Viqar's Father Demands CBI Probe, Refuses Bodies

Describing the killing of five suspected militants as "daylight murder", the father of Viqaruddin, Mohammed Ahmed, announced that the families would not claim the bodies unless the Telangana government ordered a CBI probe into the encounter.

Five suspected militants - Viqaruddin Ahmed, Amjed Ali, Md Zaker, Md Haneef and Israr Khan - were shot down by the police at Alair in the Nalgonda district while they were being brought from the Warangal jail to the Nampally court in Hyderabad on Tuesday morning.

"They were in judicial custody for the last four years and never tried to escape. They were in the custody of about 18 policemen and handcuffed. Therefore, there was no question of them attempting to escape," he said.

He also informed that a petition had been lodged in the Nampally court seeking their transfer from the Warangal jail to either the Cherlapally or Chanchalguda central prisons in Hyderabad.

"The court was expected to give a favourable ruling at 2:30 pm today. Hence, the Telangana police killed all five persons in a fake encounter," alleged Viqaruddin's father.

He informed that Viqaruddin was arrested in 2010 and was kept in a Gujarat jail for some time. He said that the courts should have punished him and the other suspects if they were really involved in any offence. However, the Telangana police took the law into their hands and killed them in a "cold-blooded murder", he alleged.

He said that the family had expressed apprehensions in the past that Viqaruddin and the others might be killed in a fake encounter, and had also approached the Human Rights Commission seeking their transfer to a city jail. However, he said, the petition had been ignored and the family's apprehensions came true.

He said that the police took advantage of the Nalgonda encounter wherein two alleged SIMI operatives had been killed, and executed the "fake encounter" of Viqaruddin and others. (INN)