''People Tribunal'' to record atrocities on minorities

New Delhi, Aug 17 (UNI) Several eminent citizens today announced to hold an 'independent people tribunal' at Hyderabad next week to document the atrocities being committed on the ''innocent people of a minority community'' in the name of fighting terrorism.

The move comes at a time when Mufti Abdul Bashir, an alleged mastermind of the July 26 Ahemdabad serial bomb blasts, has been arrested and sent for 14 days judicial custody.

The tribunal would have Justice S N Bhargava, eminent journalist Kingshug Nag, Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, Prof Hargopal, Ram Puniyani, Ms Rooprekha Verma, Mr V N Rai, Engineer Asghar Ali, Justice Sardar Ali and Mr KG Kannabiran as its members.

People who have been ''falsely implicated by the authorities as terrorists'' would depose before the tribunal which would hold open sessions from August 22 to 24 to document the cases, said Harsh Dobhal and Anil Choudhary, associates of the Anhad and Human Rights Law Network, the organiser of the tribunal.

The tribunal, Mr Chaudhary said, was expected to set off a process where testimonies of those people would be recorded who were arrested and interrogated by the police at behest of the state.

Several other civil society orgnaisations of Andhra Pradesh would collaborate with the organisers of the tribunal to hear the accounts of those who suffered police atrocities.

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