Khalid Mujahid, who was abducted from his village Mariahu (Jaunpur) by Special Task Force (STF) people on 16 December 2007, and later on shown as arrested near railway station of Barabanki on 22 December 2007 is no more. This is the end of continuous mental and physical torture he had been subjected to for the last six years. He was falsely implicated in cases of serial bomb blasts in Faizabad and other towns. The members of his family and human rights activists have equally blamed the government and STF for the sad death of this 30 years young madrasa teacher, who was thrown behind bars just two weeks after his marriage.
Bowing to widespread protests in several districts, the then ruling Mayawati government of Uttar Pradesh instituted an enquiry commission headed by Justice R.D. Nimesh. The commission moved at a snail’s pace but finally submitted its report indicting certain police officials in August 2012. In spite of growing demands Akhilesh government has been sitting on the report pretty well ever since. Mr.SandipPandey and other activists have put parts of the report on internet. Khalid’s advocates RandhirSuman and MuhammadShuaib have alleged that he has been bumped off to save the necks of STF men involved in the case. MohammedAdeeb, M.P., has likened Khalid’s death to that of Qateel Siddiqui in a Pune jail.
ZaheerAlamFalahi, uncle of Khalid, has squarely blamed Mulayam and Akhileshfor the death of his nephew. He alleged that instead of paving the way for Khalid’s honourable release they got him killed.
Rajiv Yadav of RihaiManch has said that Khalid’s bone of neck appeared to be broken and he had several other injury marks on his body.
It is possible that Akhilesh government may seek CBI enquiry to bring out the realities. If Khalid has been murdered and the enquiry confirms it, many heads may roll in STF hierarchy. The uniformed culprits may face the fate of Gujarat IPS officers, who were responsible for murders of Suhrabuddin, Kauser Bi, Ishrat Jahan and other innocent persons who were killed in fake encounters.
It is high time the central and state governments took effective measures to put an end to fake encounters, false allegations and erroneous trials. How long India can tolerate this long night of human rights violation. Let the culprits in uniform learn that they will not be allowed to play with the lives of young men and let wrong-doing rulers be told that the waters of Ganga and Jamuna are insufficient to wash the blood of the innocents on their hands.