Human Rights – Page 14

Aung San Suu Kyi's inexcusable silence

May 25, 2015 by Nasheman

Aung San Suu Kyi was a moral icon, a human rights champion – so why has she been silent about the Rohingya Muslims?

by Mehdi Hasan, Al Jazeera

“In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize … to Aung San Suu Kyi,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced in 1991, it wished “to honour this woman for her unflagging efforts and to show its support for the many people throughout the world who are striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means”.

Suu Kyi, the Committee added, was “an important symbol in the struggle against oppression”.

Fast forward 24 years, and the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar might disagree with the dewy-eyed assessment of the five-member Nobel Committee. And with Gordon Brown, too, who called Suu Kyi “the world’s most renowned and courageous prisoner of conscience”. Not to mention Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has said that the people of Myanmar “desperately need the kind of moral and principled leadership that Aung San Suu Kyi would provide”.

In recent years, the Rohingya Muslims – “the world’s most persecuted minority”, according to the United Nations – have struggled to attract attention to their plight.

Until, that is, a few weeks ago, when thousands of Rohingya refugees began arriving in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, while thousands more believed to be still stranded on rickety boats off the coasts of these three countries, with dwindling supplies of food and clean water.

‘So hungry, so skinny’

“Fisherman Muchtar Ali broke down in tears when he set eyes on the overcrowded boat carrying desperate, starving Rohingya off the coast of Indonesia,” noted a report by AFP on May 20.

“I was speechless,” Ali told AFP. “Looking at these people, me and my friends cried because they looked so hungry, so skinny.”

These Rohingya “boat people”, however, are a symptom of a much bigger problem. As Kate Schuetze, Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Researcher, has observed: “The thousands of lives at risk should be the immediate priority, but the root causes of this crisis must also be addressed. The fact that thousands of Rohingya prefer a dangerous boat journey they may not survive to staying in Myanmar speaks volumes about the conditions they face there.”

Those oppressive conditions range from a denial of citizenship to Myanmar’s 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims to severe restrictions on their movement, employment and access to education and healthcare, as well as a discriminatory law imposing a “two child” limit on Rohingya families in their home state of Rakhine.

Hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes; their towns and villages razed to the ground by rampaging mobs. In 2014, the government even banned the use of the word “Rohingya”, insisting the Muslim minority, who have lived in that country for generations, be registered in the census as “Bengali”.

Inexcusable silence

So, where does Suu Kyi fit into all this? Well, for a start, her silence is inexcusable. Her refusal to condemn, or even fully acknowledge, the state-sponsored repression of her fellow countrymen and women, not to mention the violence meted out to them by Buddhist extremists inspired by the monk Ashin Wirathu (aka “The Burmese Bin Laden”), makes her part of the problem, not the solution.

“In a genocide, silence is complicity, and so it is with Aung San Suu Kyi,” observed Penny Green, a law professor at the University of London and director of the State Crime Initiative, in a recent op-ed for The Independent. Imbued with “enormous moral and political capital”, Green argued, Myanmar’s opposition leader could have challenged “the vile racism and Islamophobia which characterises Burmese political and social discourse”.

She didn’t. Instead, she spent the past few years courting the Buddhist majority of Myanmar, whose votes she needs in order to be elected president in 2016 – if, that is, the military will allow her to be elected president, or even permit her to stand – by playing down the violence perpetrated against the Muslim minority, and trying to suggest a false equivalence between persecutors and victims of persecution.

In a BBC interview in 2013, for example, Suu Kyi shamefully blamed the violence on “both sides”, telling interviewer Mishal Husain that “Muslims have been targeted but Buddhists have also been subjected to violence”.

Yet in Myanmar, it isn’t Buddhists who have been confined to fetid camps, where they are“slowly succumbing to starvation, despair and disease”. It isn’t Buddhists who have been the victims of what Human Rights Watch calls “ethnic cleansing” and what the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar has said “could amount to crimes against humanity”. It isn’t Buddhists who are crowding onto boats, to try and flee the country, and being assaulted with hammers and knives as they do so. It isn’t Buddhists, to put it bluntly, who are facing genocide.

Risk of ‘genocide’

Is this mere hyperbole? If only. Listen to the verdict of investigators from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide.

“We left Burma,” they wrote in a report published earlier this month, “deeply concerned that so many preconditions for genocide are already in place.”

The investigators, who visited Rohingya internment camps and interviewed the survivors of violent attacks, concluded: “Genocide will remain a serious risk for the Rohingya if the government of Burma does not immediately address the laws and policies that oppress the entire community.”

Yet, despite the boats and the bodies, the reports and the revelations, Suu Kyi is still mute. She hasn’t raised a finger to help the Rohingya, as they literally run for their lives. Shouldn’t we expect more from a Nobel Peace Prize laureate?

Maybe not. The words “Henry” and “Kissinger” come to mind. Plus, the Nobel Prize Committee has a pretty awkward history of prematurely handing out peace prizes. Remember Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat’s joint prize in 1994? Ask the children of Gaza how that worked out. Remember Barack Obama’s in 2009? Ask the civilian victims of drone strikes in Pakistan how that worked out.

Rabin, Arafat, Obama … ultimately, of course, they’re all politicians. Suu Kyi was supposed to be something else, something more; a moral icon, a human rights champion, a latter-day Gandhi.

Sad truth

Why weren’t we listening when the opposition leader and former political prisoner told CNN in 2013 that she had “been a politician all along”, that her ambition was to become president of her country?

The sad truth is that when it comes to “The Lady”, it is well past time to take off the rose-tinted glasses. To see Suu Kyi for what she is: A former prisoner of conscience, yes, but now a cynical politician who is willing to put votes ahead of principles; party political advancement ahead of innocent Rohingya lives.

“Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the displaced, the homeless and the hopeless,” Suu Kyi grandly declaimed in June 2012, as she finally accepted her Nobel Peace Prize, in person, 21 years after she won it while under house arrest, “a world of which each and every corner is a true sanctuary where the inhabitants will have the freedom and the capacity to live in peace”.

Forget the world. She should try starting at home, with the Rohingya of Rakhine. And if she won’t, or can’t, then maybe she should consider handing back the prize she waited more than two decades to collect.

Hundreds of Rohingya refugees rescued off Indonesian coast

May 20, 2015 by Nasheman

About 400 refugees saved by fishermen as SE Asian nations agree to provide temporary shelter to thousands still at sea.

Witnesses in Aceh said that many of the rescued migrants were in tears when they made it to land [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

About 400 refugees have been rescued by local fishermen in the Strait of Malacca, off Indonesia’s Aceh province, after their stricken boat was reportedly turned away numerous times from the Thai and Malaysian coasts by authorities.

