acquitted all four in the case sighting lack of evidences. On November 21, 2003 a bomb exploded at Mohammadiya Masjid, Rehmat Nagar, Parbhani killing one person and injuring 34 others.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the acquittal of all accused from the case, Maulana Nadeem Siddiqui, President, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind (Mahmood Madani) Maharashtra, said, “Maharashtra state was never interested in punishing the perpetrators of the blast, therefore it had not appointed a senior public prosecutor in the case”.
“No UAPA section was invoked in the case and often prosecutor would remain absent during trial. This is how state treated this case, which ultimately led to acquittals”, he added.
“State has done injustice with the victims of bomb blast who had gathered in a mosque on Friday to offer prayers. We will challenge this judgement before High Court on behalf of the complainant, who was the imam of the mosque”, he said.
Hafiz Abdul Qadeer, imam of Mohammadiya Masjid was the complainant in the case.
Siddiqui further alleged Maharashtra state to be biased against Muslims, saying that while right-wing radicals are set free from bomb blast cases, Muslims are rounded up under false conspiracy charges and stringent sections of MCOCA and POTA.
“State would not have treated this case lightly if the accused in the case would have been Muslims. Muslims are seriously prosecuted in all cases but in this case the state was completely negligent”, he alleged.
(With inputs from Aurangabad Times