Hyderabadi youth say they were implicated in false case

Hyderabad, Sep 16 (IANS) Two Hyderabadi youth, who returned home after spending over four years in a jail in Madhya Pradesh, said they were implicated in a false case under what they call a “conspiracy” by police to terrorize Muslim youth.

Baleeguddin Jaber and Muqeemuddin Yasir were acquitted in a criminal conspiracy case by a court in Indore Thursday and they returned here Saturday night. The police had charged them with having links with banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

The brothers accompanied by their father and cleric Moulana Naseeruddin, who himself was jailed in Gujarat for five years, reached the city to a warm welcome by relatives and residents of Saeedabad neighbourhood amid slogans.

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For the duo it was a tearful reunion with their family members after nearly five years. “All the charges against us were concocted. We thank the Almighty Allah for the acquittal and release,” Jaber told reporters.

They recalled that they were first arrested by Hyderabad police in 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case and for alleged conspiracy to attack state police headquarters.

“Later, we were implicated in conspiracy case in Indore and sent there. This was done under a conspiracy by Andhra Pradesh Police to frame false charges against Muslim youth and hand them over to police of other states,” said Yasir, who pointed out that several youth implicated in similar false cases in Gujarat were acquitted.

They alleged that a police officer from Hyderabad reached Indore to oppose their release citing Mecca Masjid blast case despite the fact the state government apologized to all Muslims wrongly arrested in the case and paid compensation to them. They said this anti-Muslim attitude by the police could prove dangerous for the country.

The brothers said they were kept in a dark cell (in Indore Jail) and were even tortured. “We didn’t see light and a fan for four years and two months. The jailor used to call us traitors and pass remarks that we should be hanged 50 times,” said Jaber.

They said they never visited Indore but police accused them of attending a SIMI meeting there.

Moulana Naseeruddin, who heads religious organization Wahdat-e-Islami, said the Muslims youth would not be intimidated by the “nefarious designs” of police and would continue their fight against “repression”.

The cleric, who was arrested by Gujarat police in 2004 in a conspiracy case and granted bail by the Supreme Court in 2009, said he would be really happy only when all innocent Muslim youths are acquitted and released.

He was charged with of hatching conspiracy to revenge the Gujarat 2002 riots.