By Muslim Mirror Staff

West Bengal minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury on Tuesday accused the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Narendra Modi government of defaming the Muslim community in the name of terrorism after the agency arrested ten Muslim youths on charges of having links with terrorist group Al-Qaeda.

Chowdhury, who is the minister of mass education extension and library services, told reporters at a press conference, “The NIA has framed these youths to malign the Muslim community. The plan to show Muslims in poor light has been hatched in Delhi and the BJP government is setting a bad example as a result. They have no prior record”.

The minister said, “What the NIA did seemed like war. In the early hours, 12-13 armed convoys entered the village and arrested innocent people. State police did not know anything. The people of the house are not being informed about the whereabouts of the detainees. NIA is not saying anything about the crime of those arrested youths.”

Several human rights bodies have also condemned their arrest. A fact-finding team of Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) concluded after visiting villages of the accused in Murshidabad district that they have falsely been implicated by the NIA.

“The men arrested by the NIA are non-political people. They are more concerned about their livelihood than politics at national or international level,” Abdus Samad, leader of the fact-finding team of the APCR said in a phone interview with Clarion India.

He cited one ‘fictitious’ story being disseminated by several media outlets. It was reported that a ‘tunnel’ has been discovered in the house of one of the arrested persons. But on investigation by the public, it was found to be a septic tank attached to toilets of the house.