India: Illegal detentions in the air - Fears of repeat of 2007 in Hyderabad

The Hindu, 24 Feb 2013

Old city is tense. Four days after the bomb blasts at Dilsukhnagar that snuffed out 16 lives and left 117 injured, reports of Muslim youths being picked up for questioning are doing the rounds.

In August 2007, following the twin blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul chat bhandar, police rounded up several youths and allegedly subjected them to third-degree methods, a charge that police had denied. Later, some of them were booked in terror conspiracy charges.

However, the youths were later acquitted of the charges, and the government paid them compensation and issued character certificates.

But since Friday, some youths, including a few who were arrested in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case, have been detained, it is said.

Ibrahim Ali Junaid, who was arrested in 2007 on terror charges and later acquitted, alleged that police were repeatedly telephoning him. “I am ready to cooperate with them (police), but the procedure should be legal,” said Dr. Junaid. A sense of fear has also engulfed areas close to Dilsukhnagar, with reports that some persons from Malakpet, Saidabad, Akbarbagh and Moosarambagh were behind the blasts.

Full text at: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/illegal-detention-reports-spark-fear/article4449573.ece?homepage=true