Leftist-Muslim forum to help Madani

CPI(M) fellow-travelers, Leftist intellectuals, Muslim leaders and others have constituted a forum with the objective of providing legal assistance to Kerala’s Islamist leader and PDP chairman Abdul Nasser Madani, who was arrested by the Karnataka Police on August 17 as a prime accused in the 2008 Bangalore bombings case.

Apart from providing assistance to Madani, the forum would also organize discussions on the alleged flaws in the laws under which the Islamist leader was arrested in connection with the terror case. Madani was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which was one of the reasons why he was not granted anticipatory bail by two courts, including the High Court, in Karnataka.

The chairman of the forum, which would have branches in Bangalore and Delhi also, is three-time CPI(M) MP Sebastian Paul. Senior journalist and rights activist BRP Bhaskar is the chief patron of the forum. CPI(M) fellow-traveler and a theorist of its neo-liberalist leadership Bhasurendra Babu is one of its members.

Others in the “Justice for Madani Forum” include PDP’s working chairman and Madani’s close relative Poonthura Siraj, Kerala Jama’at-e-Islami Amir T Arifali, CPI(M)’s Independent MLA KT Jaleel, Muslim Educational Society chairman Fazal Gafoor and BSP leader Neelalohithadasan Nadar.

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