Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, on 30 March, demanded from the Government of Uttar Pradesh to release Maulana Tarique Qasmi and Khalid Mujahid soon and give compensation worth at least Rs. 2 million to each. It further demanded prosecution of the police officials who framed them and spoiled their lives. In a press statement, the Secretary General of the organisation, Mr. Nusrat Ali, expressed his concern over the government’s dilly-dallying attitude towards releasing the innocent Muslim youths implicated in different cases.
Mr. Ali said that it has passed around a year since the SP government came to the power but it seemed it was not interested in keeping its promises made at the time of election. He said scores of innocent Muslims are still languishing in jails and their families are made to pass through a new trauma every passing day when they listen about the plethora of bogus cases slapped against their children.
Maulana Tarique and Khalid Mujahid were picked up on 12 and 16 December 2007 respectively from their respective villages in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, but the Special Task Force issued a statement on 22 December and claimed that the two were arrested from Barah Banki near Lucknow. Subsequently, they were linked to different terrorist modules. This statement of STF invited heavy demonstration from public and the then BSP led Government of Uttar Pradesh instituted a commission under Justice RD Nimesh to probe the case. The commission submitted its findings to the government on 31 August 2012 but it is still to be tabled in the Assembly.
Some political and social organisations, based on the leaked contents of the report, have claimed that the commission has held the two boys innocent. The commission is learnt to have entertained as many as 800 evidences. Some organisations have decided to go to the court so as to make the government release the report and give way to the acquittal of the two.
Mr. Ali urged the Government of Uttar Pradesh to let peace and justice prevail at every level of the society and corruption and communalism be removed. He also laid stress on the training of police officials so as to make them work more effectively and impartially in favour of civilians without any bias.