[GOTFIVEONIT]

Women protest police atrocities

Sunday, 18 November 2007

Hyderabad, November 18: Some women in Hyderabad, whose relatives continue to languish in jail since the bomb blasts in August gave vent to their anger against the police.

They held a special meeting to criticise police officials who they said were responsible for the illegal detention, and subjecting their sons and brothers to inhuman torture.

The all-women's congregation was addressed by a young girl, Huma whose brother Mujahid was allegedly shot dead by a team of Gujarat police in Hyderabad in October 2004.

She warned the police officials “committing atrocities’’ in the name of probing bomb blasts that the unseen hand of God would punish them and they would meet a miserable fate. “The punishment has already started,’’ she said, referring to the arrest of task force inspector K .Ramachandran on charges of corruption last week.

Ramachandran had allegedly played a key role in rounding up more than 60 youth during the investigation and for booking 28 of them on charges of conspiracy. The families of the arrested youth insisted that they were all innocent and were falsely implicated to suppress the details of torture.

In another related development, an influential religious figure has issued a Fatwa against Muslim police officials who were involved in the illegal detention and torturing of Muslim youth.

Moulana Hameeduddin Aaquil Hussami said the community should boycott such officials.

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh High Court expressed its displeasure over the failure of the police in booking a case against policemen responsible for the firing after the blast at the Makkah Masjid.