India needs tough anti-terror laws, says govt panel
16 Sep 2008 14:31:56 GMT Source: Reuters
(Updates with release of sketch) By Bappa Majumdar and Nigam Prusty NEW DELHI, Sept 16 (Reuters) - India needs a tough law to fight attacks like the deadly weekend bombings in New Delhi, a government panel said on Tuesday, as police released sketches of key suspects. There were immediate signs of dissent within the government, though, after the Home Minister Shivraj Patil told NDTV news channel the country already had strong enough laws in place. In its report, the panel asked the government to consider tougher laws to deal with growing militancy in India. "We need a comprehensive anti-terror law, but there should be adequate safeguards," said Veerappa Moily, a senior member of the ruling Congress party, who headed the panel. India's main opposition, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which accuses the centrist Congress party-led coalition of following a policy of appeasement, wants the reinstatement of a tough anti-terrorism law it promoted when in power. Congress scrapped the law saying it had been misused to harass Muslims. But Muslims say they are still being persecuted under the present regime and were planning to protest, because they were being unfairly targeted in a police manhunt. Minority Muslims told Reuters in several Muslim-dominated areas of New Delhi that police were conducting a "witch hunt" and accused authorities of reinforcing stereotypes about Muslims. "Terrorists do not belong to any religion," said Feroze Alam, a young trader in New Delhi's Daryaganj district. "They should be hanged. Why don't the police realise this and stop persecuting Muslims alone?" Some 20 Muslim organisations plan to meet in New Delhi next month to work a strategy to counter those stereotypes. "It is time to unite and protest against these attempts to harass Muslim youths and brand them as terrorists," Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the chief cleric of Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque, told Reuters. Bukhari met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week. Singh said after deadly 2006 train bombs in the western city of Mumbai that alienation of Muslims would only make matters worse. "After every blast case, they have dragged innocent young men from their homes, and this has not stopped despite repeated requests," Bukhari said. "It is high time we put an end to this persecution." Police spokesman Bhagat denied police discriminated against Muslims. "We don't look at a suspect's religion. We work on positive leads," he said. Muslims make up around 13 percent of mainly Hindu India's 1.1 billion population, but lag behind in literacy and face discrimination in jobs. HOME-GROWN GROUPS Police have already named two Muslim suspects and released five sketches of three men they said had placed explosives in busy market places and streets in India's capital on Saturday, killing at least 22 people. The Indian Mujahideen militant group, which says it is avenging atrocities against Muslims in India and claimed several major attacks in recent months, said it was responsible for the blasts that also wounded more than 100 people. "The sketches were drawn with information from witnesses who saw these men either move suspiciously or place suspect-looking bags," police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said. New Delhi has long blamed Pakistan for fomenting trouble inside India, mostly in the disputed northern region of Kashmir, but more recently has said some of the violence may have been perpetrated by home-grown groups. (Editing by Simon Denyer and Sanjeev Miglani)
Members of All India Anti-Terrorist Front (AIATF) burn an effigy depicting Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) during a protest in the northern Indian city of Amritsar September 15, 2008. The ...
