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Indian Express
2 days ago
- Indian Express
‘His daughter has grown up without her father': Families of men acquitted in 2006 Mumbai train blasts case recount years of struggle
Family members of the 12 men acquitted in the 2006 Mumbai local train blasts case Monday expressed relief and highlighted the hardships they faced during the lengthy imprisonment of their loved ones. As they rush to complete paperwork to get those acquitted released from various jails in Maharashtra, they say they believed in their relatives' 'innocence from the beginning'. The case concerns explosions on seven western suburban coaches in Mumbai, killing 189 commuters and injuring 824 on July 11, 2006. The Bombay High Court Monday overturned a 2015 verdict by a special court under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) that awarded death sentences to five men and life terms to seven others. Dr Tanveer Ansari, who was serving life imprisonment, was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti Terorrist Squad (ATS) in 2006 when his daughter was six months old, said his brother Maqsood. Tanveer, a resident of Agripada, had completed his Unani medicine from Nagpur and was working at a hospital at the time of his arrest, with the ATS claiming that he had surveyed the trains for the blasts. 'He was at a clinic and was picked up by the police without any proof. We were informed two days later, and my father went to meet him and found that he had been brutally assaulted and tortured. My father was deeply affected by it. My mother passed away two years later and Tanveer was permitted to visit only for half an hour. We continued to fight for justice, knowing that he and others booked in the case were innocent,' Maqsood said. He added that their father also passed away in 2018, awaiting Tanveer's return. 'My father required surgery, but Tanveer was not granted parole. His daughter has grown up without her father,' Maqsood said. Maqsood stated that over the years, the families of the convicted men have remained each other's hope, staying in touch through a group called Innocent Families. Besides Tanveer Ansari, the others awarded life imprisonment in 2015 are Mohammed Majid Mohammed Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam Shaikh, Mohammed Sajid Margub Ansari, Muzammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Suhail Mehmood Shaikh, and Zameer Ahmed Latifur Rehman Shaikh. Kamal Ahmed Mohd Vakil Ansari from Bihar, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh from Mumbai, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddique from Thane, Naveed Hussain Khan from Secunderabad, and Asif Khan Bashir Khan from Jalgaon in Maharashtra were awarded the death penalty in the case. Kamal Ahmed Mohd Vakil Ansari died in prison in 2021. One of the accused, Wahid Shaikh, was acquitted by the trial court in 2015 after spending nine years in jail. He continued to advocate for justice on behalf of the others. 'From the first day, we have been saying that the whole case is bogus and that wrong persons were arrested and tortured into giving false confessions. Even after I was acquitted, the fight continued to ensure that the wrongly arrested are released. We have been saying that justice will not be done to the victims till the correct perpetrators are arrested,' Shaikh said. He also founded an organisation called the Innocence Network, not only for this case, but also to provide legal services and assistance to those who have been wrongly arrested. During a programme organised to mark the 19th anniversary of the blasts, on July 11, Shaikh said families spoke of the impact the wrongful arrests had on their lives, including facing poverty with the sole breadwinner arrested, and loss of loved ones during the pendency of the trial and later the appeal.
