Andhra Pradesh govt to compensate 70 wrongly implicated Muslim youth for Mecca Masjid blast

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government will compensate 70 Muslim youth, wrongly implicated for the Mecca Masjid blast. A total of Rs 70 lakh will be given to these men, as per recommendations of the National Commission for Minorities.

National Minorities Commission chief Wajahat Habibullah had asked the state government a few months ago to implement its recommendations and pay compensation to the wronged youth by deducting the amount from the salaries of policemen responsible for implicating them in criminal cases.

Accordingly, the Minorities Welfare Department of the AP government issued an order for a sum of 70 lakh "towards expenditure to be incurred in connection with confidence building measures and compensation" for 20 cases affected in Mecca Masjid bomb blasts in 2007. Of the 70, 20 will receive Rs 3 lakh each and the rest will get Rs 20,000 each.

"The Hyderabad Police booked a record 38 cases and picked up as many as 107 Muslim youth, mostly from poor families, kept them in illegal custody at different police stations and tortured them for days in a bid to force them to own up the bomb blast at the mosque," MIM floor leader in the assembly, Akbaruddin Owaisi had said.

410 youths, including 150 students, were facing criminal cases in connection with the communal riots in the old city and also in the aftermath of the Mecca Masjid blasts.

"A sum of Rs 42 lakh has been spent to secure bail for 220 of them," Owaisi had said.