India: Muslim mushawarat condemns continued kidnapping and torture of Muslim youths

New Delhi: In a letter to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Shri PC Chidambram, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan said that “we cannot accept that our youths are routinely kidnapped, tortured and forced to accept crimes we believe they did not commit. Acquittals by the dozens are proof of the injustice being done to defame and ruin the future of our youths who are still studying or have just started their careers.”Dr Khan brought to the notice of the prime minister and home minister the case of Saifur Rahman, 22, who was kidnapped in the night of 13 April 2009 while taking his newly-wed sister from Azamgarh to her in-laws in Mumbai. Saifur Rahman is the younger son of Dr Abdur Rahman, a retired professor of zoology. On 12 April 2009 alongwith his sister Arshi, Saifur Rahman boarded Godaan Express from Azamgarh on his way to Mumbai. The train reached Jabalpur at around 1.30 am. While the train was on Jabalpur station, 12 persons including a woman (allegedly from the ATS) forcibly kidnapped Saifur Rahman and his sister from their coach. When co-passengers objected, the raiding team told them that they are arresting the duo because they are “thieves” and have “weapons with them”. From Jabalpur the duo were taken to Bhopal. There the sister was allowed to phone her husband who was able to reach Bhopal next day (14 April) and was allowed to take his wife with him. Saifur Rahman, on the other hand, was taken to Jaipur where all kinds of allegations were levelled against him including one that he was going to Bhopal to assassinate the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh while the fact is that he was accompanying his sister to her in-laws in Mumbai. Saifur Rahman was produced before a district court judge in Jaipur today (17 April) where with tears in his eyes he denied all the allegations and told the judge that he has been tortured to accept the allegations, that he has been forced to sign on blank papers and has been told that his sisters will be kidnapped and molested if he did not cooperate. Saifur Rahman also showed the judge torture wounds on his body. AIMMM President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan told the prime minister and home minister in his letter, “it is a matter of grave concern for the Muslim community that our youths are still being kidnapped, tortured and forced to own up ‘crimes we believe they did not commit. This is not the way to fight terrorism. Instead, this is a sure way to create terrorists out of innocents. I reiterate here that the Muslim leadership must be taken into confidence and shown real evidence if it exists. This kind of kidnapping must stop forthwith as any wanted person may be easily arrested from his house during day time.”Dr Khan said in his letter, “While we support any effort to fight and eradicate the scourge of terrorism, we cannot accept that our youths are routinely kidnapped, tortured and forced to accept crimes we believe they did not commit.” He added that “The government must be extra cautious since communal and Sanghi elements have infiltrated into the police, security and intelligence apparatus and are misusing their positions in order to target, defame and demoralise the Muslim community.”