By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: Under the joint platform called “People’s Movement Against UAPA” (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act), a convention is being held here on February 27 from 10 am in Acharya Narendradeo Library, near Kamla Park.
The convention would be addressed by senior Supreme Court advocate Ashok Agarwal, Navaid Hamid, a social activist, who is also member All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat & secretary, South Asian Council for Minorities, (SACM); Muhammad Shafi (Rajasthan), veteran journalist LS Herdenia, Adv. Sajid Siddiqui and other intellectuals. This convention in Bhopal is a part of the national campaign against UAPA being held in all the state capitals and the national capital Delhi.
It may be pointed out here that in a meeting wherein 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 anti-people law 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 in cases.
To coordinate and monitor the activities, a joint platform called People’s Movement Against UAPA was announced in the meeting. Maulana Muhammed Wali Rahmani was unanimously nominated to be the chairman of the core committee of the Movement while Kamal Farooqui and Mr. Muhammed Shafi were named convener and joint convener respectively.
According to Adv. Sajid Siddiqui, local convenor of the convention the basic reason for the prolonged detention of innocents, especially Muslims, in various parts of the country as accused under terror charges, is the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA in short. The original act of 1967 was amended three times in 2004, 2008 and 2012 making it more draconian. By adding new clauses to the original law by these amendments, it has now become more inhuman than the previous special laws TADA and POTA. The under-trials framed in UAPA are not granted bail for a long period, in most cases till the end of trial in which their innocence is proved. So, it is evident that unless and until UAPA is withdrawn the unending saga of innocents in jails will continue, he added.
The members of the proposed Central Committee would include: Maulana Mohammad Wali Rahmani, E. Abubacker & 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.