Hyderabad, April 9 (IANS) The body of one of the five undertrials gunned down by the police in Telangana in an alleged shootout on Monday is yet to be claimed by his family while four others were buried here on Wednesday night amid tight security.
The body of 33-year-old Izhar Khan, a native of Uttar Pradesh, has been preserved at MGM Hospital in Warangal town after an autopsy on Wednesday. His relatives are expected to arrive from Lucknow on Thursday.
Viquar Ahmed and three others were buried in different graveyards in parts of Hyderabad amid tight security. Mild tension prevailed in Sultan Shahi and surrounding areas in the old city after the burial of Viquar Ahmed, 33, due to stone pelting by some youngsters returning from funeral. Police dispersed the mob.
Parts of the old city had turned into a fortress with massive deployment of policemen. Paramilitary Rapid Action Force (RAF) was also deployed to prevent any untoward incident. A curfew-like situation was seen in some areas as shopkeepers had downed shutters.
Syed Amjad Ali, 27, Mohammed Zakir, 35, and Mohammed Haneef, 37, were also buried amid tight security. Though Haneef was from Gujarat, he had married a girl from Hyderabad.
The five, facing charges of involvement in killing of two policemen and some other incidents, were killed near Aler in Naglonda district when they were being brought to a court in Hyderabad from Warangal Central Jail.
Police claimed that they tried to snatch weapons from policemen and escape.
The families of the undertrials have termed the shootout “fake” and “staged-managed”, saying they were handcuffed and chained to the police vehicle and would not have escaped.
“It is nothing but brutal murders by police,” said Abdul Lateef, an uncle of Haneef, who had come from Ahmedabad. He said the cases against Haneef and others were in the final stage.
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and other Muslim groups and human rights organizations have demanded probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or by a sitting judge of the high court.
They alleged that the police murdered the undertrials to take revenge for the killing of four policemen by two terror operatives in Nalgonda district last week.
The families of Viquar and other slain undertrials claimed that they were fired on vital parts of the body from point blank range. Autopsy report has also established that they were fired upon from close range. They received five to eight bullets each.
Viquar and his associates were arrested in 2010 and they were accused of killing two policemen in Hyderabad and robberies. Police say that Viquar had formed a fundamentalist outfit Tehreek Galba-e-Islam and had carried out terror activities in different states.