Andhra Pradesh

TDP, MBT allege police harassment

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam and Majlis Bahchao Tehreek leaders complained to the State Human Rights Commission that persons of Muslim community were being harassed by the police in the wake of the recent bomb blasts in the city. They urged the Commission to direct the police agencies to inform it when a person was picked up for investigation so that monitoring of citizens could be effectively implemented.

Later talking to reporters, Commission’s chairperson B. Subhashan Reddy said that they had stated that around 50 Muslim persons were whisked away and their whereabouts were not known. They also complained that one Hafiz Mohammed Bilal was kept in custody for five days, beaten up and that he was undergoing treatment at Osmania Hospital.

Meanwhile, the police denied that Muslim youth were harassed or unnecessarily arrested in connection with the twin blasts. South Zone DCP B. Shivadhar Reddy said credentials of accused persons in different cases were being crosschecked to ensure no innocent person was implicated, he clarified in a press release. In a cheating case registered against a Bangladeshi woman Shahi Rafsanjani, a resident of Kishanbagh -Mohd. Bilal-was brought to Bahadurpura police station for questioning since his phone number was found in the woman’s rented house.

Bilal was let off since no incriminating evidence was found, the DCP said.

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