A People’s Tribunal was organized in Hyderabad between August 22 and August 24, 2008, to investigate into charges that the Indian state has been committing atrocities on people of the Muslim faith and depriving them of their rights, under the guise of fighting terrorism.

The Tribunal recorded depositions and statements relating to over 40 cases from across the country.

In its interim observations, the Tribunal has confirmed the widely suspected fact that police and state forces have been systematically targeting people of the Muslim faith, accusing them falsely of being responsible for various terrorist actions. This is particularly so in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

In most of the cases, in gross violation of the law, the persons picked up are not shown to be arrested by the police until many days after their arrest. Their families are also not informed about their arrest. In many cases, they have been tortured in police custody and forced to “confess” and sign blank papers. The police has been often humiliating Muslim detenues on the grounds of their religion. The testimonies show widespread communalization of the police across states in the country.

The Tribunal observed that courts are routinely allowing police remand and not granting bail, merely on the police statements that they are required for further investigation. The corporate media publicizes the charge and allegations leveled by the police as if they are proven. This has resulted in the destruction of the lives and reputations of a large number of persons so picked up by the police, who have later been found to be innocent.

The Tribunal further observed that when the police chargesheets the victims, the trials go on almost interminably, during which poor victims are virtually defenceless since they are often not even able to get lawyers. In some cases, Bar Associations have been preventing lawyers from appearing on behalf of persons accused by the police of such terror offences. The Courts have not taken action against such Bar Associations.

The People’s Tribunal also indicted the Human Rights Commissions for their callous attitude to the rights of the victims of state terror.  They either do not take up such cases on the grounds that they are the subject matter of court proceedings, or simply ask for a routine police report without getting any independent investigation done on such serious charges of human right violations.

The Tribunal has come up with various interim recommendations on all the above issues. The members of the tribunal included Justice Sardar Ali Khan, Justice S.N. Bhargava, KG Kannabiran, Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, Prashant Bhushan, Dr. Ram Puniyani, Prof. Rooprekha Varma, Lalit Surjan and Kingshuk Nag.