By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad : Several prominent human rights and civil rights activists of Andhra Pradesh have raised their voice of protest against the Hyderabad police for booking a criminal conspiracy case against the AP Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee general secretary Lateef Mohammed Khan. They warned the government against arresting Lateef Mohammed Khan stressing that if he had raised his voice against the arrest and harassment of innocent people, it was not a crime.
K Balagopal and Jeevan Kumar, the president and vice president of Human Rights Forum and BSuresh Kumar, Joint Secretary of AP Civil Liberties Committee told a news conference in Hyderabad that by taking up the cases of the persons arrested by the police on suspicion of terror activities was no crime. “The police have completely failed in investigating the bomb blasts in Mecca Masjid, Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat. But it was targeting people like Lateef Mohammed Khan because he had exposed the atrocities of police”, Balagopal said.
The activists were reacting to the inclusion of Lateef Mohammed Khan’s name to the conspiracy case No. 198/07 at the Gopalpuram police station in Hyderabad charging him under section 120b, 1 and 2, 124A, 125, 126 IPC, case of conspiracy and waging the war against Asiatic powers.
The activists warned that if the government does not withdraw the cases against Lateef Mohammed Khan, they will intensify their protest. “No weapons or bombs were recovered from Lateef Khan’s possession but the police has booked a serious case against him”, Balagopal said.
He pointed out that Lateef Mohammed Khan had organized press conference and public hearings for the families of the persons arrested by the police after last year’s blasts.
Lateef Mohammed Khan himself said that he was being targeted by the police because he had exposed how they had framed the innocent youth and subjected them to torture to force them to confess their involvement in the blasts.
The issue of Lateef Mohammed Khan was also taken up by the Muslim Majlis-e-Amal delegation when it met the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. The delegation led by prominent religious scholar Moulana Hameeduddin Aauqil Hussami told the Chief Minister that apart from Lateef Mohammed Khan, names of 43 other persons were also added to the conspiracy case and police was going on adding new names to the list.
The delegation included the leaders of Jamat-e-Islami, Tameer-e-Millat, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and other Muslim organization. According to the delegation members, the Chief Minister assured them that he will discuss the issue with the top police officials and see to it that all such names are deleted from the list of accused.
It may be recalled here that Lateef Mohammed Khan had produced three youth before the media who had alleged that the police was pressurizing them to either confess the involvement in Mecca Masjid bomb blast case or start working as police informers.
Later the police arrested two of the three youth Dr Ibrahim Junaid and Rayees Ahmad in different cases. One of the points on which the youth were tortured and grilled was why they had links with Lateef Mohammed Khan. Third youth Mohammed Shadab has been named as accused in criminal conspiracy case along with Lateef Mohammed Khan.