AISA team visits Azamgarh; Reiterates demand for Judicial Probe into ‘encounter’ in light of the Post mortem reports of Atif and Sajid

A three member team from AISA Jamia and Allahabad University visited Azamgarh on 16^th and 17^th March 2010 in order to ascertain the facts behind the recent spate of arrests of alleged members of Indian Mujahideen. The Delhi police and the UP ATS have alleged that the arrested youth, Shahzad and Salman, were involved in the various bombings across Indian cities since 2007. It may be recalled that Azamgarh has been stigmatized as an epicenter of terror ever since scores of its youth were arrested in the aftermath of the Batla House ‘encounter’.

The team met with a wide cross-section of people in Azamgarh (including Khalispur and Sanjarpur), including university teachers, lawyers, friends and relatives of the arrested youth. They also visited the homes of Shahzad and Salman. They found that people were not convinced about the guilt of the arrested boys as their conduct had been impeccable and they had no criminal record. There was also a very strong resentment against the manner in which the police and administration were deploying massive police force in the town and Muslim-dominated villages of the district, for instance when Shahzad was taken to Azamgarh after his arrest. Such exercises were creating a communal polarization and fanning a fear psychosis. The team noted that there was an increasing unwillingness of parents to send their wards to Delhi or other cities for education, for fear that they might be targeted by police and security agencies. This will exclude Muslim youth from Azamgarh from education itself.

The team noted that the Congress, following Digvijay Singh’s visit to Azamgarh, had been spreading a malicious propaganda against the long-standing demand for judicial enquiry into the ‘encounter’ on grounds that it would be long-drawn and futile. AISA strongly condemns this propaganda, and reiterates that there can be no conceding on this demand, as till date there has been no fair and free enquiry into the ‘encounter’. While the demand for clubbing of all blasts cases and fast tracking of trials is urgently required, it is to be noted that this legal battle will not cover the killing of Atif and Sajid. This is all the more urgent as the post mortem report made public yesterday clearly establishes that they were hit by blunt objects. This has exposed the real face of the Congress, which while pretending to reach out to the people of Azamgarh, is itself manufacturing opposition to the demand for judicial probe, even as arrests of innocents and minors continue unabated.

The team made the following demands:

1)      Judicial enquiry into the Batla House ‘encounter’

2)      Clubbing of all blasts cases and fast tracking of the trials.

3)      All police officers guilty of framing innocent Muslim youth in terror charges must be punished.

4)      Protection must be provided to lawyers defending terror accused. An enquiry must be ordered into Shahid Azmi’s murder.

Sd/-

Aslam Khan (National Vice President, AISA)

Ramayan Ram (State Secretary, UP AISA)

Zarin Khan and Md. Sameer