The alleged fake encounter in Gujarat resonated in the Lok Sabha on Saturday with non-Bharatiya Janata Party members attacking the Narendra Modi government saying a message was going round that minorities were being targeted there.
Participating in a debate on the Demands for Grants of the Home Ministry, members from Samajwadi Party, CPI(M), Congress, RJD and BSP termed as serious the killing of one Sohrabuddin allegedly in a fake encounter in the state.
Three senior IPS officers, including a Deputy Inspector General, had been arrested in connection with the case.
"It is not the issue of an individual being killed after being branded as a terrorist...If innocent people are killed in this way, it will be like inviting new terrorists and naxals," said Ramjilal Suman (SP).
"Gujarat appears to be becoming a terrorist manufacturing machine," he alleged evoking sharp protest from BJP's Ratilal Verma.
Suman said the gravity of the situation was more in view of reports that the Gujarat Home Minister might be involved in the incident.
The SP member alleged innocent people were being killed in Gujarat in fake encounters in a way similar to 2002 riots which were 'organised'.
"A message is going to the outside world that innocent people are being killed after being labelled as terrorists," he said adding it was not good for the country and sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard.
He also sought a CBI probe to unearth the truth.
Mohd Saleem (CPI-M) said Gujarat had become a 'police state' and the situation was not good.
He said Left parties wanted a check on 'communal forces' like those in Gujarat. RJD's Girdhar Yadav said it should be seen how actions of Gujarat government can be stopped.
Congress member Madhusudan Mistry claimed there were at least 21 other fake encounters and one of the three police officers held in Sohrabudin case was allegedly involved in 10 of these.
He said while crime rate had gone up in BJP-ruled states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, communal harmony had come under severe strain.
"No action is taken against one person for threatening all cinema hall owners in Gujarat not to screen the film 'Parzania'. It seems he is getting state patronage," he said.
Describing the situation in Gujarat as bad, Ilyas Azmi of BSP demanded enactment of a law that would provide for automatic CBI probe whenever a Muslim was killed.
