Home Minister Amit Shah approved release of Hindu extremist murderer-rapists
In a shocking and shameless confession, India’s Hindu supremacist government has said Home Minister Amit Shah approved the release of 11 Hindu extremists who had been sentenced to life in prison for gang-raping a Muslim woman and murdering 14 members of her family during the 2002 anti-Muslim Gujarat pogrom.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government made this disgusting disclosure in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, it was reported on Tuesday.
The 11 men were released on August 15, India’s Independence Day, even as Modi was making lofty comments in his annual speech about protecting women from harm. These men had been convicted for killing, among others, the Muslim woman’s three-year-old daughter and old mother. They also raped the Muslim woman, Bilkis Bano, and left her for dead.
Until now, it had been reported that the Gujarat government, which, too, is ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had independently taken the decision to release these men. But the federal government’s affidavit exposed Shah’s role in that decision.
Shah was once accused of masterminding a string of extrajudicial killings of innocent Muslims during the 2000s. Shah was then a junior home minister in Gujarat state, directly reporting to Modi who was then the state’s chief minister. In 2014, seven months after Modi became prime minister, a court discharged Shah in a criminal case without even looking at the evidence.
Bano condemned the release of her rapists and the murderers of her family.
After their release, the 11 convicted men have been felicitated widely by Hindu supremacist organizations.
Muslim leader Umar Khalid denied bail, remains in jail despite proof of innocence
Globally renowned Muslim activist Umar Khalid has once again been denied bail despite the utter lack of evidence against him. The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to grant him bail even though he has been behind bars for over two years on bogus charges of leading violent clashes that killed 53 people, mostly Muslims in 2020.
Hundreds of international celebrities, including Prof. Noam Chomsky, have said that Khalid is targeted for his opposition to Modi’s Hindu supremacist policies, and demanded that he be freed immediately.
Khalid’s attorney told a court hearing his bail application that the statements of the witnesses were fabricated as police had no evidence.
Khalid and several others have been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a stringent anti-terror law, and are accused of being the conspirators of the violence in Delhi.
Five Muslims discharged in Kerala after 13 years in prison on bogus terror charges
After spending 13 years in prison for a crime they did not commit, five Muslim men were discharged in Kerala after being falsely accused of owning explosive substances.
Discharging them in the case, Special Judge K. Kamanees of Kannur district wrote there was no evidence to show the accused had possessed explosive materials.
The police team that conducted a search in 2009 had falsely claimed the explosive materials had been found by them.