The rescue occurred hours before the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia issued a statement saying they would “continue to provide humanitarian assistance to those 7,000 irregular migrants still at sea” and offer them temporary shelter, provided they were resettled and repatriated within a year.

Khairul Nova, a search and rescue official, said the rescue took place at 2am local time on Wednesday (19:00 GMT Tuesday) and those saved included woman and children. Those rescued were taken to Simpang Tiga village, in East Aceh district, he said.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen reported that the rescued boat was the same one that made international headlines last week when it was found floating off Thailand’s coast, after its captain and crew had apparently fled.

Witnesses in Aceh said that many of the rescued migrants were in tears when they made it to land, with many very sick and weak.

Migrants told Al Jazeera they had been sent away by the Thai navy on three occasions and Malaysian authorities twice.

The second time they were rebuffed by Malaysian authorities, they say they were held at gunpoint and told that their ship would be bombed if they did not turn around.

About 1,500 Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar, fleeing persecution, and Bangladeshis, seeking to escape grinding poverty, have already arrived in Aceh in recent days after being abandoned by people smugglers.

They are among several thousands who have made it to land in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand after being dumped by smugglers following the disruption of long-established human-trafficking routes.

Malaysia’s foreign minister hosted his Indonesian and Thai counterparts on Wednesday for urgent talks on the refugee crisis, with pressure mounting on them to help thousands of starving refugees.

The three nations have sparked outrage by turning away vessels overloaded with migrants.

In the statement issued after the talks, the three government agreed to “continue to uphold their responsibilities and obligations under international law”.

The statement did not say that Thailand would join Malaysia and Indonesia in providing temporary shelter to the thousands of migrants still believed to be drifting on boats in the Strait of Malacca and nearby international waters.

“[We] call upon the international community to uphold their responsibility and urgently share the burden of providing the necessary support to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand in addressing the problem,” the statement said.

The three countries requested financial support to provide shelter to the migrants and said “the international community will take responsibility for the repatriation of the irregular migrants to their countries of origin or resettlement to third countries within … one year”.

Myanmar said on Wednesday it was “ready to provide humanitarian assistance” to refugees, in its most conciliatory comments yet.

China orders Muslim shopkeepers to sell alcohol, cigarettes, to ‘weaken’ Islam

May 19, 2015 by Nasheman

This photo taken on April 16, 2015 shows Uighur men praying in a mosque in Hotan, in China’s western Xinjiang region. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)

by Simon Denyer, The Washington Post

Chinese authorities have ordered Muslim shopkeepers and restaurant owners in a village in its troubled Xinjiang region to sell alcohol and cigarettes, and promote them in “eye-catching displays,” in an attempt to undermine Islam’s hold on local residents, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported. Establishments that failed to comply were threatened with closure and their owners with prosecution.

Facing widespread discontent over its repressive rule in the mainly Muslim province of Xinjiang, and mounting violence in the past two years, China has launched a series of “strike hard” campaigns to weaken the hold of Islam in the western region. Government employees and children have been barred from attending mosques or observing the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. In many places, women have been barred from wearing face-covering veils, and men discouraged from growing long beards.

In the village of Aktash in southern Xinjiang, Communist Party official Adil Sulayman, told RFA that many local shopkeepers had stopped selling alcohol and cigarettes from 2012 “because they fear public scorn,” while many locals had decided to abstain from drinking and smoking.

The Koran calls the use of “intoxicants” sinful, while some Muslim religious leaders have also forbidden smoking.

Sulayman said authorities in Xinjiang viewed ethnic Uighurs who did not smoke as adhering to “a form of religious extremism.” They issued the order to counter growing religious sentiment that was “affecting stability,” he said.

“We have a campaign to weaken religion here, and this is part of that campaign,” he told the Washington-based news service.

The notice, obtained by RFA and posted on Twitter, ordered all restaurants and supermarkets in Aktash to sell five different brands of alcohol and cigarettes and display them prominently. “Anybody who neglects this notice and fails to act will see their shops sealed off, their businesses suspended, and legal action pursued against them,” the notice said.

Radio Free Asia, which provides some of the only coverage of events in Xinjiang to escape strict Chinese government controls, said Hotan prefecture, where Aktash is located, had become “a hotbed of violent stabbing and shooting incidents between ethnic Uighurs and Chinese security forces.”

China says Uighur militant groups based abroad are using the Internet to inspire local Muslims to take up violent jihad against the state. Critics say China’s long repression of Uighur rights and nationalist sentiment has pushed people toward Islam as the only permitted assertion of their community’s identity, and pushed a minority toward a violent form of Islam. Clumsy attempts to promote alcohol or forbid beards and veils may prove counterproductive, they warn.

James Leibold, an expert on China’s ethnic policies at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, said Chinese officials were “often flailing around in the dark” when tackling extremism. An acute lack of understanding leads them to focus on visible, but imprecise, perceptions of radicalism such as long beards, veils and sobriety, he said.

The result is often “crude forms of ethno-cultural profiling,” Leibold said.

“These sorts of mechanistic and reactive policies only serve to inflame ethno-national tension without addressing the root causes of religious extremism, while further alienating the mainstream Uighur community, making them feel increasingly unwelcome within a hostile, Han-dominated society,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Sulayman said around 60 shops and restaurants in the area had complied with the government order, and there were no reports of protests. But in an unrelated incident in neighboring Qinghai province on Friday, an angry crowd of Muslims smashed windows of a supposedly halal store in Xining city, after pork sausages and ham were found in a delivery van, according to the local government and photographs on social media

About 900 Rohingya Muslims land in Indonesia and Thailand

May 15, 2015 by Nasheman

Almost 800 found in the middle of sea near Aceh province of Indonesia as Thai navy saves 106 refugees on a small island.

In recent days, about 2,000 refugees landed in Malaysia and Indonesia [Geutanyue Foundation]

by Al Jazeera

About 900 migrants have landed on the shores of Indonesia and Thailand after being adrift at sea for weeks, authorities said.

The migrants are among the few who have successfully sneaked past a wall of resistance mounted by Southeast Asian countries who are turning them away.

Several thousand refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar – fleeing either poverty or persecution – are believed to be adrift on boats in the Andaman Sea in what has become a spiralling humanitarian crisis, reported the Associated Press news agency.

In recent days, about 2,000 landed in Malaysia and Indonesia, but both countries then said they could not accept any more.

