10th anniversary of 2006 Mumbai train blasts: Human rights activists, lawyers seek release of 12 convicts

Haksar was speaking at a seminar organised by ‘Innocents Network’, a pressure group floated by the families of the 12 convicts. The group also distributed documents, depicting how the 12 were allegedly framed by the police in the case.

“Racial inequality and the treatment of the Blacks in the United States has become a central issue in American politics. It is high time that the issue of Muslims and Dalits in our criminal and prison system gets the same importance in our political system,” Haksar added.

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Speakers also claimed that an atmosphere was being created in the country to deem anyone who questioned the police as anti-national.

“The same thing had happened right after the Mumbai train blasts. An atmosphere was created in which anyone who would question the police or speak in support of the people arrested was deemed anti-national. Even lawyers were not spared and warned against representing their cases,” lawyer Maharukh Adenwala said.

Speakers claimed that a poisonous ideology was presently being propagated in the country and it was time that weaker sections, including Muslims and Dalits, joined hands to defeat such forces.

“A poisonous ideology is being propagated in a very insidious manner in our society. The real merchants of death and destruction are sitting free and we have innocent Muslims and Dalits languishing behind bars. There is a strong need for weaker sections of the society to join hands to speak about these issues,” said former High Court Justice B G Kolse-Patil.

A Mumbai Special Court in October last year had sentenced five persons to death and given life terms to seven others for their role in the July 11, 2006, serial blasts on Mumbai local trains that had left 189 dead and hundreds injured.

The conviction came despite investigations by police forces of three states indicating that the blasts were carried out by a separate group of Indian Mujahideen operatives.

“The idea behind the seminar is to inform the public about how those who were convicted in the case were framed by the authorities. It is a small attempt on our part to make citizens of the country realize the glaring omissions made by agencies, while investigating the case,” said Khalid Ansari, the convenor of the group.

Ansari’s younger brother Sajid Ansari has been given a life sentence in the case.