New Dehli, April 19 (KMS): A high level delegation of Indian Muslims called on the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and expressed their concern for the safety of Muslims in India.

The delegation comprising among others, the leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and Muslim Personal Law Board (MPLB), sought Dr Manmohan Singh’s direct intervention into the sustained harassment, random arrest and media trials of Muslim youth in the name of terrorism in different parts of India.

Spokesman of MPLB, Qasim Rasool Ilyas said, “Muslims across the country are being harassed by Indian agencies in the name of terrorism. We have expressed our concern before the honourable Prime Minster and sought his earnest intervention to stop the profiling of Muslims being conducted by the home ministry.” Pointing to the problems being faced by the arrested Muslim youth in the courts, he said, “the media trials and negative coverage of such arrests create an anti-Muslim environment within courts, which results in the local lawyers denying to plead the cases of these poor youth.”

Jamiat Ulama leader and Member Parliament, Mehmood Madni said,  “Something happens somewhere and it is linked to Islam and Muslims. Immediately after an incident, the agencies go on an arrest spree and round up the Muslim youth who are not charge sheeted or presented before court but are tried in media and declared guilty,” adding, “ Large number of such arrests has taken place across the country.”

Recent media reports suggested that at least thirty percent of those detained in different Indian jails are Muslims. In Mumbai alone forty percent of the total prisoners are reported to be Muslim. Various civil liberty activists have termed such a large number of Muslim detainees as disproportionate to the Muslim population.

According to senior Journalist, Praful Bidwai, “Police department is plagued by the prejudice against the Muslims. This has vitiated the system of justice. Generally the Indian jails house at least sixty percent under-trials who had been arrested under draconian laws, POTA and TADA on false charges. In such cases too Muslims are more than others.”