"Khalid had been married just two months before he was arrested. In a letter
written from jail to his family, he says that he was tortured, intoxicated,
blindfolded and his fingerprints were taken on a small object. He was also
given a written statement to memorise in which he would own responsibility for
the Faizabad court blast. Whenever I said I had nothing to do with the blasts,
I was severely beaten and told, we know you are innocent but you have to take
responsibility otherwise we will kill you in an encounter. I finally admitted
to the charges before a camera, Khalid wrote"
Terrorised
Two young men, illegally picked up in east UP last year after serial blasts
hit three courts in the state, are still in jail. SHOBHITA NAITHANI and
SHAHNAWAZ ALAM report
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main39.asp?filename=Ne310508terrorised.asp
AS SOON AS news came on May 13 of five serial blasts having ripped through
crowded areas in Jaipur, a familiar disquiet set in 1,100 km away in eastern
Uttar Pradesh. On November 23 last year, courts in Varanasi, Faizabad and
Lucknow had been hit by serial blasts in which 13 people were killed. In the
police action that followed, two Muslim men were picked up in Jaunpur and
Azamgarh districts and a few days later shown as having been arrested in
another district. They are still in the Lucknow Jail, charged with being
members of the banned Harkat-ul-Jehadi- Islami (HUJI).
Who will get caught this time? Will it be a Muslim again? asks 58-year-old
Mumtaz Ahmed in Samopur village in Azamgarhs Rani Ki Sarai region. In Mariahu
village in Jaunpur, Maulana Zamir Alam has the same question: Are we suffering
because we are Muslims?
Alam and Mumtazs nephews 24- year-old Khalid Mujahid and 29-year-old
Mohammed Tarique were claimed to be arrested by the Special Task Force (STF)
of the UP Police in Barabanki near Lucknow on December 22. Ramavadh Chaurasiya,
owner of a paan shop in Rani Ki Sarai, says he saw Tarique, a doctor of Unani
medicine, being picked up by six men in the nearby Saraimir area on December
12. He says when onlookers saw Tarique being bundled into a jeep without a
number plate, they tried to protest but the men brandished guns and whisked
Tarique away. Two members of the group seized Tariques bike and sped in the
opposite direction towards Varanasi, he says. After two days of pressure from
Tariques family and local politicians, the police lodged a complaint, but not
of kidnapping. The bike, says Tariques lawyer Mohammed Shoaib, is still at a
Varanasi police station.
Four days after Tarique went missing, Khalid Mujahid, a madarsa teacher, was
picked up on December 16 by six men while he was eating chaat at the teeming
Mariahu market. The chaat stall owner, Munnu, says it all happened in a jiffy.
Other shopkeepers in the market told TEHELKA they were witness to Khalids
kidnapping.
But the local police refused to file an FIR. Mariahu SHO Iltaf Husain told
TEHELKA: I heard from others that Khalid was arrested on December 16. We cant
interfere. The STF is a special force. Husain says he had never heard any
complaint against Khalid.
Khalid had been married just two months before he was arrested. In a letter
written from jail to his family, he says that he was tortured, intoxicated,
blindfolded and his fingerprints were taken on a small object. He was also
given a written statement to memorise in which he would own responsibility for
the Faizabad court blast. Whenever I said I had nothing to do with the blasts,
I was severely beaten and told, we know you are innocent but you have to take
responsibility otherwise we will kill you in an encounter. I finally admitted
to the charges before a camera, Khalid wrote.
KHALIDS NEIGHBOURS and kin told TEHELKA that the 24-year-old was being
watched over by some agency for six months. In May last year, an unknown
person began visiting barber Salim to ask about Khalid. When I asked why he
was making such enquiries, he said he wanted to marry his daughter to Khalid,
Salim says. The man also went to Muslim, Khalids neighbour, and asked him if
Khalid was linked to terrorist organisations. I told him I have known Khalid
since he was a kid and there was no blemish on his character, says Muslim. The
man, who called himself Harish Ojha, again came to Muslim two months later. He
pulled out a photograph asking if it was Khalids picture. It wasnt. The
picture was of a middle-aged man.
The cases of Tarique and Khalid are not unique. Aftab Alam Ansari was
arrested in Kolkata in December and handed over to the UP STF as the
mastermind of the serial court blasts. The police later said they had made a
mistake and he was released after 22 days in custody. Ansaris lawyer,
Lucknowbased Mohammed Shoaib, is now pleading on behalf of Tarique and Khalid.
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 21, Dated May 31, 2008
With Regards
Abi
