Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat video clip junks police's Liyaqat Shah claim

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat held a press conference here on Tuesday to present documented evidence against Delhi Police Special Cell's claims that former militant Liyaqat Shah was arrested from Gorakhpur.
The organisation, which serves as an umbrella body of Muslim groups, showed a 57-second-long clipping featuring two personnel of the Sashastra Seema Bal talk about Shah and how he entered India with his family.
"Some days ago, some people had come through the border. Routine checks keep going on. When we questioned them and saw their documents, we had some doubt because the documents they had did not look valid. So, we thought we should question them properly," one of the SSB personnel was heard saying in the video clip.
"Later, we got to know from the news channels and media that the man, Liyaqat Ali Shah, whom we had detained and handed over to security forces has links with Hizbul Mujahideen."
Asserting that the video "discredited" all claims by Special Cell that Shah was arrested from a railway station in Gorakhpur, the panelists said that the cell had "put in danger a very important government scheme to end militancy in Kashmir".
Responding to the allegations, a police official in Special Cell said, "Why should we be against the rehabilitation policy for militants? We have always said that Shah came through the Nepal route but he was arrested by our policemen from Gorakhpur railway station."
"As for claims by 'SSB officials', I cannot comment on something that I have not seen. The credentials of this video are to be verified," the officer said.
Meanwhile, the special NIA court on Tuesday granted permission to the National Investigation Agency to interrogate Shah in judicial custody.

Source:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/muslim-majlisemushawarat-video-clip-junks-polices-liyaqat-shah-claim/1096841/

Babri case: CBI questioned over delay in filing appeal against Advani

The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned CBI for the delay in filing appeal against the Allahabad High Court order that conspiracy charge will not apply to BJP leader L.K. Advani and others in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

A bench headed by Justice H.L. Dattu directed that an affidavit be filed within two weeks by a senior law officer of the Central government after noting that the delay of 167 days was caused because of a law officer.

In compliance with the apex court’s earlier order, CBI on Tuesday placed before the bench the case details in which it submitted that the delay was caused as the drafting of the appeal against the Allahabad High Court verdict was pending before Additional Solicitor General and Solicitor General for their approval and opinion.

“The delay was on the part of Solicitor General. So affidavit from the concerned person would facilitate us to understand the delay,” the bench said.

“In your interest it is better if an affidavit is filed,” the court said, granting two weeks time to CBI to get the affidavit filed by the senior law officer.

The bench, however, in its order did not mention the officer who would be filing the affidavit and said it should be filed by a senior law officer.

The apex court was hearing CBI’s appeal challenging the verdicts of a special CBI court and the Allahabad High Court dropping conspiracy charge against Advani, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and Murli Manohar Joshi.

The others against whom the charge was dropped included Satish Pradhan, C.R. Bansal, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Ritambhara, V.H. Dalmia, Mahant Avaidhynath, R.V. Vedanti, Param Hans Ram Chandra Das, Jagdish Muni Maharaj, B.L. Sharma, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Save.

CBI has challenged in the Supreme Court the May 21, 2010 order of the high court, which had upheld a special court’s decision to drop the charge against the leaders.

The High Court had at that time, however, allowed CBI to proceed with other charges against Mr. Advani and others in a Rae Bareily court, under which the case falls.

The May 2010 order of the High Court had said there was no merit in CBI’s revision petition against the May 4, 2001 order of the special court which had directed dropping of criminal conspiracy charge against them.

There are two sets of cases — one against Mr. Advani and others who were on the dais at Ram Katha Kunj in Ayodhya in December 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished, while the other case was against lakhs of unknown ‘karsevaks’ who were in and around the disputed structure.

CBI had chargesheeted Mr. Advani and 20 others under sections 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505 (false statements, rumours etc circulated with the intent to cause mutiny or disturb public peace)of IPC.

It had subsequently invoked charges under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC which was quashed by the special court whose decision was upheld by the high court. Bal Thackeray’s name was removed from the list of accused persons after his death.

While upholding the special court’s order, the high court had said CBI at no point of time, either during the trial at Rae Bareily or in its revision petition, ever stated that there was offence of criminal conspiracy against the leaders.

Mumbai police exposed Leaked circular on jihad agitates Muslim groups

Even as the Mumbai police are probing the leak of an internal circular regarding the women's wing of an Islamic organisation allegedly brainwashing and training girls for Jihad, investigators said on Tuesday that nothing incriminating has come to their notice so far.

The recently issued internal circular by Mumbai police's Special Branch sparked controversy as it said the Girls Islamic Organisation (GIO) of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, one of the country's largest Islamic organisations that runs 40 high schools and three junior colleges in Maharashtra, has been operating with the objective of "brainwashing college and school girls and training them for jihad."
The circular, meant to be for personnel within the police department, got leaked and invited the wrath of Jamaat, with its Maharashtra spokesman Mohammad Aslam Ghazi threatening to sue the department if it does not apologise.
Amid threats of legal action and mounting anger of the outfit, a Special Branch officer said, "It is true that we have received information about anti-national activities by the GIO, but as of now our surveillance has not discovered anything like this in Maharashtra. We did not find any suspicious activity of the GIO in the state".
The circular, issued last month, says, "The group, GIO, is related to Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and it was established in Kerala. The purported aim of this organisation is to make more and more Muslim women aware of their religion and the holy Quran. But the real objective of this organisation is to brainwash school and college girls and train them for jihad".
A delegation of Jamaat, headed by the outfit's Maharashtra presidentJamaat-e-Islami Hind  met special branch chief and additional police commissioner Naval Bajaj on Monday, seeking his response on the matter.
A letter from the organisation's office seeking police's response and apology in writing will be sent soon. If the outfit is not satisfied with the reply, then a legal notice will be served to them, the Jamaat claimed.
Meanwhile, Mumbai police have also started an investigation to ascertain as to how the internal circular got leaked to the media.