“What do you expect us to do?” asked Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Jafaar on Thursday. “We have been very nice to the people who broke into our border. We have treated them humanely, but they cannot be flooding our shores like this.”

“We have to send the right message that they are not welcome here.”

Fisherman towed two boats to Indonesia’s eastern Aceh province early on Friday – one with nearly 700 people and another carrying 47, police said.

A search-and-rescue official said hundreds were being housed in a warehouse.

“The latest information we have is about 794 people were found in the middle of the sea and brought ashore by fishermen at 5am,” Khairul Nova, the official in the town of Langsa in Aceh, told the Reuters news agency by telephone.

“They are now in a warehouse by the port as a temporary arrangement.”

Police sad the larger boat was on the verge of sinking when fishermen brought it to the fishing village of Lagsa.

“Some of the people told police they were abandoned at sea for days and Malaysian authorities had already turned their boat away,” said Lieutenant Colonel Sunarya, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

He said everyone aboard was weak from hunger and dehydrated.

About 25km south of Langsa, fisherman rescued the smaller boat carrying 47 Rohingya migrants, also dehydrated and hungry, said Aceh Tamiang police chief Dicky Sandoni. They were brought to a beach at Kuala Seruway village in Aceh’s Tamiang district.

Rohingya migrants

Separately, the Thai Navy found a group of 106 people, mostly men but including 15 women and two children, on a small island off the coast of Phang Nga province, an area known for its world-class scuba diving.

“It’s not clear how they ended up on the island,” said Prayoon Rattanasenee, the Phang Nga provincial governor. The group said they were Rohingya migrants from Myanmar.

“We are in the process of identifying if they were victims of human trafficking.”

The plight of Myanmar’s 1.3 million Rohingya has worsened recently and in the last three years more than 120,000 members of the Muslim minority, who are intensely persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have boarded ships to flee to other countries, paying huge sums to human traffickers.

But faced with a regional crackdown on human trafficking, some captains and smugglers have abandoned their ships, leaving an estimated 6,000 refugees to fend for themselves, according to aid workers and human rights groups.

Count all lives taken by Drone war, not just western ones: Human rights groups to US

May 14, 2015 by Nasheman

Human rights organizations including Reprieve and Center for Constitutional Rights write open letter to President Barack Obama

Pakistani journalist and anti-drone campaigner Kareem Khan holds a photograph of his brother and teenage son, both killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2009. (Image courtesy of Reprieve)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

All victims of U.S. drone strikes and assassination attempts deserve to be acknowledged by the government that carried out their killing—not just citizens of western nations—human rights organizations charged (pdf) in an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama released on Wednesday.

In late April, the Obama administration publicly apologized for the drone killings of two civilians, U.S. citizen Warren Weinstein and Italian citizen Giovanni Lo Porto, in a U.S. strike that occurred in Pakistan in January 2015. For the first time in the drone war, the president pledged to pay compensation to the victims’ families.

But the president has repeatedly refused to acknowledge, let alone pay reparations for, the vast majority of people killed in over a decade of covert drone wars, the most of whom hail from Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and Afghanistan.

“We write to urge your administration to adopt the same approach to all other U.S. counterterrorism strikes in which civilians have been injured or killed—regardless of their nationalities,” reads the letter, which was signed by humanitarian and advocacy groups, including Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Reprieve.

“To that end, your administration should establish a systematic and transparent mechanism for post-strike investigations, which are made public, and provide appropriate redress to civilian victims,” the missive continues.

But the statement goes beyond calling for transparency and redress: “In addition to investigating individual strikes, acknowledging responsibility, and providing appropriate redress for civilian harm, we urge your administration to take essential steps to: publicly disclose standards and criteria governing ‘targeted killings’; ensure that U.S. lethal force operations abroad comply with international human rights and humanitarian law; and enable meaningful congressional oversight and judicial review.”

Many from heavily impacted areas and countries have called for an immediate end to the U.S. drone war altogether. “These drones attack us, and the whole world is silent,” declared Kareem Khan, a Pakistani journalist and anti-drone campaigner whose brother and teenage son were killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2009, addressing a 2011 anti-drone conference in Islamabad.

Wednesday’s letter includes examples of ten U.S. drone strikes that have left family and loved ones seeking redress, accountability, and simply, acknowledgement.

One such case is from October 24, 2012 in Pakistan: “A strike allegedly killed Mamana Bibi, a woman aged about 65 who was gathering vegetables in her family’s large, mostly vacant fields in Ghundi Kala, a village in North Waziristan.”

But the human toll goes far beyond these ten examples.

According to estimates from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, one of the few outfits publicly tracking such deaths, up to 1,273 people in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan have been killed in CIA drone attacks and other covert operations since 2002.

Omar Khadr, former child prisoner at Gitmo, granted bail

May 8, 2015 by Nasheman

Once the youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay, 28-year-old Canadian-born Khadr will be allowed to leave prison after 13 years

Canadian-born Khadr was taken to Afghanistan by his father, a senior al Qaeda member who apprenticed the boy to a group of bomb makers who opened fire when U.S. troops came to their compound. Khadr was captured in the firefight, during which he was blinded in one eye and shot twice. (Photo: freeomar.ca)

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was 15 when he was shot and captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2002 and sent to Guantanamo Bay, was granted bail on Thursday after a judge in Alberta rejected a final effort by the Canadian government to keep Khadr in jail.

Court of Appeal Justice Myra Bielby granted the bail after announcing on Tuesday that she would need more time to make a decision on whether to release Khadr, now 28, as he appeals his Guantanamo Bay conviction.

The courtroom reportedly burst into cheers after Bielby announced her decision and said, “Mr. Khadr, you’re free to go.”

A lower court judge granted Khadr bail last month.

Toronto-born Khadr spent a decade in Guantanamo Bay after his capture. At 15, he was once the youngest detainee at the prison.

Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to killing an American soldier in Afghanistan eight years earlier, as part of a deal that would allow him to avoid a war crimes trial and be moved to a Canadian prison. He later recanted that admission, saying that it had been made under duress. Khadr said that he was tortured during numerous interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and the U.S.-operated Bagram Prison in Afghanistan, where he was briefly imprisoned before being sent to Cuba.

According to Reuters: “Khadr claims that during at least 142 interrogations in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, he was beaten, chained in painful positions, forced to urinate on himself, terrorized by barking dogs, subjected to flashing lights and sleep deprivation and threatened with rape.”

The Associated Press reported:

Khadr’s long-time lawyer Dennis Edney and wife have offered to take him into their home. Among the bail conditions imposed were that Khadr wear a tracking bracelet, live with the Edneys, observe a curfew between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., and have only supervised access to the Internet. Also, he can communicate with his family in Ontario only while under supervision and only in English.