The Diplomat
15-07-2025
- Politics
- The Diplomat
A Kashmir Diary: War Ravaged Families Await Relief as Statehood Remains Elusive
While common Kashmiris wait for statehood that will empower the Omar Abdullah government they elected, families affected by the recent India-Pakistan war languish. Tanveer stands in front of his house, destroyed by Pakistani shelling, at Ramgahi village, Salamabad, close to the Line of Control. SRINAGAR, KASHMIR — An azure sky seems to embrace the virgin swathes of the Himalayas as one treks down steep slopes in Salamabad in Kashmir, close to the Line of Control that cleaves the region between India and Pakistan. The air is salubrious and the natural surroundings stun, explaining why a handful of families settled at Ramgahi, a village in the secluded foothills. But the region's warring history precludes yearning for romanticism. When India and Pakistan went to war in May, the border villagers were the first casualties. Their homes being reduced to rubble inflamed the nation's mood, but already they have been forgotten by the rest of India. Given Kashmir's dual power structure, led by the chief minister and a New Delhi-nominated lieutenant governor, locals are not sure who to approach for redress — a bafflement most Kashmiris share. Tanveer, a villager who returned to Ramgahi to search for his possessions in the collapsed mounds of concrete, says he received only 6,500 Indian rupees ($75) as compensation. Pointing to the dusty remains of his house, he complains that the administration strangely categorized it as 'partly damaged,' which entitles him to minimum relief. If his petition for the enhanced compensation earmarked for fully damaged houses were approved, he would get 130,000 rupees ($1,514), still woefully insufficient to shift the debris or procure raw materials for rebuilding. 'On the night of the shelling on May 6-7, we hid behind makeshift bunkers we had erected ourselves. For three weeks, we lived in rented rooms in Uri, exhausting all our savings, before the officials accommodated us at Uri Trade Centre quarters,' Tanveer recounts. According to him, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had promised a sum of 1 million rupees ($11,647) to those whose houses had been obliterated, 'but it is not clear who calls the shots.' Despite the National Conference led by Abdullah storming to power in last year's provincial elections, with his coalition securing 49 of Jammu and Kashmir's 90 seats, New Delhi is unwilling to hand over executive powers to him, or restore statehood. Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded into a Union Territory in August 2019 when its semi-autonomous status was revoked. Abdullah has so far shown restraint and political pragmatism in trying to engage constructively with New Delhi and negotiate a meaningful federal arrangement for Kashmir. His lack of bellicosity has provoked some of his own colleagues who point to the gradual dilution of Kashmir's political goalposts from demanding a plebiscite to demanding statehood. While their lamentation is valid, and shared by the people in general, they have not been able to articulate what a head-on confrontation with New Delhi should look like given its iron-fist control. They accuse Abdullah of repudiating his election mandate, which they frame as a mandate to 'restore Kashmir's special status.' While it is true that common Kashmiris are aghast at the loss of autonomy, the claim that they voted in last year's elections hoping the National Conference would bring back that special status is misleading. The historic turnout was triggered by the need to preclude BJP-aligned parties from securing power. In an interview with The Diplomat, ahead of the elections, Abdullah told this reporter that the path to reclaim Article 370, which guaranteed Kashmir special status, is arduous. 'Something that took the BJP decades to roll out is not going to be undone by us in five years,' he said. Nevertheless, the pressure for quick-fix solutions is mounting. Sameer Ahmed Naik, whose family has been displaced since the India-Pakistan standoff, is one of the Kashmiris upset with the local government. His wife, Zeenat Begum, was injured in the legs and chest when intense shelling by Pakistani armed forces rocked their village, Naupora. 'Initially we got a lump sum payment of 30,000 rupees ($349) to compensate for hospitalization charges. But now we are abandoned, bearing medical costs of our own, at roughly 10,000 rupees ($116) per month. Where is the chief minister and his council?' Naik asked as his two children stared glumly. Naik said that although his house is destroyed, he is still getting electricity bills amounting to 1,500 rupees ($17) every month. Commenting on the inability of the National Conference (NC) to help their case, eminent historian and political scientist Siddiq Wahid said what was desirable was 'private consultations between the NC and the People's Democratic Party [PDP] at what the Union Territory's government's priorities ought to be politically and in civic administration.' 'From the outside it appears that no such consultations were held,' he told this reporter. 'Meanwhile, the PDP's tactic, from the get go, has been to attack the NC rather than to contemplate political unity in the interests of the Union Territory.' But Waheed Parra, leader of the PDP whose popularity among all sections of Kashmiris is soaring, says it was the National Conference's pugnacious power play that hollowed out opposition unity in Kashmir. 