Image Courtesy:clarionindia.net
A Tablighi Jamaat member, Hafeezulla Khan has issued legal notices to media houses including Bennett Coleman & Co. (parent group of the newspaper Times of India and the TV channel Times Now), news agency IANS, Outlook and Pro Kerala for carrying news reports that stated that the Tablighi Jamaat shares links with terror outfits. All stories were published on March 31 and have attributed their information to an article originally published by IANS (Exclusive).
In this article, it is alleged that the Tablighi Jamaat has a long history of ties with Pakistani terror outfit named Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and that members of these terror outfits who were responsible for hijacking the Indian Airlines flight in 1999, were also members of the Tablighi Jamaat. The article further alleged that over 6,000 Tablighis were trained in HuM terror camps located in Pakistan.
The article also states that some members of Al-Qaeda involved in the 9/11 attacks in the USA had stayed in the premises of the Tablighi Jamaat. The article further goes on to mention that “Tablighi Jamaat was suspected to be involved in the burning of Hindu Kar Sevaks in the 2002 Godhra train torching incident of Gujarat”
The legal notice dismisses all these allegations and refutes that the Jamaat has any relation with the terror outfit and states that the Jamaat has never been the subject of any such terror investigation. The notice also denies any connection with the Godhra train incident by stating the Tablighi Jamaat was not mentioned at all in the Nanavati Commission report which had investigated the said incident.
The article also alleges that many members of the terror outfits mentioned above, obtained visas to various countries by posing as members of the Tablighi Jamaat who go abroad to recruit young Muslims for terror training in Pakistan.
The notice issued by Tablighi Jamaat denies all such allegations and states that the articles attempt to create enmity against the Jamaat in India and in fact, the Jamaat condemns all acts of terror. The legal notice describes Tablighi Jamaat as an apolitical socio-religious movement working with the Muslim community across the world for increasing awareness of basic principles of Islam and Prophetic traditions.
The allegations in the article that the Jamaat has been blacklisted in some countries has also been denied in the notice. The Jamaat deems the article to be defamatory “designed to cause maximum damage to the reputation” of the Tablighi Jamaat and also one that promotes enmity and hatred towards all the members of the Jamaat putting them at the risk of violence.
Mr.Khan, through this legal notice, has asked the media houses to publish an unconditional apology stating that the Jamaat has no terror links and also asked for unliquidated damages of Rs. 1 crore from each media house for causing mental agony; and failure to do so would invite charges of criminal defamation under section 499 of the Indian Penal Code.
The legal notice sent to IANS may be read here:
Related: