After Hyd blasts, there are reports of indiscrimante arrests of Muslims

HYDERABAD: Pressure is mounting on Muslims leaders to quit government-run organisations in protest against 'indiscriminate' arrests of youths from the minority community in the wake of the Aug 25 twin blasts in the city.

The reported 'arrests' of about 40 Muslim youths and the police's failure to produce them in courts have angered a section of the community. Many are demanding that Muslim leaders who backed Andhra Pradesh's ruling Congress party in the 2004 assembly elections intervene and also quit as heads of government-run organisations.

A group of women relatives of some arrested youths late Monday staged a sit-in at the residence of eminent religious scholar Moulana Hameeduddin Auqil Hussami, who is the convenor of the Muslim United Front, an umbrella of various Muslim parties, including Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).

The burqa-clad women wanted the Moulana to intervene as he and other leaders of the front had actively campaigned for the Congress in the last elections. But the Moulana said he was helpless as his own madrassa Darul Uloom Hyderabad was raided by the police after the blasts.

In an attempt to pacify the agitators, the Moulana tried to talk on phone to senior police officials and even a Muslim minister and to protest over the arrests but in vain.

About this the Moulana remarked that the Congress government was as bad as the previous NDA government. "This government is termed as pro-poor but it is anti-Muslim. It is targeting Muslims merely on suspicion," he said.