By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Gujarat police took Maulana Habib Falahi, an accused in Ahmedabad 2008 serial blasts, in transit remand after producing him on Wednesday morning in a lower court in Lucknow. Habib (26) is a resident of Sarai Mir in Azamgarh and his name figures in the chargesheet of the 2008 serial blasts in Ahmedabad as one of the accused. Gujarat ATS had shown him as ‘wanted’ in the case.
Maulana Mohammad Habib was arrested by the Gujarat police with the help of Azamgarh police and UP ATS on Tuesday, December 27, 2011 from Ambedkar Nagar which is nearly 105 km from Azamgarh. Habib used to teach in a madarsa Talimul Islam in Ambedkar Nagar.
The chargesheet of Ahmedabad serial blast 2008 case accuses Habib of hatching a conspiracy for the serial blasts and of also doing a 3-day terror training session in Kerala. Importantly according to the crime records, Maulana Habib has never been involved in any criminal activity in Azamgarh and Ambedkar Nagar.
According to the UP ATS, after arrests of alleged SIMI activists from Azamgarh, in order to trick the state ATS Maulana Habib had opened a shop in Azamgarh. But due to the increased activities of ATS in the city, later he shifted to Ambedkar Nagar.
Rashid, brother of Maulana Habib and Md. Qais, his uncle, have rejected the allegation of Gujarat police and UP ATS of Maulana Habib being a ‘terrorist’ or him being ever involved in any terror or anti-social activities.
Masihuddin Sanjari, joint secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) told TwoCircles.net, that there has become a trend of human right violation and violation of several other laws by ATS and police in terror cases. For instance, Sanjari said that no family member was informed about the arrest of Habib by the concerned agencies. Sanjari also said that the Habib’s arrest by Gujarat police has created an environment of fear in Azamgarh.
Sanjari said that all the Azamgarh youths who have been arrested till date on the name of being terrorists have no criminal record. Usually people try to forget and move on but these ‘baseless and false’ arrests, only make the people of Azamgarh live in a constant state of fear psychosis, Sanjari further added.