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Soni Mishra
Soni Mishra

SIMI ENCOUNTER

Bhopal encounter: Jamaat-e-Islami demands punishment for 'culprits'

Bhopal-killing-protest

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind on Saturday demanded stern punishment for the “culprits” of the encounter in Bhopal in which eight SIMI activists who had escaped from the Central Jail were killed, and said it appeared “extremely suspicious”.

“Media reports and videos showing the Bhopal encounter make it appear extremely suspicious and raise some serious questions that need to be answered by the government and police,” said Muhammad Saleem Engineer, general secretary of JIH.

Engineer, who was addressing a press conference, said that according to the lawyer of the undertrials, the case against his clients was very weak and there was a distinct possibility that they would have been acquitted soon. “If this was the case, then they had no reason to escape from prison,” he said.

He noted that the incident bears a deep resemblance to the Batla House encounter and custodial deaths of Khalid Mujahid, Qateel Siddiqui and Mohammed Waqas.

The Jamaat, he said, demands a high level judicial enquiry under the Supreme Court to find out the real culprits of this encounter and award strict punishment to the guilty. “Jamaat wants the probe to bring out all the facts about the jail break and the encounter,” he said.

The JIH has said that it is incorrect to state that one must not question the authenticity of the encounter as it would lower the morale of the police force. The Supreme Court of India has itself said in a judgment that killings in police encounters require independent investigation, Engineer said.

The Muslim organisation also criticised the Delhi Police for its “reluctance” to question those who allegedly assaulted JNU student Najeeb in full public view before he went missing, and also the “lackadaisical attitude” of the JNU administration in dealing with the issue.

Engineer also explained the reasons behind Jamaat’s opposition to Uniform Civil Code and condemned the decision of an inter-ministerial panel to take NDTV India, a leading Hindi channel, off air for a day. He said: “This is a direct violation of the freedom of the press and is reminiscent of the dark days of the Emergency where there were arbitrary and punitive curbs on the media. Jamaat demands that this decision should be revoked immediately”.

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Topics : #SIMI encounter