Representatives of Hyderabad Civil Society (HCS) and the families of two youths approached the media on Wednesday to complain about alleged harassment by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Hyderabad.
Numaan Jameel (23) and Adnan Ahmed (25), alleged that the NIA is arm-twisting them to turn witnesses against all the accused, who have recently been detained/arrested by the NIA. The youth also claimed that NIA wants to take them to Delhi for this purpose, and that the alleged harassment began on 1 July.
A total of 11 Muslim youths were detained for questioning, out of which the NIA arrested five from Old City Hyderabad. They were later produced before the magistrate on 30 June, 2016.
HCS officials met the families as part of the fact-finding commission.
I had the habit of adding unknown people on Facebook so, unknowingly, added a few people, because of which NIA suspected us. I was just browsing about Iraq on the Internet, was just interested in watching the videos and read about Iraq but that doesn’t mean I am involved with ISIS. For this reason, the police counselled me two years back.Numaan Jameel
Adnan Ahmed told media that he had been planning to visit Turkey. He had cancelled his visit himself, after which NIA had contacted him. He also said that he is not an ISIS sympathiser.
HCS members said that none of the accused believe in extremism, and they don’t even know the geography of Syria or the tools of terrorism.
We have met the families of all the accused and have also completed fact-finding mission. I have only one question for NIA, that on what basis it arrested five youth in the 2009 Malegaon blasts, then gave them a clean chit later and provided compensation for its mistake. NIA will understand that how much people suffer because of these arrests.Lat-if Mohammad Khan, General Secretary of HCS
The HCS has demanded that the government of Telangana protect its citizens from exploitation by agencies like the NIA, which were spoiling the image of Hyderabad.
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