Islamic organisation Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, a body of Deobandi Sunni Muslim clerics, has decided to come to the rescue of recently arrested two Al-Qaeda terrorists by the Anti-Terrorism Squat (ATS) in Uttar Pradesh and has announced that it will provide legal assistance to the terror suspects.
Jamiat chief Maulana Arshad Madani said that his organisation would also extend legal assistance to Umar Gautam, accused of converting Hindus to Islam and presently in judicial custody.
Madani said that fast track courts should be set up for the trial of all the accused in terror cases so that the guilty were convicted and the innocent were released.
"The process of using terrorism as a weapon to destroy the lives of Muslim youths continues. Our legal struggle will continue till the honourable release of innocent Muslims," said Maulana Madani, who wields considerable influence on Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband in Saharanpur.
Madani said that with the legal assistance given by Jamiat, hundreds of Muslim youths had been released from jail which proved that law and order enforcing agencies were partisan and Muslims were arrested without credible evidence. According to Madani, the family of one of the terror accused wrote to Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and sought legal aid, after which the president of the Jamiat’s legal aid committee, Gulzar Azmi, decided to provide assistance to the duo.
Advocate Furkan Khan has been appointed to represent the duo in court and seek documents such as FIR, remand report and other such material.
Earlier this week, the Uttar Pradesh ATS arrested two terrorists from Kakori's Dubagga and Madiaon areas and seized a detonator, explosives, handgun and two pressure-cookers which were to be used as IEDs. The police claimed that the two suspects were in touch with their handlers in Pakistan and preliminary investigation revealed that the two were planning to target a Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian and several other senior party members in Lucknow.
Meanwhile, UP’s Minister of State for Haj and Minority Affairs, Mohsin Raza, condemned the stance of Maulana Madani and said, “We never expected such an irresponsible statement from a senior cleric like Madani. Security agencies are battling the conspiracies of terror backed from Pakistan that plan blasts at crowded public places on festivals like Eid and Bakrid. Such statements by Muslim clerics bring them on the radar of the agencies and then they start claiming that Muslims are being targeted.”