Acquitted terror convict Mufti postpones release of his book

Mufti Abdul Qayyum Mansuri, who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in the 2002 Akshardham terror attack case, postponed the release of his book 'Gyarah Saal Salankho Ke Peechhe' (Eleven Years Behind Bars) after giving an undertaking to a local police station here today.
"The police misunderstands that we will spread wrong or inflammatory message during the book launch event and that is why they did not give permission to us to release my book yesterday. So I decided to postpone my book release," Mufti told PTI here.
"Yesterday, we held an event here and the police also saw that no wrong message was spread. Only messages of peace and brotherhood were given. So now, their misunderstanding must have disappeared," Mufti said.

Mufti's book in Urdu with Gujarati transcription, was scheduled to be released yesterday but the police denied permission for the same.
Mufti said he would discuss the issue with members of a religious organisation called the Jamiat-E-Ulema-E-Islami which would decide date of the release.
In the 225-page book, he has written about the agony and atrocities he underwent in the police custody and jail term.

Mufti said his book would be the voice of every innocent person who wished to fight against injustice.
On May 16, 2014, the Supreme Court acquitted Mufti (who was awarded life term by a special trial court, which was confirmed by the High Court) and five others in the Akshardham Temple terror attack case.

The Supreme Court pulled up Gujarat police for its shoddy investigation in the case in which all the accused faced trial under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Mufti, who is a madrassa teacher, was nabbed by the Gujarat police in August 2003, when he was serving riot survivors in a relief camp at a Dariyapur mosque.
He was picked up by the police on charges that a handwritten note which was recovered from an attacker's pocket was written by him in Urdu and he was behind the conspiracy.
On September 24, 2002, two attackers used automatic weapons and hand grenades to kill 32 people, including 28 temple visitors, three commandos, including one from the National Security Guards (NSG), and a constable of the Gujarat State Reserve Police at Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar.

Two militants, identified as Murtuza Hafiz Yasin and Ashraf Ali Mohammed Farooq allegedly linked to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, were killed by NSG commandos during the attack on the temple.