Even as Hyderabad police continued to maintain that the two Muslim youths from Maharashtra, who were nabbed for their alleged plans to travel to Afghanistan for armed training, had links with a Hyderabad-based youth Motasim Billah, the latter has come out with a categorical denial.
Motasim Billah, son of a cleric Abdul Aleem Islahi, has been declared by the city police as absconding. But Billah addressed a media conference at home to deny the police statements. “I have invited you to show that I am very much at my home leading a normal life and attending college,” he said. “I am also regularly appearing before the courts in the cases slapped on me by the police as part of their continuing harassment”.
Motasim said that the police had fabricated the story of his links with Maharashtra youth with an ulterior motive. “By framing another case against me they are trying to influence the judgment of another case which is due shortly,” he said.
Motasim and his family, a resident of a lower middle class area of old city, had hit the headlines about ten years ago when his elder brother Mujahed was shot dead by Gujrat police in Hyderabad city. The incident had occurred when Gujrat team came to arrest another cleric Moulana Naseeruddin and his supporters had staged a protest. Mujahed was shot dead near the state DGP office in Hyderabad.
Though a murder case was booked against Gujrat police official Narhari Ameen, the case did not make much progress. At the same time police also booked an attempt to murder case against Motasim and many others.