Masihuzzama Ansari | India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Lucknow-based Activist Zainab Siddiqui, who had played an active role in organising anti-CAA protests in the state capital, has said that police barged into her house and assaulted her family members on Thursday. Her father Mohammed Naeem, who was taken to Hasanganj Police Station, is still not traceable while her brother and sisters were freed after a few hours of questioning yesterday.
Speaking to India Tomorrow over phone, she said that a police team came to her house around 6 pm on Thursday and questioned her father about her by showing her photographs of anti-CAA agitation in Lucknow. Her father told them that Zainab was working with a women’s organisation and she worked to protect women’s rights.
“The policemen returned after that. But a few people came back around 8 pm in plainclothes and tried to take her father forcibly. There were only women members in the family at that hour. The women asked them the reason for taking her father, they did not reply. When the women resisted, the plainclothesmen pushed them, abused them and beat up my sisters on the road”, Zainab alleged.
“Police beat up, dragged my father-Mohammed Naeem and brother Shaad and forcible pushed them into a waiting police van and took them to Hasanganj Police Station”, she said.
Zainab alleged, “My brother Shaad (16) was badly beaten up by the police. He is Std 10 student. He was kept at the police station for whole of the night and released at 9 a.m. on Friday”.
“My brother has sustained severe injuries. Police misbehaved with a juvenile. He is scared and can’t talk properly”, she alleged.
Zainab said that there was no information about the whereabouts of her father. “I don’t know where is my father right now. We tried to know from the Station House Officer(SHO) of the Hasanganj Police Station. But he is refusing to share any information. We are under lot of tension”, she stated.
“I also talked to Deputy Commissioner of Police Shalini about my father but she expressed her ignorance about the issue”, she said.
“My father is missing since Thursday evening after police took him along with other family members. There is no clue about him. I don’t know what to do and whom to approach to get to know about him”, she said.
The video of what happened at the house of Zainab was shared on social media. The video shows how the policemen were trying to pull the women.
However, Station House Office (SHO) of Hasanganj Police Station, , told India Tomorrow that it was Special Task Force (STF) personnel who had detained Zainab and her family members. He said that Zainab’s father has been arrested by Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) but refused to share any information about the charged against her father, saying, “I am myself not aware of it”.
NGO Rihai Manch general secretary Rajiv Yadav condemned the police action.
Corrigendum
The earlier photo in this story published on November 6 belonged to a different person, other than activist Zainab Siddiqui, whose father Naeem Siddiqui, has been arrested by UP’s Anti Terrorist Squad. It happened inadvertently. The error is deeply regretted.
Most probably her father would have beaten badly by the police. They won’t get convicted for their crimes in India. Police is basically government goons.