All India Milli Council has written to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Mrs Soinia Gandhi and Union Home Minister Mr P Chidambaram seeking a CBI enquiry into the custodial killing of terror accused Mohammad Qateel Siddiqui, immediate announcement of ex-gratia payment, followed by full compensation and stern punishment to the guilty. The group also demanded institutional changes in policing and prison to control the criminality of state institutions.
The Council expressed concern on the rise in hostility by security agencies towards Muslims. Only two weeks back two Kashmiri students of Jamiatul Falah were picked from Kaifiyat Express at Aligarh Railway station. They were produced only after much pressure from media, Muslim organizations and intervention of Allahabad High Court.
Bihar engineer Fasih Mahmood was picked from his home in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia on 13th of May allegedly on the request of Indian government, but his whereabouts is still unknown.
“The Muslim community all over the country is feeling as if it is living under RSS rule at the Centre, not UPA’s. Such feeling is only natural as all the torture, illegal arrests and disappearances – carried out mostly in the two Cong-ruled states of Rajasthan and Maharashtra – have the blessings of central agencies,” said Dr. Manzoor Alam, General Secretary, All India Milli Council in the letter. “Today we are shocked to learn that Mohammad Qateel Siddiqui has been throttled to death in Pune’s Yerawada Central Jail. The official explanation, which nobody believes, is that he was killed by prisoners. That is it,” he said.
The dead body of Mohammad Qateel Siddiqui reached Patna Airport from Mumbai at 3:45 pm on 10th June 2012
“This is a clear case of a death in official custody, an extrajudicial killing by state authority. This is how it stands: the police-intelligence personnel took him under their custody. It was their duty to ensure his protection, and they represented the state. Technically, he was under judicial custody, judiciary being a powerful arm of the state…Now, instead of protecting him they conspire to kill him. Either the superintendent, the jailer, the deputy and assistant jailers and wardens themselves killed him and passed the blame on to voiceless prisoners (which is more likely) or instigated some of the violent prisoners to kill him. In both cases, the state is entirely responsible for this death. This is particularly so because the murder took place inside a high security prision, where such acts cannot occur without the complicity of authorities.”
“Instigating prisoners to attack other prisoners is an old tactic of state authorities. At the time of massacre of 45 Muslims from Hashimpura by PAC in 1987, they took some others to Pratapgarh jail where they instigated prisoners to kill them. Five were lynched immediately. Muslims have been mourning those killed in Hashimpura (under Congress rule at Centre and in UP) on the 25th anniversary of the massacre at the hands of the state. This new incident shows that the state’s criminality and lawlessness has not changed in the last quarter century.”
“…it is the duty of the state to protect people in its custody. It has failed to do its duty. In fact, such killing has become a pattern. Nobody can be killed without due process of law, without a fair trial. This is a great breach of law.”
Qateel was killed in Yerwada central jail in Pune on 8th June allegedly by two inmates. He belonged to Barh Samaila village in Darbhanga from where around one dozen youths have been picked in last six months in various terror cases. Qateel was first to be arreted in November 2011. Even seven months after the arrest, he was not yet charge sheeted but was being moved from one state to another. He was arrested by Delhi Police for his alleged involvement in Jama Masjid shootout case. Then he was taken to Karnataka and the local police made him accused fro Chinnaswamy stadium blast case of 2010 and now he was in Maharashtra where he was being charged for a failed bid to execute blast at a temple.
“The community would like to hear from the highest quarters what is being done about it. We believe that somebody does not become a terrorist just because he has been accused of being one. Unless, following due process of law, a court does not convict him as a terrorist, he is innocent.”
“This murder is that of an innocent youth under any law, anywhere. Although this has become a recurring pattern, we would expect a CBI enquiry besides an immediate announcement of ex-gratia payment, followed by full compensation and stern punishment to the guilty. We reiterate our demand for institutional changes in policing and prison to control the criminality of state institutions,” Dr. Alam said.
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