Transfer encounter probe to Bombay HC, demands SP

Hyderabad, April 24 (INN): The Samajwadi Party has demanded that the State Government order a probe by a sitting judge of the High Court into the Alair encounter in which five Muslim under trails were killed by the Telangana Police on April 7.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Samajwadi Party's Maharashtra president and MLA Abu Asim Azmi demanded that a judge of Bombay High Court should be appointed to conduct the enquiry. Raising doubts that the Telangana Government might not conduct a fair probe, he said entire trail of the probe into the encounter should be done in Maharashtra. He said that it was the country's first incident wherein under trails were killed in judicial custody by the police. He also expressed concern that the Supreme Court did not take suo motto notice of the incident.

Abu Asim Azmi was accompanied with SP's AP and Telangana President Jagadish Yadav and MBT leader Amjed Ullah Khan.

Earlier, Abu Asim Azmi visited the houses of all under trails, who were killed in encounter, and interacted with their family members. He also gave financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh to the family of Md Zakir and Rs 2 lakh to the widow of Dr Hanif and also assured to take responsibility of providing education to his three children. The family members of Syed Amjad, another under trail who was killed declined to accept financial assistance. The SP leader also met Mohammed Ahmed, father of Viqar Ahmed.

Abu Asim Azmi demanded that the State Government provide Rs 20 lakh compensation to the families of those killed in fake encounter besides providing job to one family member. He said that the TRS Government should not trust the police version as Telangana Police, which was previously part of united AP Police, was notorious for supporting the Gujarat Police in carrying out fake encounters. The AP Police provided logistic support to Gujarat Police in executing fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and also Ishrat Jahan. He demanded the immediate suspension of all police personnel involved in the Alair encounter and registration of murder cases against them. He also objected to appointment of IPS officer Sandeep Shandilya as the SIT chief and reminded that Shandilya had defended police firing after Mecca Masjid blast in May 2007 and had also tried to project the blast case as the result of rivalry between two Muslim groups. Later investigations have proved that Mecca Masjid blast was carried out by Hindu terror outfits.

The SP leader strongly criticised the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen for maintaining a condemnable silence on the atrocities against Muslims in Telangana State. The MIM has remained silent on the killing of three Muslims in police firing in Kishan Bagh, the brutal murder of 8-year-old boy Shaik Mustafa, custodial death of a poor rickshaw-puller Hyder in Nizamabad and similar other cases. He challenged MIM to withdraw its support to the TRS Government if it was really honest with the Muslim community.

Abu Asim Azmi said that the MIM has been shielding the anti-minorities action of the TRS Government for its own personal gains. He alleged that the MIM has been exploiting the sentiments of common Muslims. The SP leader raised suspicion on the intentions of TRS Government, which claims itself to be pro-minorities. He said TRS Government of Telangana was equally communal and anti-Muslim as the BJP Government of Gujarat. This became clear when the State Government described five under trials as "terror operatives" when it issued the GO (Ms No 184) constituting SIT on April 13, he said.

Giving a deadline of 10 days for the State Government to order a probe by a sitting HC judge into the encounter, Abu Asim Azmi announced that the Samajwadi Party, in collaboration with Majlis Bachau Tahreek and Zahed Ali Khan of Siasat Urdu Daily, would conduct a Maha Dharna in Hyderabad. He said a 10-member committee would be formed which would invite all parties and groups, including the MIM, to join the Maha Dharna.