“He’s met very few people outside a jail cell,” said Nate Whitling, one of Khadr’s lawyers.

“It’s going to be a major adjustment for him, but I’m sure he’s up for it.”

Coalition dropping US-made cluster bombs on Yemen

May 4, 2015 by Nasheman

Human rights group warns that cluster munitions have fallen near villages, posing long-term danger to civilians

An expended BLU-108 canister from a CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon found in the al-Amar area of al-Safraa, Saada governorate, in northern Yemen on April 17, 2015. (Photo via HRW.org)

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

The Saudi-led bombing campaign against rebels in Yemen is using U.S.-supplied cluster munitions, endangering civilians and violating an international arms treaty, Human Rights Watch warned on Sunday.

According to the group, there is “credible evidence” that cluster bombs have been used in recent weeks as part of coalition airstrikes in Yemen’s northern Saada governorate, a Houthi stronghold that borders Saudi Arabia. Through analysis of satellite imagery, Human Rights Watch charges that the weapons landed on a “cultivated plateau, within 600 meters of several dozen buildings in four to six village clusters.”

Cluster bombs, which are composed of hundreds of submunitions, pose a long-term threat to civilians because they are designed to explode after spreading over a wide area. Often, the submunitions do not explode, causing the bombs to become de facto landmines.

Over one hundred countries signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions banning their use. However, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen all abstained from signing on.

According to a U.S. Defense Department contract, Saudi Arabia purchased 1,300 CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed cluster munitions from Textron Defense Systems, which is based in Wilmington, Mass. The shipment was meant to be completed by December 2015. Additionally, the UAE received an unknown number of CBU-105 from Textron Defense Systems in June 2010, HRW reports.

“Saudi-led cluster munition airstrikes have been hitting areas near villages, putting local people in danger,” said Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch. “These weapons should never be used under any circumstances. Saudi Arabia and other coalition members – and the supplier, the US – are flouting the global standard that rejects cluster munitions because of their long-term threat to civilians.”

Pakistani rights activist Sabeen Mahmud shot dead in Karachi

April 25, 2015 by Nasheman

Sabeen Mahmud

by Imtiaz Ali, Dawn

Karachi: Sabeen Mahmud, social media campaigner and human rights activist who founded the social forum T2F, was shot dead on Friday evening, minutes after the end of an interactive discussion ‘Unsilencing Balochistan’ organised by her and attended by journalists and rights activists, including the founder leader of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, Abdul Qadeer Baloch.

Karachi-South Deputy Inspector General of Police Dr Jamil Ahmed ruled out the killing as result of a mugging attempt and said she had been attacked deliberately but he could not share any possible motive.

A pair of sandals lies amid broken glass in a car after the murder of Sabeen Mahmud in Karachi, Pakistan, April 25, 2015. — Reuters

“She was returning home with her mother in a car after the seminar she had organised on Balochistan,” he said.

“It’s an incident of targeted killing, but we are not aware of any threats she had been receiving. The investigations are on and it would be too early to speculate about the motive behind the killing,” the official said.

Defence police SHO Kansan Dean said pillion riders on a motorcycle attacked Ms Mehmud and her mother on Sunset Boulevard in DHA Phase-II after they had left the T2F in a car. Both of them suffered bullet injuries and were taken to a nearby private hospital where doctors pronounced Sabeen dead.

Her mother was shifted to the Aga Khan University Hospital.

The body was taken to the Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre for post-mortem.

“She sustained four bullet injuries on her face, neck and chest,” police surgeon Dr Jalil Qadir said. Her autopsy, conducted by senior medico-legal officer Dr Nasreen Qamar, also showed injuries on her arm and shoulder that might be bullet exit wounds, added the police surgeon.

Half an hour before her murder, Sabeen Mehmud’s Facebook status read: “Unsilencing Balochistan (Take 2) with Wusatullah Khan, Mama Qadeer, Farzana Baloch and Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur. Moderated by Moneeza Ahmed.”

“It appears that an attempt is being made to silence human rights defenders or those who take up the causes of the people,” the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Chairperson Zohra Yusuf said after the incident.

“This is a shocking event for the city and citizens as T2F has been providing a space to the people to express their views,” the prominent rights activist said. On Thursday at 6.30pm, Sabeen Mehmud had also organised a seminar about the Balochistan situation, she said.

“It was the same seminar which was organised by LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences) where three speakers – Mama Qadeer, Farzana Majeed and Mohammed Ali Talpur – were the same, but it was cancelled under alleged pressure of ISI,” the HRCP chief said.

“It can’t be said categorically that her murder was linked with this event,” Ms Yusuf said.

“As Ms Sabeen has been consistently providing the space of T2F to discuss the issues of human rights, cultural diversity etc due to which she had received threats, prompting her to hire the services of a security guard,” she said.

“She was trying to promote liberal and rational thinking, which is lacking in society,” said Ms Yusuf.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, who is in charge of the home ministry, sought a report about the incident and ordered the city police chief to arrest the killers.

Karachi police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo formed a special team, headed by a DIG, to investigate the murder, according to a spokesman.

When poetry is held unlawful . . . JTSA in solidarity with artists and poets of Kabir Kala Manch

April 23, 2015 by Nasheman

by Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

On April 10, 2015 Bombay High court refused bail to Sachin Mali, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor of Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), who have remained in jail for two years without a trial. They are not charged with committing violence, or possessing weapons or contraband; it was their singing and their songs that were found unlawful. The KKM poets and artists had been forced to go into hiding in 2011 following the arrest and torture of two of their members by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). They were charged with collaborating with Naxalites; their art was branded ideologically Maoist. In January 2013, the two arrested members of KKM were given bail which prompted Sachin, Sagar, Ramesh and Sheetal Sathe to come out of hiding. In April 2013 the four sang in front of the Maharashtra Assembly in a peaceful, musical satyagraha and were arrested. Since then, Sheetal Sathe has got bail.

In its order, the Bombay High Court found no merit in the bail application and denied bail to the three applicants merely because ‘they are charged for offence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act’. As if being charged of a crime is in itself the proof of guilt. Denying bail on grounds of the accusations alone amounts to a perversion of the first principle of justice — that one is innocent until proven guilty. JTSA has, in fact, documented many cases where under-trials charged with the most heinous crimes have spent years in jail, only to be acquitted later. In our view, the denial of bail in this case is in line with the way the UAPA has been unleashed by the State over people to silence any dissent and to instill fear into all of us.

