Akhilesh Yadav has decided to withdraw cases against two Muslim militants blamed for 2007 serial blasts.
The fledgling Akhilesh Yadav government seems to be stepping into the quicksand of controversy with a reported decision to withdraw cases against two Muslim terrorists in jail for the serial blasts in courts in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi on November 23, 2007. Several people were killed in the blasts.
The state government’s move promises to generate a huge controversy. The BJP has already termed it “anti-national” while the Congress is predictably guarded in its reaction, considering its delicate political equation with the ruling Samajwadi Party. The SP has justified the move saying it is only carrying out its election promise.
Highly-placed sources have confirmed to DNA that chief secretary Javed Usmani recently wrote to the state law department asking for legal opinion on withdrawal of terror cases against Tariq Qasmi and Khalid Mujahid, alleged HUJI militants who engineered the November 2007 serial blasts. Tariq belongs to Azamgarh while Khalid hails from Jaunpur in eastern UP. The sources also say this is just the beginning, and many more such cases could be reviewed.
The UP Police’s special task force (STF) had nabbed the two from near the Barabanki railway station on December 20, 2007. More than a kilo of RDX and detonators were recovered from them.
Legal experts say it would be virtually impossible for the state government to withdraw the terror charges as the anti terrorism squad (ATS) has already filed a chargesheet and the case is in the trial stage.
The move has also raised misgivings among police officials. “If the state government goes ahead with its plan to withdraw the cases (against Tariq and Khalid), it would only prove that all the evidence produced by the STF and the ATS is nothing but a bundle of lies. This would be a major blow to the morale of the police, and also affect anti-terror operations in future,” said a senior UP Police official.
However, the SP does not seem to think so. “We are only doing what we promised in our manifesto and in our election campaign,” says party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhry. “The chief minister has also listed this as a priority area,” he added. The SP manifesto had promised a review of cases in which Muslim youths had been implicated in false cases in the name of anti-terror operations. It had also promised adequate compensation, and strict action against the guilty officials.
“The government is acting against national interest only to appease the minorities,” said state BJP president Surya Pratap Shahi. “The SP wants to free terrorists who have taken so many innocent lives. They are playing a dangerous game for petty votebank politics,” he added.
“If the two are innocent, they should be released. But we need to remember that terrorism is the biggest danger we are facing,” said Congress leader Pramod Tiwari. “We will oppose the move if the government tries to release anyone found guilty as a terrorist,” he adds.
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