'They (NC) suo moto declared candidates [for Parliamentary elections] and lobbied to keep the PDP out of the Opposition's I.N.D.I.A. alliance,' Parra says. According to him, 'No two Kashmiri have reason to fight today. We lost everything, our constitution and our history. The path ahead is self-preservation and resistance democratically.' Jammu and Kashmir witnessed historic democratic participation in the provincial elections held in September 2024 — with turnout at 63.88 percent. Prominent politician and fifth-time legislator from Kulgam constituency, M.Y. Tarigami, feels the Narendra Modi government is wasting a big opportunity to strengthen the political process. 'The BJP-government at the center seems to be more concerned in disarming the elected provincial government further. Despite repeated assurances, uncertainty regarding restoration of full statehood continues. The perception is widespread here in J&K that the present BJP regime is more focused on implementing its Hindutva agenda than restoration of constitutional and democratic rights of the people,' he told The Diplomat. Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up following a terrorist attack on tourists on April 22 at Baisaran, at the periphery of the Pahalgam meadow, roughly 90 kilometers south of Srinagar, Kashmir's capital. Twenty-six tourists, all men, were killed after being segregated on the basis of religion. Adil Hussain Shah, a pony guide, was the only Muslim to die. He sacrificed his life saving tourists. The Resistance Front, an off-shoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a U.N.-designated terrorist group operating from Pakistani soil, claimed responsibility for the attack but later retracted that claim. India on May 7 launched Operation Sindoor, a missile raid, targeting what it said were terrorist launchpads in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. On May 10, after intense aerial offensives that alarmed the international community, the two countries agreed to a ceasefire. India's television channels whipped up a nationalistic frenzy, circulating theories of local facilitation of terrorists. Sketches of three suspected perpetrators were flashed relentlessly on TV screens, including of Aadil Thoker, a local Kashmiri. The National Investigative Agency of India later said the sketches were misleading and that there was no local involvement. But by this time there had been a series of targeted attacks against Kashmiris, with the Association of Protection of Civil Rights reporting 184 incidents against Muslims and Kashmiris. The security agencies were also accused of punitive actions against people unrelated to the terrorist attack. Houses of at least ten alleged militants were razed, and youths randomly detained under the Public Safety Act, an anti-terror law that allows incarceration without trial for up to two years. This reporter unsuccessfully tried contacting the family members of Aadil. His house at Guri Thukarpora in Anantnag district of South Kashmir was demolished arbitrarily by the authorities. Villagers claimed there was an unspoken ban on talking to media. A neighbor of Adil, requesting that his name not be published, said his two brothers, Zahid Thoker and Arsalan Thoker, have been detained at the Joint Interrogation Center in Anantnag. 'We don't know if Aadil ever joined the militant ranks. It is a police theory. He disappeared in 2018… not sure if he is alive,' the neighbor sighed. Th neighbor underscored the counterproductive nature of police coercion. 'This has been an Ikhwan (renegade) village, avowedly pro-India even when militancy raged in the 1990s. Punitive actions will only alienate the people,' he warned. This is a stark reminder why the provincial government's involvement in overseeing law and order is indispensable. It is elected representatives who can ensure a semblance of democratic norm in the state's interaction with civilians. At New Colony in Naushera village, the family members of a man named Shahnawaz are still perplexed at his detention. It was around midnight that the police barged into the quiet, sparse settlements of Naushera, and apprehended Shahnawaz. By the time his father, Ashraf Nengroo, a retired employee with the Wildlife Protection Department, reached the neighborhood police station, Shahnwaz had been sent away to Kot Bhalwal jail in the adjoining Jammu region, 200 kilometers away. Shahnwaz, under psychological care for the past few years and largely immobile, has been charged under the draconian PSA. Nengroo says a likely trigger could be Shahnwaz's alleged involvement in a stone-pelting incident years ago. 'Why apprehend him now?' he asks. Nengroo reached out to opposition leader Iltija Mufti and local legislator Bashir Veeri of the NC, who 'were kind and raised our case, but there was no respite.' Nengroo is among those who would be happy if the provincial government were empowered. The Modi government maintains it will gradually restore Jammu and Kashmir's statehood. Any sign of that is elusive. Yet, sources close to Abdullah say he is confident New Delhi will eventually relent, restoring statehood as early as August. That may be true in the face of unabated infiltrations in the Poonch, Rajouri pockets which pose a security challenge. Sources say there is also articulation of international concern — though not pressure — about the volatile situation in Kashmir, which New Delhi does not gloss over.