The entire KKM case is a story of hounding of a group of Ambedkarite artists and poets performing for those people who the powerful think have no use of art; indeed have no claim to humanity. To be sure, it is not the first instance of its kind when poetry in defence of the powerless has been held to be illegal. Neither is it the first time when artists have been held criminal for producing art. Poets like Pablo Neruda, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Fredrico Garcia Lorca, Nazim Hikmet have been hounded by repressive regimes. In India, we appear to have reached the stage when the recital of life as it is, has become a criminal act that must be brutally silenced. The UAPA by including within its definition of an ‘unlawful activity’ as “any action taken by individual or association (whether by committing an act or by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representation or otherwise)”, institutionalizes the silencing of art that speaks of life, and every thought and idea that challenges the dominant narratives of caste and social inequality. Even though the Bombay High Court while granting bail to four members of KKM in 2013 had unequivocally held that mere membership of banned organizations cannot be grounds for incarceration, nor can speaking, writing or singing about socio-economic injustices be criminalized – it even held section 20 of UAPA to be in conflict with Article 19 of the Indian Constitution – in reality, on the ground, UAPA is invoked regularly to intimidate and jail those who dissent.

JTSA expresses solidarity with poets and artists of Kabir Kala Manch who participate in people’s struggles by writing and singing about structural and caste violence. We laud their role as the voice of the voiceless. We condemn the gagging of their art whose content is made up of the most common concerns of humanity. We assert that their role is to not just sympathise eloquently with people’s plight but that their voice is an appeal to the conscious of the wider society. To suppress this voice is the worst form of oppression.

Fact finding report on the assassination of five Muslim under trial prisoners at Aler Town of Telangana state Of India

April 20, 2015 by Nasheman

by Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee

A fact finding team of Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee comprising Lateef Mohammed Khan, Adv. D. Suresh Kumar, Ashala Srinivas, Kaneez Fathima, Adv. Mandakini, Adv. Greeshma, Adv. Md. Ismail Khan and Charan K.S conducted fact finding from 12th to 14th April 2015 and met the family members of the deceased, visited place of incident, met the police authorities and local people of Aler and surrounding areas as well as journalists who had covered the incident. The team members recorded the statements of all the people to find out the facts as to what actually happened in the Aler police station limits where five under trial prisoners were shot dead by the police personnel of escort party of central prison of wrangle district of Telangana a newly formed state of India.

According to the facts gathered by this team Aler is a town in Nalgonda district of Telangana state and is 77 kms from Hyderabad and 75 km from Warangal. Aler is a rural town and it is famous for Sri Ramachandra Swamy Temple and Jain temple. Aler is connected through road and railway. Aler is a mandal consisting of more than 20 villages. Elected member of Parliament is Dr. Narsaiah Boora and elected member of Legislative Assembly is Gongidi Sunitha Mahender Reddy and they are belongs Telangana Rashtraya Samithi (TRS). Aler police station is in high security zone and one has to go security check to go into the police station. The station house officer is headed by a sub-inspector of Police P. Raghavender. The Aler highway is a double road and very busy; it connects two districts namely Warangal and Nalgonda.

Facts of the case

1. Fact finding team visited the spot of the incident where the escort police of Warangal central prison shot dead the five Muslim under trial prisoners namely Viqar Ahmed, Syed Amjad, Mohd. Zakir, Dr. Mohd. Haneef and Izhar Khan. The place of offence is a remote place adjacent to sub-way which goes towards Kandigadla Tanda, outskirts of Tangatoor village of Aler police station. The trees on the side of the highway road had numbering by the forest officials and the two trees had 398 & 399 number on it and the bus was stopped exactly on this spot. There is also a pit beside this spot and there were blood stains and broken glass of the bus window pane on the road. The local people said that two side roads were blocked i.e. from Warangal towards Hyderabad and vice versa. They were able to reach only after few hours of the incident.

2. As per the police story, “on 17.04.2015 at about 07.55 AM the escort party consisting of RSI Uday Bhaskar and 16 other ranks went to central Prison, Warangal in mini bus No. MP 11/TR E 8217 and took custody of 5 UT prisoners i.e. Md. Jakeer UT No. 1002, Vikar UT o. 1064, Sayed Amjad Ali UT No. 1065, Izar Khan UT No. 1066, Md. Haneef UT No. 1077, to be produced before Honble VII Asst. MSJ Court Nampally, Hyderabad. On the way at about 10.05 hours when the escort vehicle reached out skirts of Tangatur Village UT Prisoner Viqar insisted to stop the vehicle for passing urine, after passing urine and getting into the bus the UT prisoners led Viquar pounced on the police party snatching an INSAS RIFLE by uttering words ‘MAR SALEKU, CHODNA NAHI’, The he opened fire on RSI Uday Bhaskar and party. In self defense police party opened fire resulting in the death of 5 UT prisoners name by Md. Jakeer UT No. 1002, Vikar UT o. 1064, Sayed Amjad Ali UT No. 1065, Izar Khan UT No. 1066, Md. Haneef UT No. 1077.

3. Facts of the Story: As per the sources on 7th April 2015 two kilometer roads were blocked from two sides. The fact is that all the five deceased under trails were handcuffed and chained to their seats as evident from the images and videos of the encounter site. It seems clear that INSAS rifle was placed on their hands after they were shot dead. Rifles were locked and clean without any blood stains on it. No single police officer was injured in the whole incident and a cross firing scene was created by shattering the windows of the mini bus.

The spot where the encounter took place is deserted jungle area it seems unimaginable that an escort party will stop a vehicle in a deserted road to allow a prisoner to take a natures call. The story painted by the police is illogical to say the least.

The fact finding team met the family members of the deceased and came to know the following details:

Father of Viqar Ahmed, Mr. Mohd. Ahmed is a civil engineer. He worked in gulf country for many years; presently he has taken off from services and staying in his own house at Malakpet. He has five children, two sons and three daughters. Viqar was the younger son. This family is educated and well settled. His elder son is also a civil engineer. According to his father, Viqar was 34 years of age and got educated up to B.Com. Viqar was a calm and soft spoken person; he has religious in nature and has concerned for community. He was actively participated in 6th December Rallies organized by DJS. As his father and brother were working in gulf country, Viqar was looking after his female family members while undergoing education in Hyderabad.

