8 men not presented in court one month after detention
By M.H. Khan
HYDERABAD, March 15: The Hyderabad police have not produced eight detainees in a court even though one month has elapsed since their arrest. The eight men were picked up from different places on allegations of links to militant outfits.
A group of journalists, after being tipped off that the eight had been kept at a petrol station off the National Highway, decided to visit the place. The eight men were chained together and looked famished and forlorn.
As soon as the journalists started putting questions to the detainees, the police whisked them away to an unknown place. According to sources, the detainees were all students of a madressah.
A police mobile of Latifabad investigation wing was parked outside the petrol station.
The names of the eight men are: Akram, Asif, Ashraf, Ghulam Murtaza, Islamuddin, Hamid, Mohammad Aslam and Talat Mehmood. “We have been in detention for one month and we have not been produced before any court," they told journalists before being whisked away.
Islamuddin, one of the detainees, said he ran a jewellery in Hyderabad’s Sarafa Bazaar. Another detainee said he had been picked up from Karachi.
“Call the SP sahib to tell him that journalists have reached the place and take the detainees to the mobile,” screamed an ASI as he tried to stop the reporters from speaking to them.
A man who works at the petrol station, said: “They (police and the detainees) arrived here in the morning. We served them food as we were told they were guests of SP sahib.” He said they had been there for two hours.
The investigation agency’s offices are located four kilometres from the station. Police officials said the men were being interrogated for their alleged links to a banned militant group. Police believed they had collected donations for the organisation.
“Islamuddin's son Nazim had also been picked up by the investigation wing, but was released since he was underage,” an investigation official said.
“Nazim was beaten severely before being released,” said a relative.
A police official said Nazim had been arrested for giving money to Tahir Minhas, an accused in the murder of Greesh Kumar, adding that police had carried out a number of raids to catch other suspects in the case.
The remains of Mr Kumar were found on Feb 7 in an abandoned house, near a madressah, in Kotri’s Sachal Sarmast Colony. He had been kidnapped on Aug 17 last year from his apartment in Hirabad.
