The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has pulled up the Telangana Police for not furnishing complete details related to the Alair encounter in which five under trials were killed in police firing on April 7.
Raising suspicion over the intention of police, the NHRC, during its hearing on the case here on Thursday, directed the Telangana Police to furnish post mortem, forensic and magisterial enquiry report on the encounter. The Commission will decide the future course of action in this case after receipt of those reports.
Several prominent Muslim organisation have submitted separate memorandums seeking the intervention of National Human Rights Commission into the alleged
Five under trials Viquar Ahmed, Syed Amjed, Mohd. Zakir, Mohd. Haneef and Izhar Khan were killed by the Telangana police on April 7 between Jangaon and Aleru, while they were proceeding to Hyderabad for court trial in Nampally Court in Cr.No. 87/2010 of Hussaini Alam PS/SIT CCS, Hyderabad. “All of them were brutally murdered in the police van itself while they were handcuffed. The circumstantial evidences do not support the police theory that they tried to escape by snatching weapons. The forensic evidences and the preliminary findings of post-mortem report clearly point out that the encounter was fake. All the under-trials had multiple bullet injuries. It is illogical to believe that about 20 armed police personnel failed to overpower five handcuffed under trials, even if they had tried to escape. All of them were shot at a point-blank range with the sole objective of shoot-to-kill,” alleged Tahreek Muslim Shabban president and Telangana Muslim Joint Action Committee chairman Mohammed Mushtaq Mallik in his petition submitted to the NHRC.
Meanwhile, Warangal IG Naveen Chand, who appeared before the Commission, maintained that the encounter was genuine and the under trials prisoners tried to snatch weapons and escape. Consequently, they were killed in an exchange of fire, he claimed.
Mohammed Ahmed, father of under trial Viqar who was killed in the encounter, also submitted a petition before the NHRC seeking an independent probe into the matter. Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee represented Satish Kumar, Jeevan Kumar and Lateef Mohammed Khan, Telangana Forum for Justice represented by Rama Malkote, Help Hyderabad represented by Major SM Quadri and Faheem Qureshi of All India Jamaitul Quraish Action Committee also made representations before the commission arguing that the encounter was fake.
Speaking to media persons later, Mushtaq Mallik alleged that the Telangana Police have lied before the Commission and tried to distort the facts. He claimed that the police officials have wrongly claimed that five under trials were not handcuffed, but some old chains were tied to their hands. They also misled the NHRC by stating that they had sent a radio message to them about the encounter. The NHRC members also expressed surprise on hearing that they were sent a radio message by the police. The Commission also questioned the absence of jail authorities before the commission, he said.
The TMJAC chief also brought to the notice of NHRC that the State Government, in its GO Ms No 184 ordering SIT probe has addressed the under trails as “terror operatives”. He said none of them were convicted by a court of law on terror charges. Therefore, the approach of the government towards the incident clearly shows that it was not serious on conducting a fair probe into the matter. (INN)