Alair Encounter: T-Congress Compares KCR With Modi

Reiterating the Congress party's demand for a CBI probe into the Alair encounter wherein five undertrials were killed in police firing, the Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir described the assigning of the probe to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) as an eye-wash.

In a media statement on Monday, Shabbir Ali reminded that on April 8th itself AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh demanded a CBI probe into the fake encounter.

He said it was shocking that K Chandrashekar Rao, who claimed to be a minority-friendly Chief Minister, maintained a questionable silence on the issue for five days, and announced the formation of an SIT to probe into the matter.

"The Chief Minister is just trying to hush the matter up by ordering a probe through an SIT. It is highly condemnable that KCR is taking light of the killing of five Muslim youth in an 'encounter', especially at a time when doubts have been raised from all quarters over the veracity of police claim," he said.

Shabbir Ali said it was for the courts to decide whether or not the youth were involved in any offences. Neither the state government nor the Telangana police were authorised to kill anyone in cold blood.

"While the Congress party strongly condemns all kinds of terrorism, it equally opposes 'fake encounters' and the implication of Muslim youth in false cases," he said.

The Congress leader said KCR's response towards the Alair encounter was similar to the reaction given by Narendra Modi when the latter was asked about the Gujarat riots. While Modi rejected the demands for an independent probe into the 2002 Gujarat riots, KCR was opposing a CBI probe into the Alair encounter. Both remained adamant on their stands, and did not care for the feelings of the Muslim community.

Asking as to why KCR was afraid of ordering a CBI probe if the encounter was not fake, he demanded that the Congress party would settle for nothing less than a CBI probe. (INN)