By India Tomorrow News,
New Delhi, 25 March 2014: Leading Muslim organizations on Tuesday strongly condemned the arrest of a Hyderabad based Muslim cleric from New Delhi airport and termed it as a politically motivated action of police.
Noted Islamic scholar and rector of Madrasa Ashraful Uloom, a seminary in Hyderabad, Maulana Mohammed Abdul Qavi was arrested on Sunday night reportedly in a joint operation of Gujarat ATS and Delhi Police’s Special Cell. Later it was reported that he was accused in a decade old conspiracy case to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi along with other leaders of Sangh Pariwar and BJP. Maulana Qavi was on Monday presented before a POTA court in Ahmedabad which sent him into police custody till 07 April.
“This arrest is a political stunt and Maulana Qavi has been arrested to strengthen Narendra Modi’s election campaign for general election-2014,” Gulzar Azmi of Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind said in a statement.
Maulana Qavi’s brother Mufti Abdul Mughni Mazahiri is president of Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, Hyderabad and Maulana Qavi is also said to be associated with Jamiat.
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind termed it as the “worst example of state terrorism and a continuity of years long tyranny against Muslims in the country.”
In a statement Jamaat’s Secretary General Nusrat Ali demanded immediate release of Maulana Qavi and action against responsible police officers. He also asked Muslim community to protest against all kinds of injustice in the country.
Hyderabad- based Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee (CLMC) said that this arrest is “enough to show that Muslim’s life and liberty is at stake.”
“We hold government of India responsible for such a heinous act because it has taken place in the capital city of India under the nose of Sonia Gandhi,” a press release from CLMC reads.
Majlis Bachao Thareek (MBT) of Andhra Pradesh’s capital city also condemned arrest of Maulana Qavi and said that at least 17 Muslim scholars of Hyderabad have been arrested by Gujarat police in last 10 years.
In 2003 a case was registered by suspended IPS officer D G Vanzara against 56 persons under Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). In 2010 POTA court acquitted 22 of the accused. It was said by the Gujarat Police that these persons were hatching conspiracy to revenge post Godhra riots and were instrumental in Gujarat minister Haren Pandya’s murder. Maulana Qavi was also one of the accused.
