File photo of Sushil Kumar Shinde
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has written to all states today asking them to "ensure that no innocent Muslim youth is wrongfully detained in the name of terror." The main opposition party, the BJP, has objected strongly to the directive. The Left has accused the Congress of seeking political advantage among Muslim voters ahead of the national elections, due by May.
"The Home Minister must immediately withdraw the order and apologise to the nation. It is against democracy and against secularism," said BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu.
"We welcome the concern but the timing has to be questioned. This should have come long back, not just before election season," said the Left's D Raja, adding "minorities cannot be wooed by the Congress party in this manner." However, he pointed out that "there is empirical data which shows large number of young Muslims are put in prison without trial or charge-sheet for years together."
In his letter to chief ministers, Mr Shinde has written, "The central government has received several representations alleging harassment of innocent Muslim youth by law enforcement agencies. Some of the minority youth have started feeling that they are deliberately targeted and deprived of their rights."
He has also asked for fast-track courts to be set up where terror cases are prioritised.
Mr Shinde had committed to this earlier this year after Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan wrote to him complaining that young Muslim men are often jailed for long periods on terror charges despite insufficient evidence. Similar concerns have been shared by Left leaders like Prakash Karat.
In August this year, the National Investigation Agency or NIA accepted that there was no evidence against nine Muslim men who spent five years in jail after they were accused of bomb blasts in Malegaon in Maharashtra in which nearly 40 people were killed in 2006.