UP lawyer takes up cases of terror accused, becomes colleagues’ target

Shoaib has a tough job— he is fighting cases of Terror suspects in a state where the bar association has banned lawyers from appearing for them. Worse, he is also appearing for suspects in the serial blasts which targeted the lawyers allegedly for refusing to take up terror cases. In Faizabad on Wednesday, Shoaib was appearing on behalf of the two accused in the November-23 serial blasts.

Shoaib has now decided to approach the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court with a petition to transfer the case to another district. Faizabad Bar Association secretary Mansoor Elahi said: “The lawyers were irked as a resolution was passed by the bar that no lawyer would take up the case of these persons”.

A few days ago, some Barabanki lawyers had issued threats to Shoaib, asking him to withdraw from the case. Shoaib had withdrawn his name, returned to Lucknow and filed a complaint with a senior judge of the Lucknow Bench against the lawyers’ boycott resolutions.

It was after the November 23 serial blasts that the bar association imposed the ban. But Shoaib did not accept this decision as “it violated the basic right of every person to defend himself in court”.

His popularity among the terror accused increased after he demolished the police theory that Kolkata-based Aftab Alam Ansari was a Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami terrorist. The Special Task Force of UP Police had made Ansari an accused in the serial blasts case. Mohammad Shoaib fought his case. Later, the police declared that it was a case of mistaken identity and Ansari was released after spending 22 days in jail.

Then the families of Ansari’s co-accused, Mohammad Khalid Mujhahid and Hakeem Mohammad Tariq, approached him. Khalid Mujahid is a resident of Jaunpur district and Tariq runs a dispensary in Sarai Meer area in Azamgarh. Both are accused in the November 23 serial blasts.

Shaoib said while the police said they had arrested the men from Barabanki Railway Station in December,...