Who planted bomb? 11 yrs on, no clue

HYDERABAD: The acquittal of five main accused in the Mecca Masjid bomb explosion case by an NIA special court in Hyderabad on Monday has brought the case back to square one and raised the question: who planted the bomb in the mosque then?

Soon after the NIA court pronounced the judgement, this question was raised on the premises of court premises itself. “If they are not guilty, who killed our brothers and sisters?” a distraught 70-year-old Rahamat Ali asked waiting media persons outside the court hall. “When will the truth come out?”

A few Muslims supposedly related to the victims of the gruesome blast and the subsequent police firing gathered on the court premises, but left quietly without commenting after the judgement was announced.

“We expected this judgement, as the NIA authorities had never shown any interest in producing proper evidences before the court. Right from the day one, the authorities had been diluting the case,” said Mohammad Lateef Khan, president of Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee,

who has been fighting for justice to the families of the Mecca Masjid blast victims.

Efforts to trace the whereabouts of victims’ families did not yield any results. “Even I could not reach out to them. I have lost touch with the families long ago and they are said to have shifted their residences,” Khan added.

Within hours of the bomb blast, the Hyderabad police registered a case and picked up

around 90 Muslim youth from different parts of the old city of Hyderabad, suspecting their involvement in the incident.

While the Hyderabad police began investigating the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation did a parallel probe into the role of the suspected Muslim youth.

The police filed a charge sheet against 21 Muslim youth, but failed to produce any evidence about their involvement. As a

result, all of them were acquitted in January 2009.

One of those acquitted, Dr Ibrahim Junaid, a medical practitioner who was jailed for six months, said he was tortured by the Hyderabad police. “We were proven innocent. Now, the NIA court acquits the people belonging to Hindu extremist group saying there was no proof of their involvement. Who else is then responsible for the Mecca Masjid blast?”