TMS to proceed legally against media houses

Hyderabad, April 16 (INN): The Tahreek Muslim Shabban (TMS) has decided to approach the High Court against the Telangana Government and some leading media houses of Hyderabad for calling the under trials who were killed in Alair encounter as 'terrorists'.

In a media statement, TMS President Mohammed Mushtaq Mallik condemned the use of prefix "ugarwadi or terrorist" by some media houses and news channels while mentioning the names of five Muslim youth who were killed in encounter. He said although all five of them were facing serious charges, none of them was convicted by a court of law on the terror charges. He said it was against the rules of journalism to brand someone as a "terrorist" without having any proof. However, some media houses, especially the Telugu media, have been using the term "terrorist" indiscriminately against the Muslim youth, he said.

Mushtaq Mallik alleged that some vernacular newspapers were trying to link the entire Muslim community and its leaders with terrorists' organisations. He said that the Indian Muslims neither support any kind of terror activities, nor do they show any sympathy towards terrorists. Therefore, all the newspapers and channels, who have described those five Muslim youth as "terrorists" have to prove the charges or face legal action, he said.

Mushtaq Mallik, who also heads the Telangana Muslim Joint Action Committee, accused the State Government of behaving in an irresponsible manner. In the GO Ms No 184 issued by Chief Secretary Dr Rajiv Sharma on April 13 ordering a probe through Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the encounter has also addressed the under trials as "terror operatives". He said that the State Government should issue a modified GO by replacing the word 'terror operatives' with "under trials" or at least "suspects" or "accused". Else, he said legal action would also be taken against the State Government.

He said that the SIT, headed by IPS officer Sandeep Shandilya, is not expected to conduct a fair probe as it was Sandeep Shandilya who submitted a wrong and misleading report to the State Government on Mecca Masjid firing incident of May 2007. 'As the then DCP of South Zone, Sandeep Shandilya prepared two separate reports - on bomb blast in Mecca Masjid and another on police firing wherein in he misled the government. While one of his report described bomb blast at Mecca Masjid as the result of infighting among Muslim groups and in another report, he justified the police firing on the youth who protested against the bomb blast. Later, it was proved that bomb blast at Mecca Masjid was done by right-wing extremists while the Bhaskar Rao Commission report on police firing is yet to be made public,' he said.

Therefore, Mushtaq Mallik reiterated the demand that the Alair encounter probe be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.