Express Tribune
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Ex-senator secures bail in murder case
Additional District and Sessions Judge Rawalpindi, Majid Hussain Gadhi, Saturday approved the bail on medical grounds of Chaudhry Tanveer Khan, a former Senator from the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N). Tanveer was arrested in the murder case of Chaudhry Adnan, a former PTI MPA and ex-provincial parliamentary secretary. The court ordered his immediate release, subject to the submission of two surety bonds worth Rs1 million each, which were promptly furnished. Despite being under arrest, Tanveer was admitted to the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC) due to a serious heart condition, with a police guard stationed outside his hospital ward. Following the court's approval of bail, jail officials and police personnel were withdrawn per the instructions of the Superintendent of Adiala Jail, effectively restoring former legislator's status as a free citizen. Chaudhry Tanveer had voluntarily surrendered on June 17 before the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench by withdrawing his pre-arrest bail application. Police took him into custody from the courtroom and obtained a two-day physical remand, after which he was sent to judicial custody but admitted to the hospital due to his heart condition. He had been accused of conspiring and planning the targeted killing of Chaudhry Adnan, who was shot dead near the Police Lines gate in Rawalpindi. The FIR was registered on February 12, 2024, at Civil Lines Police Station, naming Chaudhry Tanveer, Osama Chaudhry, Daniyal Chaudhry, and Chaudhry Changez as suspects. During the bail hearing, the court observed that evidence regarding the conspiracy allegation was insufficient, leading to the approval of bail. The defence was led by advocate Malik Waheed Anjum, while co-counsel Chaudhry Yasir Advocate stated that the surrender was made voluntarily to ensure a fair and transparent investigation, and they would continue to pursue the case to prove their client's innocence. On the other hand, the complainant's lawyer, Shehzad Bhatti, announced that the bail decision would be challenged in the Lahore High Court (LHC).
Express Tribune
14-06-2025
- Express Tribune
Man commits suicide after killing ex-wife
A prison police personnel killed his ex-wife in front of their two young daughters before taking his own life. The police shifted both the bodies to a hospital for autopsy. Shazia Bibi, a resident of Alvi Park in Jaranwala, had married Tanveer Ahmed, the prison police employee. It was a love marriage, but six years ago, the woman had obtained divorce through a court due to irreconcilable differences. The victim supported herself by giving tuitions. Tanveer, still harboring resentment, broke into Shazia's home and shot her dead in front of their daughters. He then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. The Jaranwala police took possession of the bodies and handed them over to the heirs after completing the legal formalities. The police registered a case under Section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code against the deceased Tanveer on the complaint of Shazia's brother Muhammad Shehbaz. In the FIR, Shehbaz maintained that Tanveer used to blackmail and threaten his sister for money after their divorce. On the day of the incident, he had demanded money from her and, upon her refusal, shot her dead before taking his own life. The police said they were investigating the matter after registering the case.
Express Tribune
21-05-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Balochistan's olive oil shines at global contest
Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research, Rana Tanveer Hussain, hailed the international recognition of Pakistani olive oil as a landmark achievement aligned with the ministry's vision of agricultural self-sufficiency. According to a press statement released on Tuesday, the minister referred to the news of Loralai Olives — a premium olive oil brand from Balochistan's Loralai district — winning the Silver Award at the 2025 New York International Olive Oil Competition, the world's most prestigious olive oil quality contest. Out of over 1,200 global entries, Loralai Olives was recognised for its quality, sustainable production, and packaging. 'This global recognition is a proud moment for every Pakistani and validates our long-standing efforts to build a self-reliant agriculture sector,' said Tanveer. He credited the government's Olive Cultivation Initiative, launched in 2012, which provided certified saplings, extraction units, training, and export support. Loralai Olives, or 'LO,' partnered with Balochistan growers and used cold extraction technology, meeting international standards for acidity, purity, and flavour. 'At a time when Pakistan imports $4.5 billion worth of edible oil annually, this recognition proves we have the land, climate, and talent to reverse that trend,' said the Minister for National Food Security and Research, Rana Tanveer Hussain, hailed the international recognition of Pakistani olive oil as a landmark achievement aligned with the ministry's vision of agricultural self-sufficiency. According to a press statement released on Tuesday, the minister referred to the news of Loralai Olives — a premium olive oil brand from Balochistan's Loralai district — winning the Silver Award at the 2025 New York International Olive Oil Competition, the world's most prestigious olive oil quality contest. Out of over 1,200 global entries, Loralai Olives was recognised for its quality, sustainable production, and packaging. 'This global recognition is a proud moment for every Pakistani and validates our long-standing efforts to build a self-reliant agriculture sector,' said Tanveer. He credited the government's Olive Cultivation Initiative, launched in 2012, which provided certified saplings, extraction units, training, and export support. Loralai Olives, or 'LO,' partnered with Balochistan growers and used cold extraction technology, meeting international standards for acidity, purity, and flavour. 'At a time when Pakistan imports $4.5 billion worth of edible oil annually, this recognition proves we have the land, climate, and talent to reverse that trend,' said the minister.
