Mumbai: A delegation of prominent Muslim citizens has asked the Maharashtra government to release young Muslims who were put behind bars for the 2006 Malegaon blasts, following recent statements of a Hindu right wing leader Swami Aseemanand.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader was arrested last year and recently made a confessional statement that he and other Hindu activists were behind the blasts in Malegaon, Ajmer, Hyderabad's Makkah Masjid and Samjhauta Express train, to retaliate against temple bombings.
The Malegaon blasts on December 8, 2006, had killed 31 after which some local Muslim youth had been arrested.
In a meeting with state Home Minister R R Patil on Monday, they handed over a memorandum that said: "Now is the time to undo the excesses committed against the Muslim community in Maharashtra. We demand that all those who were falsely implicated in Malegaon blasts and put behind bars for the last four years be released immediately."
The members included Mohammad Saeed Noori of Raza Academy, Maulana Mansoor Ali Khan of Sunni Jamiatul Ulema, Suhail Lokhandwala, former legislator, Sarfraz Arzoo, editor, and others.
They also wanted the state government to accept its mistake and compensate the victims for the mental and physical torture that they had been through in the same way Andhra Pradesh did by rehabilitating those who were wrongly arrested.
The community members also demanded an inquiry be held against the investigating officers who "misled the nation".