Madurai: After the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested five Muslim youths from Madurai for their alleged involvement in bomb blasts in court complexes in South India, the kin of the youngsters are claiming that police from the neighbouring state of Kerala are harassing them seeking details about the youngsters.
"We are already reeling under pain for NIA had falsely implicated my brother Abbas Ali in the bomb cases. In such circumstances, the Kerala police visited our houses and intimidated us to provide information about him," claimed Mohammed Ismail, younger brother of Abbas Ali.
"The police had visited Abbas' house in plain clothes and forcefully photographed our family members. When we tried to resist, they threatened us with dire consequences," Ismail alleged.
The All Indian Islamic Movements and Jamadh's Federation, Madurai, which conducted an inquiry with the family members of 5 Muslim youths to ascertain the facts, facilitated them to express their grievances to media persons on Friday.
Mahamuth Nisha (43), Shamsudeen's mother, also alleged that the Kerala police visited her house without prior intimation and asked for details stating he had been involved in the bomb blast in the court complex at Malappuram. "When my son doesn't know to even write Tamil, how would he have travelled to other states and involved himself in such incidents," she asked.
The NIA police also allegedly tortured Shamsudeen's younger brother Nazeer who is undergoing treatment at a hospital, said Nisha, his sister. Dismissing the allegation levelled against Abbas by the police that he had used the library ‘DARUL ILM' run by him, to attract youths to radical ideology, his younger brother Mohammed Ismail said he used the library only for religious teachings of Allah. "He doesn't know to use modern gadgets and also never stayed more than two days in other places," he said.
The father of Chennai software engineer Dawood Suleiman also countered the police theory that his son led the gang. "During the weekends, my son would visit Madurai to take rest and spend time with the family," he said.
M.A. Idris, coordinator of the Federation, argues that the NIA claims they have been closely monitoring the movement of the 5 youths for the last 3 months. "If so, how could police have issued passport to Sassum Karri Raja who was also arrested in this case. He applied for it only three months ago," he said.
Advocate Shajahan, state general secretary of National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation, said that the police have been targeting Muslim youths and arresting them without proper evidence. "In fact, they are creating it after they have been arrested," he claimed.
When the Deccan Chronicle contacted the Kerala police officer, he denied the allegation that they have harassed the family members of the youths. "We are collecting details about their alleged involvement in the bomb blast at the court complex in Malappuram, but we are doing this after getting prior permission from the local police," he said.
