Why Muslim leaders are angry with Andhra CM

The Muslim community in Hyderabad has accused Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy of failing to keep the promises he made about helping the men and women wrongly accused of the Mecca Masjid blasts. Vicky Nanjappa reports.

The Muslim community in Hyderabad has accused Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy of failing to keep the promises he made about helping the men and women wrongly accused of the Mecca Masjid blasts.

Several Muslim youth were arrested in the wake of the Mecca Masjid blasts in 2007 and tortured by the Hyderabad police. They were later acquitted by the court due to lack of evidence. Investigations later revealed that right-wing elements were behind the blasts at the revered mosque.

"Muslims have been targeted for an attack on their place of worship. A lot of innocent youth were picked up and then released. The problem is that they still find it difficult to get jobs because their character has taken a beating," said Lateef Mohammad Khan, general secretary of the Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee.

According to Khan, the government needs to provide these youth with character certificates so that they get a chance to lead a normal life.

The problem began when Reddy, while attending an iftaar party, promised to take action against those police officials who had harassed and tortured innocent Muslim youth in connection with the blasts. He also declared that the state government would provide character certificates to the men who had been falsely implicated in the case.

Though leaders of the minority community have sent him a request about these issues, no action has so far been taken by Reddy.

These leaders allege that the government has appointed senior advocates to defend the police officials who had harassed members of their community.

They have demanded an unconditional apology from the CM and have urged him to pass a resolution to this effect in the Andhra Pradesh assembly.

They also want the Andhra Pradesh State Minority Commission's report on illegal detention and torture of Muslim youth, drawn up by Advocate Ravi Chander, to be tabled in the assembly.

"The government is defending the accused police officers by appointing top lawyers to fight the compensation suit filed by Muslim youth in the city civil court. According to the government, the policemen responsible for the torture are unknown. The Congress government should present all these police officers in court," said Khan.

"Though these Muslim youth have been acquitted, these cases are still open and hundreds of youth are still shown as absconding. The government should immediately close these cases," he said.

"Muslim women were put behind bars and cases were slapped on them. Surety worth Rs 5 lakh had to be paid to get them released on bail. The government should apologise to these Muslim women, withdraw the cases against them and return the surety amount. The nexus between the police forces of Hyderabad and Gujarat should be exposed. Action should be taken against the policemen involved in the Sohrabuddin murder case," he added.