Viqar’s father further said that everything was going fine until Makkah

Masjid bomb blast happened and then everything changed in their lives. Viqar’s name was implicated in the Makkah Masjid bomb blast case along with other youth. Then police started arresting and torturing Muslim youth. Due to the fear of police Viqar stopped moving out of the house and one day he disappeared. Then in May 2008, he heard his son’s name in the media that police is associating his name with DJS and blaming him for attack on police picket in the revenge of Makkah Masjid police firing on innocent people. Then he came to know that Ahmedabad police registered a case on his son for the conspiracy to kill Modi. Mr. Ahmed said that he is not aware of his son’s involvement in any crime. The cases which were registered against his son in Hyderabad, trial was going on in these cases, and almost 90 percent of trial had been completed and the charges against his son were not proved till then and in about two more months, the trial was to be completed and there were great chances of his son’s acquittal.

Mr. Ahmed also mentioned that whenever he went to see his son in the jail, he always complained about police torture on the way while returning from the court to the Warangal jail. On this, Viqar’s father had given an appeal to the chief justice of High Court to save the life of his son and order the state government to transfer his son from Warangal jail to Hyderabad. Mr. Ahmed also said that the court had given trial dates from 1st to 10th April. And on 6th April, Viqar complained to the Judge that his life is in danger, the escort police party is using abusing language, provocating and beating him. So he requested the Judge to transfer him to Hyderabad. On this the judge accepted his request and posted this matter to hear on 7th April.

Viqar’s father in a very depressed mood said that, “on 7th April my son could not reach the court and his expression of danger to his life became practical, on the other side we were waiting for him at the court and instead of seeing him at the court, we heard the sad news that my son has been brutally killed by the police”. His father rejected the police story and said that, ‘from 1st April, every day the police used to start from Warangal prison at 10 or 11 AM, but on this particular day i.e. on 7th April, the police started at 8am itself from Warangal central prison, this itself speaks volumes about the ill intention of police towards my son to kill him in cold blooded manner’.

Mr. Ahmed also said further that the person whose trial was going to complete and had full confidence on judiciary that justice will be done, why will he try to snatch the gun. There is no possibility of snatching the gun when his right hand is handcuffed and chained to the seat. He further stated that his son was in judicial custody and it was the responsibility of the judiciary to see that his son reaches safely to the court. At least now the judiciary should fulfill its responsibility to provide justice to his son.

4. Ishrat Banu wife of Dr. Mohd. Haneef stated that her husband was a practicing doctor and running his own clinic in Warsiguda area of Hyderabad. He is survived by one daughter and two sons. On 11th July 2010, at around 11am, policemen in plain clothes came to his clinic, spread a black cloth on his face and took him away in Tata Sumo. That time he was examining his patients. The woman who was cleaning the floor at the clinic saw this and informed his family. Then they searched him in all police stations and complained in one police station about this incident. They also gave complaint to the commissioner of police, home minister, SHRC etc. After three days i.e. on 14th July he was produced in Nampally criminal court. When they visited to see him at Cherlapally jail, he was unable to walk and he told them that he was tortured in 3rd degree, police made him drink urine, beat on feel soles etc. Dr. Haneef’s wife said that he was labeled with the charges of anti-national and giving shelter to Viqar Ahmed.

Ishrat Banu further said that they do not know who Viqar is! Her husband used to go to clinic from 10am to 2pm then come back home, spend time with his children and again from 6pm to 10 or 11pm till the patients visit he used to be at the clinic. Most of his patients were non-Muslims, she said. He never attended any procession or any kind of meeting. Even on 6th December he used to go to his clinic and attend the patients. When his family asked him why he does not close the clinic as it is black day, he used to reply that, ‘black day is for the whole world, but what about my patients, if I don’t go to clinic and give them injections they cannot eat food as they are diabetes patients’. Further his wife said, ‘a person who takes care of people’s lives, has been labeled with the conspiracy of killing Modi and put him behind the bars in 2012. Earlier my husband had participated in providing medical relief at Shah Alam relief camp in Ahmedabad after Gujarat genocide in the year 2002’.

She further stated that on 9th March 2015 he was brought to Cherlapally jail of Hyderabad from Ahmedabad and then shifted to Warangal central prison on 11th March 2015 in high security cell. The court had given dates from 1st to 10th April 2015 for trial and during this period they were daily brought and taken back from Warangal to Hyderabad and everyday they were tortured while going back. When they brought them on 6th April, Dr. Haneef had told his family members that he is feeling something danger to his life because of the escort police party attitude. Ishrat Banu also said that she had great hope that her husband would be shifted to Cherlapally jail as they already had told the judge that they have threat to their lives and the judge had also understood the matter. While weeping she said to us that on 7th April she got to know from the news channels that her husband has been killed by the police and later her lawyer also informed the same. She further said that when they were going to bring the dead body, they were passing through the same way where her husband was shot dead and she wanted to see that place through window but police brought a van in between and ordered the driver to move fast from that place. She also said that till they reached the hospital for her husband’s body, the hospital authorities already had done post mortem without their consent and in a hurried manner the police forced her to sign the papers and moved them from the hospital, the media persons wanted to speak to her but police did not allow them to approach her. Somehow she came along with the body to Hyderabad to perform the last rites; and she said that there were 8 bullet marks on the body, one bullet had pierced from one side of the forehead to the other side, one leg bone was broken, neck and back of the body had torture marks, the back body skin was all torn, and she felt that before killing her husband he might have been tortured severely. She raised the doubt that whether he was shot dead in the bus itself or shot dead somewhere outside and brought and placed him in the bus. She also recollected that once in the court, Viqar had pleaded the judge saying, ‘allegations are on me but the other youth had no connection with me, please leave them’. The other women who are the relatives of Ishrat Banu said that we had participated in Telangana movement, casted our vote in favour of Narsimha Reddy, TRS candidate from the Musheerabad constituency, who is now Home Minister. But why is he silent spectator today.

Mohd Zakir was another under tail prisoner in the same case. He was lodged in chanchalguda jail but on 6th April 2015 he was shifted to warangal prison and on 7th escort police party killed him on the way to Hyderabad. His family doesn’t have any knowledge of shifting of this youth from Hyderabad jail warangal jail. His family is from poor background. They are in shock and much afraid and not in a position to speak

It is necessary to mention here that in the year 2007, 18th May a terror attack in the form of bomb blast took place at Makkah masjid at Charminar during the Friday prayers. Many people died in the blast, hundreds got injured and then immediately after the bomb blast another terror act took place i.e. police firing on the innocent people who had come to pray at the Masjid, and who had come to know about their kin after hearing the news of blast and also those were helping the blast victims. Five people died in the blast and many more died and injured in the indiscriminate police firing. Immediately after the blast a section of police officers with the help of mainstream media blamed the Muslim community for the blasts. In this way, three terror attacks took place on Muslim community i.e. bomb terror, police terror and media terror. Muslims were much angry and they were in shock. Muslim’s political and religious leadership failed to fulfill their responsibility in this time of crisis. By taking the advantage of Muslim leadership silence, police targeted Muslim youth with impunity. At that time of crisis, Civil liberties monitoring committee conducted a fact finding of the whole incident, exposed the facts and initiated the movement against the greater conspiracy of the police to demoralize and create fear psychosis among the Muslim community by arresting the Muslim youth. Its logical end came with the acquittal of the Muslim youth by the court and apology by the then Andhra Pradesh government as well as compensation and issued good character certificate to the youth.

