Pandya case: One killed as Gujarat police open fire in Hyderabad

One person was killed and three were injured in Hyderabad on Sunday when a Gujarat police party opened fire to disperse a mob trying to prevent it from taking a Muslim religious leader accused in the murder of former Gujarat minister Haren Pandya to Ahmedabad.

The incident took place around 2000 IST in front of the Andhra Pradesh state police headquarters at Lakdikapul in the heart of the city. Soon after the incident, tension mounted in the communally sensitive areas of the old city. The police sounded an alert and intensified patrolling to prevent any outbreak of violence.

Giving details of the incident, Police Commissioner Ram Pratap Singh said Maulana Naseeruddin, accompanied by his lawyer, had come to the office of the Director General of Police (DGP) to mark his attendance as per the conditions stipulated by a local court while granting bail in another case two weeks ago when a team of Gujarat police arrested him.

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As a group of about 50 followers of the cleric and activists of the Dargah Jihad-o-Shahadath had gathered at the main gate of the DGP's office, the police team tried to whisk him away through the rear gate.

The group, however, got wind of the plan and blocked the police vehicle. They threw stones and tried to free Naseeruddin. The Gujarat police team fired four rounds, resulting in the death of a 20-year-old youth, Mujahid.

Friends took the injured Mujahid to Yashoda Hospital, but he died before being admitted.

Terming the incident as 'unfortunate', the commissioner said a case had been registered on a complaint from the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Crime Investigation Department. The commissioner, however, said that since Naseeruddin was arrested as per the order of a Prevention of Terrorism Act court, the protestors were obstructing legal procedure.

President of an outfit called Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Shair-e-Islam, Naseeruddin had been charged with instigating youths to avenge the killings of Muslims during the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002.

He was arrested along with seven other Muslim youths in August 2004 on the charge of plotting to blow up a temple during the Ganesh festival and attack Americans and Jews. The city police accused them of being operatives of the terrorist group Laskhar-e-Tayiba.

The Gujarat police has already arrested 18 youths from Hyderabad and neighbouring districts in Andhra Pradesh in connection with Pandya's murder but failed to take Naseeruddin into custody.

This time, the team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Narendra Kumar Amin, had come armed with a non-bailable arrest warrant.

More reports from Gujarat