Alair Encounter: Muslim Leaders To Meet Gov, CM

The Muslims United Forum, an umbrella body of various social and political organisations, has decided to meet Governor E S L Narasimhan and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao demanding a CBI probe into the Alair encounter wherein five undertrials were killed in police firing.

The meeting, held at the MIM headquarters at Darussalaam on Wednesday, was attended by MIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, Muslim Personal Law Board Assistant General Secretary Moulana Abdul Rahim Qureshi, Moulana Qubool Pasha Shattari and others.

Briefing media persons later, Owaisi described the encounter as fake, and demanded a CBI enquiry or a probe through a sitting judge.

He alleged that it was a retaliatory killing and dismissed the police version that they had fired in self-defence. He said that it had been decided by the meeting that the Governor and the Chief Minister would be petitioned seeking an independent probe into the matter.

Asaduddin Owaisi said that all the under-trials were handcuffed and killed in the police van itself. He accused the police of taking the law into their own hands and deteriorating the situation in Telangana. He also demanded that the Chief Minister tender an unconditional apology over the incident.

The MUF leaders also condemned the killing of 20 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu in an alleged encounter by the police in the Seshachalam forest at the foot of the Tirumala hills on Tuesday. They demanded an independent probe into the killings. (INN)