But in fact, it seemed to be the end but not in real sense. On every anniversary of Makkah masjid bomb blast, if anything happened in the city, it was linked with Viqar. But he never admitted these allegations in the court and he always said that it is a big conspiracy against him in which he is struck badly.

Role of Police:

The role of police is inhuman and highly objectionable. It is the practice of Hyderabad police to make fictitious stories on Muslim youth and create an image of terrorist. Then on that name they target and arrest large number of Muslim youth. This has become the trend since 1980s. The latest trend was Viqar, he was the target of police to whom other youth were also associated and killed. The fictitious image and story of Viqar was created by the police and media run that story in such a manner that the image of Viqar and the fictitious story was fixed in the minds of the people. Apart from this police also created a story saying Viqar told them that he wanted to avenge police firing on people and also arrest and torture of Muslim youth in the blast case. Now it is in the minds of the people who is the next target of police?

When the escort police shot dead these five under trial prisoners, Aler police registered a case crime no. 35/2015 against the dead youths under section 307 but refused to register a case against the police personnel involved in the killing, under section 302. Those who are approaching Aler police station including the family members of the deceased with a complaint to register a case under section 302 against escort police officers, local police are misguiding, misleading and confusing them but not registering a case on their complaint. Whereas according to the law police is bound to register an FIR whenever a complaint is lodged in any cognizable offence.

It is pertinent to bring on record Committee also made an endeavor to register a FIR against escort police officers by giving a written complaint to Aler PS. But in return SHO Aler PS registered our complaint in the already existing case of crime no. 35/2015 which is actually a 307 case booked against the slain youths. Moreover in the pretext of accepting our complaint SHO also issued a notice under section 160 of CrPC asking us to visit again to record our statement in existing police case, which committee has nothing do off. This is nothing but a bullying tactic by the police against general public to discourage them from setting criminal law into motion against guilty police officers.

We came to know that the station house officer P. Raghavender, SI has previously worked in old city of Hyderabad i.e. at Moghulpura police station and also in special task force and he is posted in Aler PS just six months back.

Here the police instead of working as per the law, entire police personnel of Telangana government came for the defense of killer police gang and using all their sources and mounting pressure on the government of Telangana not to take any action against the police personnel those who are involved in the killing.

Role of political class:

It is common practice of the political class that they always ignore the arrest, detention, custodial deaths and encounter killings of Muslims. They are always afraid that if they speak out, they will lose their Hindu vote bank and they also think that their contact with the ruling party may become unpleasant. So they carefully take steps in these matters. The discrimination of political class is clearly exposed in this incident of cold blooded murder of five under trial Muslim prisoners. Telangana state is under the rule of TRS party led by K. Chandrasekhar Rao who is also the Chief Minister and Mahmood Ali deputy chief minister of Telangana. These two responsible persons have not opened their mouth till date. This state has become a police state and it seems that Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister have become sub-ordinates to the police personnel. K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Chief Minister of Telangana state who had given assurances to the Muslim community during the Telangana movement, has now turned off his face and playing in the hands of police. The formation of SIT for investigation is a big joke with the community and this G.O. mentions the term “terror operatives”. This itself shows the seriousness of the government towards the investigation of the cold blooded murder of five Muslim under trial prisoners. The gravity of human rights violations can be imagined by seeing the killing of five Muslim prisoners by planting a false story.

The opposition party Congress thought it better to be silent in this matter. When our committee reminded Mr. Digvijay Singh Senior leader of congress party, why the Congress party is maintaining silence in the state of Telangana, he replied that the party has been issued the direction in this issue. But this committee came to know from the senior leaders of congress that Congress does not want to lose Hindu votes by talking on this issue. And now the corporation elections are also nearby. MIM and its alliance MUF are playing very safely and their tone is not so powerful and demanding. They are very submissive to KCR and the people are stun as to why the Muslim political class has become so helpless, weak and bounded they are unable to built pressure on the government to fulfill the demands.

Role of Media:

Whoever the Fact finding committee met, all of them expressed their anger on Media and clearly said that media is playing a communal card only to increase the TRP ratings and to attract their Hindu viewers. The victims’ families, the common people of the Muslim community, intellectuals and students of various universities raised the question as to how can the media conduct trial and come on conclusion that a person is a terrorist. Generally now the people are thinking that whenever a Muslim name comes, it is tagged with the term terrorist and it is very easy for the state, police and media to target Muslims by labeling terrorist. Especially Telugu media run the stories and conduct the trial 24×7. The victims’ families clearly said it is only because of this media that we lost our men and in our presence one media person from TV9 came to speak to Viqar’s father but he denied speaking to him and said that, ‘TV9 has destroyed my son’s life, I will never forgive them in my life’.

Role of Judiciary:

This committee during its fact finding mission met the lawyers and advocates of the under trial prisoners. They said that each time they had pleaded to the courts that their clients have threat to their lives. But judges did not take it seriously. Viqar’s father had submitted a petition to the chief justice of Andhra Pradesh to protect the life of his son and shift him from Warangal to Hyderabad jail. But chief justice of Andhra Pradesh simply ignored this petition. We came to know that on 6th April Viqar himself had submitted an appeal in written form to the court shift him to Hyderabad from Warangal saying his life is in danger and the escort party might kill him any time and the judge had agreed to hear it on 7th April. The family members of the deceased said that if at all the courts had taken this appeal seriously in the starting itself, and then their lives would have been saved. The family members asked this committee that their men were in judicial custody and police killed all these youth, then why the same court did not ask these police men as to where are the men who were in the judicial custody? Why the same court did not order the enquiry/investigation?

The lawyers are trying to approach the High Court asking to conduct enquiry after registering 302 case on the policemen. For this purpose they were going through the earlier judgments of Supreme Court, National Human Rights Commission guidelines on custodial killings, but they found it very strange that no where it is mentioned clearly to register case under section 302 on the policemen involved in the killing. Even the Supreme Court judgment which came in 2014 is very vague.

