The AMU Students’ Union honoured Mufti Abdul Qayyum, Adam Bhai Ajmeri and Maulana Abdullah, three of the six acquitted in Akshardham case after spending 11 years in prison, at Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh on 7 May.
The programme started with AMU Students’ Union President Abdullah Azzam feting the three by draping them with the Student’s Union gown and presenting them a memento to mark the occasion. Delegates to the programme included among others Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, President All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat; Gulzar Azmi, Secretrary Jamiat-ul-Ulama Hind and noted Advocate Mehmood Pracha from Delhi.
Mufti Abdul Qayyum, in his key address, spoke of the need for social harmony, saying that he had no malice or hatred for anyone, but only prays that the kind of injustice that was faced by him does not happen to anyone else. He also said that he had full faith in the Indian judicial system as he was innocent, and hoped that the same system will now work to penalise those in the security agencies responsible for such activities.
AMUSU President Abdullah Azzam, in his presidential remarks, said that the people who are released after spending years in prison are victims of a terror that is perpetrated by the State itself, and also questioned why the State was hesitant to investigate the leads provided by the confession of Swami Aseemanand and others who have taken responsibility for various terror attacks for which Muslim youth are still behind bars.
Azzam also questioned the legitimacy and sincerity of traditional secular parties, in particular the Samajwadi Party government of Uttar Pradesh which had promised to address this issue in the elections but then failed to even table the Nimesh Commission report exonerating Khalid Mujahid and Tariq Qasmi and raising serious questions about the intent and operations of security agencies.
Azzam also called for the creation of a National Fund for the rehabilitation of Victims of State Terror, as the rehabilitation and reintegration of people like Mufti Abdul Qayyum was a great concern that should be taken seriously.