BeyondHeadlines News Desk
There is an increasing sense of isolation, anguish and pain in the Muslim community. This has been escalated due to the repeated targeting of Muslims by the law enforcement agencies. In this backdrop the Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims (CCIM) organized a Press Conference at the Delhi Press Club today to raise voice against the arrest of journalist Muhammad Ahmad Kazmi by Special Cell of Delhi Police. CCMI condemned the incident “as a new escalation in the war against Muslim community in the name of fighting terror.” The press release of the CCIM is produced below:
Press Release of Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims (CCIM)
The Indian Muslim community believes that the arrest of senior Urdu journalist Muhammad Ahmad Kazmi is a new escalation in the war against the community in the name of fighting terror. Acquittals of umpteen Muslim youths across the country after spending years in jails on trumped up charges has proved the communal nature of our police and security agencies. Senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan bluntly said on February 27, 2012 that police across the country were “communalised”. He added that “It costs nothing for the police to fabricate evidence and file a false chargesheet against an innocent person. In virtually no case, and a vast majority of cases the court does not take the next step of ordering the criminal prosecution, immediate suspension, dismissal and prosecution of that police officer,” he said adding that there is “a trend that police across the country systematically frame Muslims in terror investigations when they can’t find the culprits. In such cases, they pick up anyone around whom a credible story could be spun.”
We believe Journalist Muhammad Ahmad Kazmi is the latest victim of this communal mindset. His over two decades’ impeccable record as a journalist is an open book. Not only writing for national and international publications, he also worked for the Doordarshan and had a PIB press card for which security clearance is required.
We believe that there is no evidence till date against Journalist Kazmi who has been precisely framed at the behest of Israel’s notorious and criminal espionage agency Mossad which, according to press reports, provided his name to the Indian authorities which on their own had or have nothing against him. Now the Special Police is threatening him that unless he confessed, they will hand him over to Mossad “who know how to extract confessions” – which is a criminal threat as no Indian authority can hand over an Indian citizen to a foreign agency unless there is a court order for the same as well as an extradition treaty exists with the concerned foreign country. We believe that the Indian security agencies have nothing to date to incriminate Journalist Kazmi and they are busy fabricating a case and have been giving off the record media briefings to build pressure on their victim.
It is our demand that the unheard of 20-days police remand should be cancelled and bail should be granted to Journalist Kazmi who has been cooperating with the Police in an exemplary way and there is no reason to believe that he will not do so in future. We have written to the Hon’ble Union Home Minister, Hon’ble Lt. Governor Delhi, Hon’ble Chairman of the Press Council of India as well as to the Delhi Police Commissioner seeking their urgent intervention in this case of clear implication and fabrication of the which the Delhi Special Police has a long tainted record. We also express our astonishment that this case is not being handled by the National Investigation Agency which has been established especially to prove terror-related cases. We demand that the case must be urgently transferred to the NIA.
We will continue to agitate alongwith other civil society groups on this issue, which we believe, is a new escalation in the war against the community in the name of terror-fighting until justice is achieved. We will hold a dharna at Jantar Mantar on 26 March to press our demands.
Mujtaba Farooq, Chairman, Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims & President, Welfare Party of India
Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan, President, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat & Editor, The Milli Gazette
Muhammad Adeeb, M.P.
Muhammad Ahmad, Political Secretary, Jamaat-e Islami Hind
Maulana Muhsin Taqwi, President, National Council of Shia Ulama
Maulana Abdul Hameed Nomani, Secretary, Jamiat Ulama-e Hind
Maulana Abdul Wahab Khilji, President, Islahi Movement of India
Dr. SQR Ilyas, General Secretary, Welfare Party of India & Editor, Afkar-e Milli
Maulana Ataur Rahman Qasmi, Director, Shah Waliullah Institute
Maulana Jalal Haidar Naqvi, Secretary, All India Shia Ulama Council
Dr Tasleem Rahmani, President, Muslim Political Council of India
Zaheer Zaidi, President, Shia Point
Syed Mansoor Agha, Senior Urdu journalist
Shuaib Shaikh, Secretary, Students Organisation of India
Syed Akhlaq Ahmad, Secretary, Association for Protection of Civil Rights
Muhammad Ahmad Khan, Urdu Journalist