Source:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Maharashtra/Leaked-circular-on-jihad-agitates-Muslim-groups/Article1-1036212.aspx

Hindu groups and police threaten Muslims protesting Afzal Guru's hanging at Jantar Mantar

 Delhi police lathicharge protestors at Jantar Mantar, demonstrating against the hanging of Afzal Guru and detained at least 21 Kashmiri students. Female students were also assaulted.
The Kashmiri students were protesting against the 'hanging' of Afzal Guru when a scuffle with RSS-BJP activists turned violent, witnesses say.
All the detained kashmiri students including girls were taken to Mandir Marg police station. Girls were threatened to be raped by the RSS activists.

A peaceful protest against the hanging of Afzal Guru developed into a skirmish when the protestors were attacked by a right-wing mob at Jantar Mantar today. Organised by Peoples’s Union for Democratic Right’s the protest consisted of 30-40 people – university students, professors, activists, Kashmiri students and concerned citizens. They had only just gathered at Jantar Mantar with their placards and posters when a group of right-wing activists attacked them. Those present at the scene claim that the attackers tore up posters, abused, molested and beat up women and men.
An eye witness claimed that the mob consisted primarily of Bajrang Dal members as they were carrying the organisations scarves. The Bajrang Dal was present at Jantar Mantar demanding the expansion of National Highway 5 that passes through Ghaziabad. That being Rajnath Singh’s constituency, he too was present at the venue before the mob attacked the protest against the hanging of Afzal Guru.
Arshad Ali*, a Kashmiri student said, “They were gesturing towards my friend and saying ‘aaja, aaja, aaja‘. When I tried to intervene they beat me up. Khusnuma*, my friend, was thrown to the ground, her Hijab was pulled off and she was dragged by the hair. She too was fisted and kicked. The same treatment was meted out to at least two other girls in hijabs.” Commenting on the media he said “Some from the media chanted Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.
Witnesses say that Kashmiri boys and girls were particularly targeted. One of them heard the mob say, “Woh bhi lag raha hai” (Even he looks like one). Another witness claims he heard the police whisper to the Bajrang Dal mob “Don’t worry, we will put them out in two minutes.”
As the skirmish escalated protestors who had gathered against the hanging of Afzal Guru were taken to the Mandir Marg police station. They were detained there for almost two hours. The police claimed that they were detained as the protestors and Bajrang Dal activists were mutually responsible for the scene at Jantar Mantar. No activist from the Bajrang Dal was detained.
Kumar Sundaram, Research Consultant with Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace was singled out and taken to the Parliament Street Police Station. On the way a policeman asked him his name. When he found out it was Kumar, he said “ Isko toh galti se pakad liya.” ( We picked him up by mistake.) Kumar feels he was singled out because the police might have mistaken him to be a Muslim because of his beard. He believes that it was an organsied and planned assault on the peaceful protest against the hanging of Afzal Guru and not a spontaneous response.
Gautam Navlakha, activist, PUDR, whose face was blackened filed a complaint at Parliament Street police station against the Bajrang Dal. He says “ It was difficult to tell the police from the Bajrang Dal. The role of the state in promoting right-wing communalism is only too obvious. It is becoming a regular and well established practice.”
Afzal was sentenced to death on being convicted of conspiracy to attack the Indian Parliament, waging war against the nation and murder in December 2002. Several questions have been raised about the very nature of the trial that Afzal Guru had to undergo. Amnesty International in its statement on the execution says “He was tried by a special court designated under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), a law which fell considerably short of international fair trial standards and has since been repealed, in 2004, after serious allegations of its widespread abuse.”

Omar Abdullah slams execution of Afzal Guru

An angry Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday slammed the execution of Afzal Guru and said this would reinforce a sense of alienation and injustice among generations of youth in the Valley.

Mr. Omar also said it was a “tragedy” that Guru was not allowed to meet his family before he was hanged and not allowed a “final farewell”. The 43-year-old Parliament attack convict was hanged and buried in Tihar jail premises in Delhi in a secret operation on Saturday.

Clearly unhappy with the hanging of Guru, the Chief Minister said there were many questions that needed to be answered.

Mr. Omar observed that the long-term implications of the hanging of Guru’s hanging were “far more worrying” as they were related to the new generation of youth in Kashmir “who may not have identified with Maqbool Bhatt but will identify with Afzal Guru.” Bhat was hanged in 1984 for murder of Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in the U.K.

“Please understand that there is more than one generation of Kashmiris that has come to see themselves as victims, that has come to see themselves as category of people who will not receive justice,” Mr. Omar said in TV interviews.

“Whether you like it or not, the execution of Afzal Guru has reinforced that point that there is no justice for them and that to my mind is far more disturbing and worrying than the short-term implications for security front.

How we would be able to correct or address that sense of injustice and alienation is a question I do not have answers,” he added.

Asked about the official position of the ruling National Conference on the hanging, Mr. Omar said, “Obviously we would have it rather had not happened.”

Expressing himself against death penalty Mr. Omar said, “I have no bloodlust.” Mr. Omar said as long as the capital punishment exists on the statute there should be no “pick and choose.”

According to The Indian Muslim Post, the manner in which the execution was planned and carried out by the government was wrong.

Source:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/omar-slams-execution-of-guru/article4400266.ece