‘THE EXTREME NARRATIVES ABOUT MUSLIMS ANGER ME’
Parvez Alam, 50, Bhopal Represents the families of two SIMI activists killed in an alleged fake encounter last year
Parvez Alam took up his first terrorrelated case in 2009, when 14 people were arrested under the UAPA in Madhya Pradesh for possessing banned literature and illegal arms. “They were all acquitted,” he says.
He is now fighting the case of alleged SIMI activists killed last year in what has been claimed to be a fake encounter. He is suspicious when first approached about his work. “How do I know who are you, or on whose behalf you work,” he says.
After some confirmation of identity, he continues, “I am always concerned about my children. I track them at all times.”
One thing he will talk about: The fact that almost all the terror suspects he has represented are Muslim men.
“I am completely against religious bias. There are two narratives about Muslims being spread: one of a peaceful Muslim and the other of an extremist. Both are rubbish. Like every community, there are all kinds of Muslims,” he says.
His cases, he adds, drag on for years and leave little time for anything else. “Since 2009, I have attended only two or three weddings,” he says.
Being identified as a ‘terrorist’s lawyer’ has been hard too. “A few months ago, I went out to buy clothes and the shopkeeper asked, ‘Why do you take up such cases?’ I was upset and took a while to explain that till a murder has been proven, one cannot be called a murderer. Similarly, till the case has been proven, someone cannot be called a terrorist either,” he says.