Detained youths freed in Tripura

Eleven Muslim youths from Maharashtra who had been detained in Tripura on suspicion of being involved with militant outfits behind the Mumbai blasts have been freed, police said.

A police statement issued Wednesday night said that after completion of interrogation, it was found the youths had visited Tripura for preaching the tenets of Islam. The youths had been apprehended from a mosque in the border village of Sonarai in Dhalai district two days after the serial blasts in Mumbai and Srinagar on July 11.

Their detention evoked a strong response from the Tripura state Jamiat Ulema (ISJU) which said that the youths, all ISJU activists, who were conducting religious activities "were being harassed for no reason".

ISJU president Mukti Tayebur Rahaman said the detained youths were "genuine" members of Tablig-e-Jamat which was confirmed by Nizamuddin mosque in Delhi and Mumbra Halka Jimedar in Thane and that they had no link with any Islamic militant outfit.

A delegation of the Ulema had also met Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and urged him to look into the "illegal" detention of the youths from Mumbra town in Thane district.