Mufti Abdul Qayyum Mansuri, who was branded as a terrorist until his acquittal last year by the Supreme Court in the 2002 Akshardham temple attack case, has penned down the agony and atrocities that he underwent during his 11-year jail-term, in a book.
"The 225-page book 'Gyarah Saal Salankho Ke Peechhe' (11 years behind the bars) was written by me in Urdu with Gujarati transcription to voice my anguish and also to protect any innocent from the torture of the state and police," Mufti told PTI.
"I conceived the idea to write this book during my jail term. I always had a hope from the Supreme Court of my country that I will certainly be relieved from the charges of being a terrorist and if I write a book, it will become a narration of an innocent person who has been harassed and tortured by police," said Mufti.
The Supreme Court, had on May 16 last year, acquitted Mufti (awarded life term by a special trial court and confirmed by the High Court) and five others in the Akshardham temple terror attack case and pulled up Gujarat Police for shoddy investigation in the case in which all the accused faced trial under its anti-terror law POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act). Mufti, a Madrasa teacher, was caught by Gujarat police in August 2003, when he was serving riot survivors in a relief camp at a Dariyapur mosque.
"The book starts with a narration of torture on me by the Gujarat police team led by crime branch officials D G Vanzara and G L Singhal, and I wrote that account in around 50 pages narrating how cops had taken my statement forcibly while threatening to destroy my entire family and rape women of my family," he said.
The book also goes on to narrate how the Sabarmati central jail officials and inmates empathised with him and never saw him as a terrorist.
"I wrote special accounts on Jail Superintendents who have treated me with compassion including Sanjiv Bhatt Sahab, who was there in Sabarmati prison in my initial days in 2003... there are some good police officials also and they deserved credit," said Mufti.
"You may be surprised to know that some jail inmates were 2002 riot accused, and they never misbehaved with me because they knew that I was framed and slapped with wrong charges.
There is a special chapter on a mentally retarded inmate named as Bipinbhai who kept telling me that I am going to be acquitted in this case," said Mufti.
On whether he was framed in the terror attack case, Mufti replied, "People know very well that there was a time in Gujarat, when alleged terrorists came to kill one person. It was the time when innocent people were framed as terrorists." "People know who was benefited from Godhra and post-Godhra riots and in the fake encounters as well. So there was a political game to tarnish the image of the minority community," he alleged. The book also comprises apex court judgement's Gujarati translation in brief, he said. Mufti was caught by police on the charges that the hand written note recovered from one of the attackers' pocket was written by him in Urdu and he was behind the conspiracy and killing of the people.
On September 24, 2002, in a dreaded attack on Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar two attackers using automatic weapons and hand grenades had killed 32 people including 28 temple visitors, three commandos, including one from NSG, and a constable of the State Reserve Police (SRP).
Two militants, identified as Murtuza Hafiz Yasin and Ashraf Ali Mohammed Farooq allegedly having links with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, were killed by National Security Guard (NSG) commandos during the attack on the temple.
