Muslim board demands legal action against those indicted by Liberhan

The Board alleged that the Action Taken Report on the Liberhan Commission was vague and leaves much to be desired.

“The Centre had not drafted the ATR seriously and concentrated only on a few points — legislating a bill for the prevention of communal violence and expediting pending criminal cases in CBI courts at Lucknow and Rae Bareli,” said AIMPLB spokesman Abdul Rahim Quraishi.

“The promise to expedite pending cases is not enough. We demand that the Centre instructs the CBI to include charges of criminal conspiracy in these cases,” he added.

The Board also demanded that out of the 68 people indicted by the Commission,FIRs should be lodged against those who had not been made accused in the pending cases.

Moreover,the Centre should also declare in Parliament that it would respect the final verdict in Babri mosque title suits pending in the Allahabad High Court. The AIMPLB was also not satisfied with the promise for enactment of a bill made in the ATR for the prevention of communal violence.

“Since the police usually become rioters or spectators when communal violence erupt,the Board wants the Centre to get suggestions from all segments before introducing the bill,” the spokesman said.

Further,the Board has objections to observations made against some Muslim organisations by the Commission in its report. It,however,said the part of the report dealing with razing of the Babri mosque was “factually correct and sound”.

“The Board felt the findings on demolition of the mosque and holding of the RSS,VHP,BJP,Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena responsible for the crime are factually correct and sound,” Quraishi said.

Opposing the move to constitute a Central Madarsa Board,the AIMPLB said it amounted to ‘infringement” of fundamental rights of the Muslims and that the Centre should not interfere in the working of religious institutions. The government should “respect” rights and liberties of minorities enshrined in the Constitution,the Board demanded.

According to Quraishi,former Prime Minister Narsihma Rao and the Congress could never be forgiven for the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

On Atal Bihari Vajpayee,who was indicted by the Commission,he said: “He being the leader of the BJP was equally responsible for the demolition. But,technically,Vajpayee should have been given a notice which was not done by the Commission. It overlooked the judicial process in his case.”