Jamaat-e-Islami Hind demands stern action against culprits of Bhopal encounter; Terms one-day ban on NDTV India reminiscent to dark days of Emergency

New Delhi, 05/11/2016: Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) a prominent Muslim socio-religious organization demanded stern action to be taken against the culprits of the Bhopal encounter in which 8 undertrials were killed by the Madhya Pradesh police. Addressing the media at its headquarters in New Delhi, the General Secretary of Jamaat, Muhammad Saleem Engineer said that: “Media reports and videos showing the Bhopal encounter make it appear extremely suspicious and raise some serious questions that need to be answered by the government and police. According to the lawyer of the undertrials the case against his clients was very weak and there was a distinct possibility that they would be acquitted soon. If this was the case then they had no reason to escape from prison. The whole incident bears a deep resemblance to the Batla House encounter and custodial deaths of Khalid Mujahid, Qateel Siddiqui and Mohammed Waqas. Jamaat feels that it is incorrect to state that we must not question the authenticity of the encounter as it would lower the morale of the police force.The Supreme Court of India has itself said in a judgment that: ‘’killings in police encounters require independent investigation.It does not matter whether the victim was a common person or a militant or a terrorist, nor does it matter whether the aggressor was a common person or the State. The law is the same for both and is equally applicable to both... This is the requirement of a democracy”.Therefore Jamaat demands a high level judicial enquiry under the Supreme Court of India to find out the real culprits of this encounter and award strict punishment to the guilty. Jamaat wants the probe to bring out all the facts about the jail break and the encounter.

The JIH Secretary General criticized the reluctance of the Delhi police to question those who brutally assaulted Najeeb in full public viewand lackadaisical attitude of the JNU administration in dealing with the issue. Saleeem Engineer also explained the reasons behind Jamaat’s opposition to Common Civil Code and condemned the decision of an inter-ministerial panel to take NDTV India a leading Hindi channel off air for a day. He said: ‘’this is a direct violation of the freedom of the press and is reminiscent of the dark days of the Emergency where there were arbitrary and punitive curbs on the media. Jamaat demands that this decision should be revoked immediately”.