By TwoCircles.net, Staff Reporter
Bengaluru: After the arrest of Bengaluru based Islamic preacher, Maulana Anzar Shah Qasmi over alleged links to Al Qaeda, more than 150 Muslim clerics and heads of mosques and madrasas across Karnataka held a meeting at the Eidgah grounds in Bengaluru on Monday and decided to extend him all possible legal help.
The clerics’ representatives from Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Tableeghi Jamaat, Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind, Sunni Jamaat, Huda Muslim, Ahle Hadees and Shia Jamaat rejected the allegations of police regarding the involvement of Qasmi in any terror activity.
The clerics have further decided to submit a representation to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister G. Parameshwara seeking their intervention for a fair probe.
“We do not support anti-national activities and the manner in which he was arrested and portrayed as a terror suspect merely on suspicion is very disturbing,” Syed Shafiulla, convener of the meeting was quoted by NewsPortal Costaldigest.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind President Maulana Syed Arshad Madani and Jamiat Ulema Maharashtra Legal Aid Committee Secretary Gulzar Azmi have also requested Delhi-based advocate MS Khan to provide legal support and follow up the case of Maulana Qasmi.
While briefing TwoCircles.net over the arrest of Maulana Qasmi, the President of All India Muslim Majlis Muhawarat (AIMMM), Navaid Hamid said “It is highly condemnable that people are being picked up arbitrarily. The extension of police custody also raises suspicions that there are chances of making forceful confessions by use of torture. It shows not only the complicity of security agencies but also it has political connotation.”
Maulana Anzar Shah Qasmi was arrested on Wednesday January 6 by Delhi Police Special Cell from Banashankari, Bangluru, who brought him to the national capital for interrogation.
Police have alleged that Qasmi, who teaches in a Madrassa in Bengaluru, has strong links with terror activities of ‘Al Qaida in the India sub-continent’ (AQIS) which was floated in 2014.
A special court in Delhi on Tuesday remanded Qasmi to police custody until January 20.