Jamia Millia Islamia has formed a Legal Aid Committee to provide legal assistance to Zia-ur Rahman and Mohammed Shakeel, the two students of Jamia who were arrested on September 21 for their alleged involvement in the Delhi serial blasts of September 13. Heading the committee is Professor Radha Kumar, who is also Director of the Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia. The committee has been asked to investigate the incident and submit a report to the university Vice-Chancellor.

While Prof Radha Kumar is the Convener, Prof Azra Razzack and Prof Biswajit Das have been appointed as members of the committee as per the decision taken by the Academic Council of Jamia to unequivocally condemn terrorism and communal violence.

“We will defend our constitutional, legal and moral rights while preserving the varsity’s liberal secular character. It is outrageous to castigate an 80-year old university on the basis of unproved charges against a couple of students,” said Prof Kumar.

Prof Kumar said her team would first find out facts. “There may be truth in the allegations made by the police, but we cannot sit on judgment on anyone. Our first step is to find out the facts, which we are working on, and it will take some time,” Prof Kumar said, also terming the ‘media trial’ that has been taking place right from the beginning an irresponsible act.

Zia-ur-Rahman was a student of the BA Programme and Shakeel was a final year student of MA (Economics) in the university.

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