Within hours after the special court in Ahmedabad announced the death penalty to 38 Islamic terrorists and granted life imprisonment to 11 others for their role in the 2008 Ahmedabad bomb blast case, the notorious Deoband-based radical Islamic organisation Jamiat Ulema-e Hind has already rejected the verdict saying that the decision of the special court is unbelievable.
Maulana Arshad Madani, the President of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, said that “the decision of the special court is unbelievable, we will go to the High Court against the punishment and continue the legal battle”.
Maulana Madani stated that the country’s top lawyers would fight tooth and nail to protect the criminals from being hanged. “We are confident that the High Court will deliver complete justice to these individuals,” said the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind chief.
Well, this is not the first time that the radical Islamic terrorist organisation is coming to the rescue of the terrorists or the terror-accused. It constantly provides such legal support to Muslims accused in terrorism cases.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH), one of the most influential and the largest Islamic organisations, has provided such legal support to Muslims accused of terrorism cases for over a decade now.
Jamiat defends terror-accused, says it is its duty to fight for people who are falsely implicated
The Islamic organisation defends its actions, saying that they provide legal services to those “innocent Muslims” who are falsely implicated. The legal cell, set up by JUH president Maulana Arshad Madani in 2007, takes up the cases and enlists lawyers to defend the terror accused in the courts.
According to a New Indian Express report, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind has offered its services to around 700 accused. What is worrying about such interventions is that they have been able to get acquittals of at least 192 terror accused since 2007.
Most of the acquittals have not come because they were found innocent; instead, they were being released due to technicality or lack of evidence or because of the poor investigation by the police.
The 7/11 Mumbai train blasts, the 2006 Malegaon blasts and the Aurangabad Arms cases were some of the initial cases that were taken up by the JUH legal cell. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind had also defended the accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case, the 2011 Mumbai triple blasts case, Mulund blast case, Gateway of India blasts case.
From Al-Qaeda terrorists, Lashkar-e-Taiba to ISIS: The clients of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind
On its website, the JUH has listed the terror-related cases it is fighting on behalf of the accused Muslims.
In 2013, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind had provided free legal aid to Indian Mujahedeen terrorist Mirza Himayat Baig, who was accused in the German Bakery bomb blast case. The Indian Mujahideen terrorist was sentenced to death by a Pune court on April 18, 2013, along with co-accused Yasin Bhatkal.
Some of the other cases in which Jamiat has come forward to provide legal aid to terror-accused:
- Lashkar Connection Case (Abdul Rahman V/s State SLP)
- ISIS conspiracy case Kochi (State of Kerala v/s Arshi Qureshi & others)
- ISIS conspiracy case Mumbai (Arshi Qurashi & others v/s State of Maharashtra)
- ISIS conspiracy case (State of Rajasthan v/s Sirajuddin)
- 26/11 Mumbai attack case (Syed Zabiuddin v/s State of Maharashtra)
- Chinnaswamy Stadium Bomb Blast Case (State V/s Qatil Siddiqui and others)
- Jungli Maharaj Road Pune Bomb blast case (A.T.S. v/s Asad Khan & others)
- Indian Mujahideen Case (Maharashtra VS Afzal Usmani & others)
- Zaveri Bazar Serial Blast (State v/s Azaz Shaikh and others)
- SIMI conspiracy case (Madhya Pradesh) State V/S Irfan Muchale & others)
- Jama Masjid Blast Case (Delhi State V/s Qateel Siddqui Others)
- Indian Mujahideen conspiracy case (State vs. Yasin Bhatkal & others) Ahmedabad Serial Blast Case 2008 (State V/s Jahid & Others)
In addition to supporting the terror-accused, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind had recently stoked a controversy by extending all possible legal and financial aid to the killers of Hindu leader Kamlesh Tiwari, who was brutally assassinated in his office in Lucknow. The Jamiat had said that it is willing to bear all the legal costs and had also offered the head of their legal cell to defend the five accused in the Kamlesh Tiwari murder.
In June last year, the Deoband-based organisation had also deputed its lawyers to defend alleged Al-Qaeda terrorists in Uttar Pradesh. The organisation had declared that it would provide legal assistance to the two terror suspects.
Now, it has yet again come to the rescue of 49 terrorists, who have been convicted for planning and executing 21 bomb blasts in Ahmedabad that killed nearly 56 innocent people.
Well, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind has every right to defend convicts and accused that it perceives were implicated on false charges. However, when it jumps to the rescue of those charged with terrorism, including convicts who have a watertight case against them, it is essentially sending a message to all radical elements that no matter what, they will continue to support them regardless of their culpability.
