Cops disallow 'torture' victims' public meet

The Hyderabad city police did not permit a public meeting where the victims of police torture were to present details of the physical and mental torture after they were picked up following last year's bomb blasts in Hyderabad.

Assistant commissioner of Police S Chaturvedi said permission was not granted for the protest meeting by Majlis Bachao Tehreek due to the apprehensions of breach of peace.

The meeting was organized on Idgah Ujale Shah Ground in old city of Hyderabad to protest against the incidents of subjecting Muslim youth to physical torture and failure of the police to nab the culprits of the blast in Mecca Masjid in May last year.

"We wanted to expose the real face of the police before the people. Victims of police torture were to present their case in the people's court but fearing the exposure the police did not permit our meeting," said Amjadullah Khan Khalid, the leader of MBT.

Heavy police force was deployed in Sayeedabad, Malakpet, Chanchalguda and other surrounding areas. The venue of the meeting was also locked by the police.

ACP Chaturvedi said if they had allowed the MBT to hold the meeting, then other groups of people would have also insisted on holding similar meetings leading to tension and disruption of communal harmony and peace.

Imran Khan and Shoaib Jagirdar, who were acquitted by the court in a criminal conspiracy case, were scheduled to speak at the meeting and give the details of how they were picked up after the Mecca Masjid blast and how the police subjected them to third degree torture to extract confession of their involvement in the blast.

Before the meeting was cancelled, a team of plain-cloth policemen visited Shoaib's home in Hyderabad and warned him against attending the protest meeting. They told Shoiab's father that higher police officials were against Shoaib attending the meeting. But Shoaib's father Yunusullah Khan rejected their threats and warned the policemen against visiting his home.

"My son was innocent. But you tried to frame him in a false case and project him as a terrorist. Now that the court has found him innocent, you are still threatening us," Yunusullah Khan told the policemen.

The police also threatened and warned Imran's friends not to support him or attend the meeting. Two of his friends were even summoned to Bowenpally police station, Imran said.

Earlier, Imran was also asked by the police to turn an informer and provide information about the activities of Muslim youth, which he firmly rejected.

Shoaib Jagirdar, who had come from Jalna to attend the meeting, said that he too was under constant pressure from the police and intelligence sleuths.

The issue of subjecting Muslim youth to torture in Hyderabad has come into focus at the international level after the Human Rights Watch Group recently issued a statement demanding prosecution of the guilty police officials.

The HRW said that after last year's blasts in Hyderabad about 100 Muslims were picked up and many of them were subjected to brutal torture including stripping, beatings and electric shocks.