Free innocent Muslims, say AMU students

ALIGARH - The confession of a Hindutva activist on his involvement in several terror attacks called for the immediate release of Muslims detained for these crimes, a student group here said.

The Sir Syed Educational and Welfare Movement made the demand in a memorandum to United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chief Sonia Gandhi that was submitted to Uttar Pradesh Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

Its secretary Syed A. Rahim told IANS that many Muslim youths were detained after the bomb attacks in Hyderabad, Ajmer and Malegaon and on the Samjhauta Express that plies between India and Pakistan.

But Rashtriya Swayamsevak Singh (RSS) activist Swami Aseemanand’s admission that it were Hindutva activists who were to blame for these bombings proved that the detained Muslims were innocent, it said.

“It is clear that the Muslim youths were picked up as part of the Hindutva organisations’ conspiracy to malign them,” he said.

The Movement, a socio-cultural body of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), urged the government to either order a speedy trial or release the detained youths.