Transfer Alair Encounter Probe To Bombay HC: SP

The Samajwadi Party demanded that the Telangana government order a probe by a sitting judge of the High Court into the Alair encounter in which five Muslim undertrails were killed by the Telangana Police on April 7.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad on Friday, Samajwadi Party's Maharashtra president and MLA Abu Asim Azmi demanded that a judge of the Bombay High Court be appointed to conduct the enquiry.

Raising doubts that the Telangana Government might not conduct a fair probe, he said that the entire trial of the probe into the encounter should be done in Maharashtra.

He said that it was the country's first incident wherein undertrails were killed in judicial custody by the police. He also expressed concern that the Supreme Court did not take suo moto notice of the incident.

Abu Asim Azmi was accompanied by the SP's AP and Telangana President Jagadish Yadav and MBT leader Amjed Ullah Khan.

Earlier, Azmi visited the houses of all the undertrails who were killed in encounter, and interacted with their family members. He also gave financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh to the family of Md Zakir and Rs 2 lakhs to the widow of Dr Hanif, and also assured to take responsibility of providing education to the latter's three children. The family members of Syed Amjad, another undertrail who was killed, declined to accept financial assistance. The SP leader also met Mohammed Ahmed, father of Viqar Ahmed.

Azmi demanded that the state government provide Rs 20 lakhs as compensation to the families of each of those killed in the "fake" encounter besides providing a job to one member from each family. He said that the TRS government should not trust the police version as the Telangana police, which was previously part of the united AP Police, was notorious for supporting the Gujarat police in carrying out fake encounters.

He demanded the immediate suspension of all police personnel involved in the Alair encounter and registration of murder cases against them. He also objected to the appointment of IPS officer Sandeep Shandilya as the SIT chief and reminded that Shandilya had defended the police firing after the Mecca Masjid blast in May 2007 and had also tried to project the blast case as the result of rivalry between two Muslim groups. (Later investigations proved that the Mecca Masjid blast was carried out by Hindu outfits.)

The SP leader strongly criticised the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen for maintaining a condemnable silence on the atrocities against Muslims in Telangana. The MIM had remained silent on the killing of three Muslims in the police firing in Kishan Bagh, the brutal murder of an 8-year-old boy Shaik Mustafa, the custodial death of a poor rickshaw-puller Hyder in Nizamabad and similar other cases. He challenged the MIM to withdraw its support to the TRS government if it was really honest with the Muslim community.

Giving a deadline of 10 days for the state government to order a probe by a sitting HC judge into the encounter, Azmi announced that the Samajwadi Party, in collaboration with the Majlis Bachau Tahreek and Zahed Ali Khan of the Siasat Urdu daily, would conduct a maha dharna in Hyderabad.

He said a 10-member committee would be formed which would invite all parties and groups, including the MIM, to join the maha dharna. (INN)