Khan Iqbal | India Tomorrow
JAIPUR—Peoples Union for Civil Liberties(PUCL) has demanded release of 94-year-ol Dr. Habib Khan who is currently lodged in Jaipur Central Jail under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) and other charges under Indian Penal Code. He is in jail for the last 26 years on charges of terrorism.
The demand for his release was made by PUCL’s national secretary Kavita Srivastava at a press conference in Jaipur on the International Human Rights Day today. Srivastava demanded his release on humanitarian grounds. Dr. Habib Khan is said to be the eldest prisoner in any jail of India.
She said that Dr. Habib Khan is an older person. He is having cardiac problem, has lost vision in his eyes and unable to hear. She said that he also could not look after himself and hence, he must be released and allowed to live with his family and children.’
Dr. Habib, hailing from Rae Bareilly district in Uttar Pradesh was arrested in 1993 in connection with serial bomb blasts in trains in Mumbai and Ajmer’s TADA court awarded him life imprisonment term in 2004 on charges of terrorism. He only once got 21 days of parole in 2018.
Two others given life-term with him are 82-year-old Mohammad Amin and Ashfaq Khan.
In 2018, Delhi Minorities Commission Chairman Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan had made a written appeal to President of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Governor and Chief Minister of Rajasthan and Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court, requesting that Dr. Habib be released on humanitarian ground.
In his letter, Dr Khan said, “His age is 87 now. His 77-year-old wife Qaisar Jahan is spending her last days hoping to see her husband before she dies. Dr Habib is accused of giving funds to a terrorist, a charge he denied in court saying that his confession was obtained by torture”.
Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan, in his appeal, had requested that “elderly Dr. habib Khan may be released on humanitarian grounds so that he may spend his last days with his family.” Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan also promised to personally stand surety for the bail of Dr. Habib Khan.