We jigneshcondemn the illegal detention & house arrest of Jignesh Mewani & Adv. Shamshad Pathan
& the murder of Muhammad Ayub by Gau-Rakshaks, Dadri-2
Over the last 24 hours, the Gujarat Police has unleashed a wave of repression and terror, even as activists have been
arrested, lathi-charged & placed under house arrest and 24×7 surveillance.
Jignesh Mevani was whisked away directly from the Ahmedabad Airport by plainclothesmen to an unknown location on the 16th of September at around 7.30pm. He was later allowed to return to his residence at 4.30am, but is currently under house arrest, with a posse of police outside his house and with 6 Police in Plainclothesmen within his residence. They have stated that they will accompany Jignesh wherever he travels, which essentially means that he is under complete surveillance by the state. This also poses a threat to his very life with the murderous record of police encounter killings in Gujarat.
Earlier that day Jignesh had announced the Rail-Roko Andolan scheduled for the 1st of October from the rally organised by the Left parties and Balasaheb Ambedkar in Delhi.
Also at around 5.00pm, Muhammad Ayub (driver, aged 29) died in the hospital after he was attacked by the Gau-Raksha thugs of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad two days ago. Even as he was breathing his last, Adv Shamshad Pathan and the activists at the V. S. Hospital were lathi-charged and are now in police custody at the Police Stadium in Saibagh.
This is clearly Dadri-2, yet not a word in the national media, as the news is being suppressed by the Central and State governments. Yet the news is spreading rapidly across the people’s social media, even as the various websites and journalists from the mainstream media are now inquiring about the details.
Adv. Shamshad Pathan has stated that the demands include the immediate arrest of the accused, who he says are being protected by the police. In fact the murder of Muhammad Ayub & his friend Sameer Sheikh who survived, occurred right under the watch of the police who looked on as the Gau-Raksha goons murdered him in broad day light at the corner of the Honest T-Junction, near Karnavati Club in Ahmedabad.
But the key fact out here is that Jignesh along with even some from the Patel community were taken into custody as Modi was in Ahmedabad for his “birthday”. After Amit Shah’s meeting had been disrupted by activists of the “Patel Reservation movement”, the police decided to take pre-emtive action and thus arrested Jignesh Mevani.
We thus demand that the the Gujarat state immediately end the house arrest of Jignesh Mewani, release Adv. Shamshad Pathan & the other activists, as well as arrest the murderers of Muhammad Ayub and the police who were complicit in the ghastly crime.
Subodh More, Feroze Mithiborwala, Subodh Parmar, Jayesh Solanki, Suresh Ajja, Grishma Rai, Kishor Jagtap, Varsha Vidya Vilas, Jyoti Badekar, Amol Madame.