[Reader-list] Fwd: [GreenYouth] Jamia Teachers Solidarity Group- Press Statement

[Anivar Aravind]

25th September 2008

Press Statement

Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Group.
Jamia Teachers Condemn Communal Witch Hunt and Demand Independent
Impartial Enquiry



At the very outset we, the members of Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Group
would like to state that we strongly condemn terrorism of all kinds,
including State terrorism.

The events of 19th September and subsequent days have left the Jamia
community shocked, aggrieved and fearful. In particular the manner and
the suspicious circumstances in which young boys, many of them
students of Jamia Millia Islamia, have been picked up by the Special
Cell, and pronounced "dreaded terrorists" by a trial by an utterly
sensationalist and prejudiced media has created an atmosphere of fear
and suspicion.

On the day of the operation indiscriminate arbitrary detentions were
made that included five school children living in the flat opposite
and were released only late in the night. Arrests are continuing
unabated. Even as some teachers had accompanied senior lawyers to meet
with the families of boys picked up, on 23.09.2008, around 5 o' clock,
news arrived that Saqib Akhtar, a 17-year-old boy, a distant cousin of
slain Atif Amin, had been picked up from his residence in Abul Fazal
Enclave. A complaint with the police was filed at the Jamia Nagar
Police Station. Within an hour the Special Cell communicated to the
boy's family that he would be released. It appears that the presence
of a well-known Supreme Court lawyer, teachers from Jamia, and senior
journalists pressured the Special Cell enough to refrain from
detaining an innocent boy, and ensured that Saqib returned home safe
the same evening. This incident illustrates the vulnerability of the
people residing in the locality: not only are they subject to
arbitrary 'arrests' by the Special Cell, which whisks them off to
undisclosed locations, the local police refuses to file complaints or
feigns ignorance. Further, they lack recourse to proper legal aid.

We as teachers feel that we cannot afford to isolate ourselves in
intellectual ivory towers. There is an urgent need to reach out to the
community which lives at our very doorstep, and where a large number
of teachers, administrative staff and our students reside. The
locality has been besieged by a sense of alienation, terror and
insecurity. We unequivocally condemn this brazen witch hunt in the
name of fighting terror and pledge solidarity with the people of Jamia
Nagar, and especially the families of those whose boys have been
picked up and arrested without a shred of evidence.

We hold the police and Home Ministry directly responsible for the
on-going communal witch-hunt and therefore demand –

1.      National Human Rights Commission recommendations regarding
establishing an inquiry after every encounter be implemented and FIR
against police officials involved in the act be immediately made;

2.      Independent fact finding teams and even sections of the media
have raised doubts about the veracity of the police version regarding
the 'encounter' on 19th September and the subsequent arrests made on
that basis. We therefore demand, a time-bound, independent inquiry
into the deaths of Atif Ameen, Sajid and Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma
headed by the sitting judge of the Supreme Court be immediately
conducted;

3.      Autopsy reports of Mr. Sharma. Atif Ameen, and Sajid,
panchnama of the site, seizure list of the people picked up by the
police for inquiry be made public.

4.      We further demand that a list of students who have been picked
up by the Delhi Police/ Special Cell should be provided to the
University immediately. We further demand that the University
authorities see to it that no students (whether living in the hostel
or not) are picked up/ arrested without intimating the university
authorities.

5.      We also demand that no student or citizen picked up for
questioning are tortured in custody and that their rights as citizens
are not denied.

The Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Group would not only conduct an
extensive civil society campaign including programmes like "Jan
Sunwai" in the community where human rights activists and prominent
members of the secular, democratic intelligentsia would be invited to
join and work for providing all kinds of assistance including legal
aid to people who have been accused of terrorist activities but also
meet the Home Minister in order to stop the on-going communal witch
hunt in the community.

The Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Group intends to extend the movement to
include teachers from other universities, as well as other bodies such
as the DUTA, JNUTA, IGNOUTA, and other democratic and secular
individuals and organisations.

Signed:

Prof. Farida Khan (Faculty of Education)

Prof. A. K. Ramakrishnan (Centre for West Asian Studies)
Prof. Janaki Rajan (Faculty of Education)
Prof. Azra Razzack (Centre for Dalit and Minority Studies)
Prof. Navnita Behera (Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution)
Dr. Neshat Quaiser (Department of Sociology)
Dr. Padmanabh Samarendra (Centre for Dalit and Minority Studies)
Dr. Sanghamitra Misra (Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution)
Dr. Ravi Kumar (Department of Sociology)
Dr. Narendra Kumar (Centre for Dalit and Minority Studies)
Dr. Rahul Ramangundam (Centre for Dalit and Minority Studies)
Dr. Farah Farooqi (Faculty of Education)
Dr. Anuradha Ghosh (Department of English)
Manisha Sethi (Centre for the Study of Comparative religions and Civilizations)
Sreerekha (Centre for Women's Studies)
Tanweer Fazal (Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution)
Ahmed Sohaib (Centre for the Study of Comparative religions and Civilizations)
Kamei Aphun (Department of Sociology)
Dr. Shahid Jamal Ansari (Centre for West Asian Studies)
Dr. Sabiha Hussain (Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studies)
Ambarein Qadas (Mass Communication Research Centre)
M.G. Shahnawaz (Department of Psychology)
Waseem Ahmed Khan (Faculty of Education)
Meher Fatima Hussain (Centre for Dalit and Minority Studies)
Harpreet Kaur Jass (Faculty of Education)
Arshad Ahmed (Faculty of Education)
Dr. Sarwat Ali (Institute of Advanced Studies in Education)
Dr. Rafiullah Azmi (Centre for West Asian Studies)
Arshad Alam (Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies)
Dr. Arif Ali, (Department of Biotechnology)
Adil Mehdi (Department of English)
Harisul Haq (Jamia Middle School)
Dr. Ranjeeta Dutta, (Department of History)
Dr. Shohini Ghosh, (AJK Mass Communication Research Centre)
Dr. Sabina Gadihoke, (AJK Mass Communication Research Centre)
Dr. Baran Rehman, (Department of English)

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