Most of the arrested Muslims are innocent, says Shahi Imam

The Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, has sought an independent, high-level inquiry into bomb blasts of all kinds, fake encounters and confinement of Muslim youth, to nail the lie that Muslims are involved in acts of terrorism. He asserted that “99 per cent of Muslims arrested on accusations of terrorism are innocent.”

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Shahi Imam recalled a recent meeting with him on issues of “fake encounters” and “indiscriminate arrests” of Muslim youth: “It is strange and paradoxical that the nation has two political sections, one playing politics on Muslim votes, and the other section adhering to anti-Muslim politics, but the object of both is to deprive Muslims of their constitutional and democratic rights and to reduce them to second-class citizens.”

The Shahi Imam accused the intelligence agencies and government departments of conniving to create “the hype that Indian Muslims have no agenda but that of terrorism.” He said even though there was evidence to believe that Hindu extremist organisations were involved in many of the terror attacks, only Muslims were arrested.

Syed Bukhari said the Maharashtra government had disclosed the involvement of Hindu terror groups in several attacks but the Central government failed to follow the lead.