Observations:

1. The fact finding team observed that the Aler spot is the suitable place for carrying out extra judicial killing operation and the level of impunity is such extent it seems to be the Story of encounter given with the intention to let know the general public that the encounter was indeed fake and police can get away with it any time.

2. It is clearly observed that conspiracy can be seen behind this killing which was carried out in a well planned manner.

3. It seems that the top brass of Telangana police hatched the conspiracy and got permission from the head of the government to execute the plan.

4. It is observed that the police started journey from Warangal to Hyderabad at 8 am itself, so that they can carry the operation in the early hours; whereas generally they started journey at around 11am.

5. The escort police party Chief Uday Bhaskar, Reserve Sub Inspector of Warangal made a statement and registered a complaint at Aler police station, and has many loopholes which clearly indicates that the story is concocted and filmy script.

6. Family members had apprehensions from starting itself that their kin are not safe. Even the under trial prisoners mentioned many times orally and in writing that they have threat to their lives.

7. These youth were arrested in the year 2010 at Hyderabad with the allegations that they attacked the police personnel in the revenge of Makkah Masjid police firing. But the same youth were implicated in Gujarat cases of conspiracy to kill Modi. This has become a routine matter to implicate the Muslim youth in the conspiracy or anti national cases. Later they are killed in encounter.

8. From the family members statements it is clear that the youth were tortured after they were arrested and also tortured while returning back from the court to Warangal central prison.

9. The post mortem of the deceased was not conducted according to the NHRC guidelines. As per the family members there were many torture marks all over the body and to hide this, the police in a hurried manner asked the hospital authorities to conduct postmortem as soon as possible.

10. We can see the nexus between the different departments of the government in killing the five under trial prisoners and carrying out post mortem.

11. The terror operation that started against the Muslim community in the year 2007 it is still continuing. And the Muslim community is under target by the state terrorism, Hindutva terrorism and media terrorism.

12. Political parties’ discrimination is clearly visible in the encounter killing of Muslim youth under trial prisoners. The same political parties are condemning the Sesachalam encounter killings but they are hesitating to speak on Aler fake encounter.

13. Role of police is completely inhuman, they are misinforming, misguiding the entire civil society and the Aler SHO is misleading the investigation by stating that they have already registered a case under section 307.

14. Branding the Muslim youth as Terrorists and killing them in encounter has become common practice of Indian police and particularly Hyderabadi police is more perfect and they have specialization on implicating and killing of Muslim youth.

15. Muslim leadership failed to tackle the situation and is saying that all the atrocities and brutalities are happening on Muslims due to the formation of Telangana. It seems that this statement is given to wash off their hands from their responsibilities towards the community.

16. K. Chandrasekhar Rao who is the Chief Minister of Telangana is maintaining silence on the brutal killing of Muslim youth. This silence gives the impression that he was well aware of this cold blooded murder of five under trial Muslim prisoners. It also indicates that he wants to be close with the Modi government and induct his daughter in Modi’s cabinet. That is why these five Muslim youth who had the allegation of conspiracy to kill Modi, are killed.

17. The mindset of the state is itself communal, which is visible by the term “terror operatives” used in the G.O. by the Chief Secretary of Telangana government which formed SIT to investigate this issue.

18. Every civilized person of the society feel that media is playing irresponsible role and those who are running the media houses do not have journalistic values. All these media are labeling and calling these youth as terrorists, this is a very grave inhuman act as the dead bodies cannot speak and defend themselves. People believe that due to the media trial these five Muslim under trial prisoners lost their lives. Victims’ family members are holding media responsible for cold blooded murder of five Muslim under trial prisoners.

19. These five youth were in the judicial custody. Whenever there is a person in Judicial custody it is the responsibility of the judiciary to protect their life, but even after many pleadings to the judge and also sent applications to the chief justice , judiciary failed to protect the under trial prisoners. It was a grave negligence and after the death of these youth, there is no clear direction of Supreme Court as to what case should be registered on the police personnel. This committee strongly feels that judicial procedure system is under impunity.

20. Aler police registered a case under section 307 of IPC i.e. attempt to murder against the under trail prisoners who were killed by the escort police party, but not registering the case u/s 302 IPC against police personal who killed these handcuffed and tied with chained under trails prisoners. Common people are saying that how can police registered a case on dead person and how this dead person can defend himself.

Conclusion:

Five youth who were in the judicial custody, hand cuffed, and tied with chain were killed by the police while bringing them to the court of law. These are cold blooded political murder with a intention to send a message to the Muslim community. The story planted by the top brass of police is nothing but a bundle of lies and it seems that high level police officers already planned the killing of five youths to send the message to the Muslim community that their lives are based on the mercy of the police. It is a clear act of suppression. In this killing a particular mind set is working and it seems the Telangana police are completely under the influence of fascist mindset.

Five Muslim youths who were in the judicial custody, hand cuffed and chained were killed by the police ruthlessly and in cold blooded manner while bringing them to the court of law. The story planted by the top brass of police is nothing but a bundle of lies and it appears that high level police officers already planned a conspiracy for the killing of five youths and they have selected these particular under trail prisoners, to send the message to the Muslim community that their lives are based on the mercy of the state. It is a clear act of suppression. In this killing a particular mind set has been emerged in full-fledged manner and it is fascist mindset of state of Telangana government led by K.chandershaker Rao the chief Minister of Telangana state. The Telangana police are working completely under the influence of fascist mindset. By going through the facts and figure It seem that state has given free hands and license to the police to suppress them in the name of fight against terrorism. There is total impunity given on police brutalities in Telangana State. The cold blooded murder of five muslim under trail prisoners are actually is the target killing is nothing but political murder and community has termed it as “Assassination” of five under trail political prisoners. This program of targeted killing without prove of charge or trial, violates the constitutional guarantee of due process and it also violates international law. Because of this state sponsored assassination there is unrest found in people belonging to all quarters and they are thinking that “Right to life is in danger and more particular prisoner’s life is on stake.”

Demands:

The committee holds the chief minister of Telangana morally responsible for the Assassination of five Muslim under trail prisoners and administratively responsible for not fulfilling his responsibility and assurances given during the Telangana movement and election manifesto. Hence the committee demands the resignation of the chief minister Telangana Mr.K.chandershekhar Rao.

Prosecution should be launched against those policemen who opened fire on under trail prisoners.

The investigation should be immediately handed over to credible judicial authority.

Lateef Mohammed Khan, G. Secretary. CLMC

Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee. India
Amberpet, Hyderabad, A.P, India – 500013
Phone: 09391051586, 09347853843Fax: 040-27427860
Email: clmci@hotmail.com Website: www.civillibertiesindia.org