‘Not ‘terrorists’ anymore, but what will bring back our lost years’

Rashid and Shahid were among five acquitted nine years after being arrested on terror charges

Mohd. Rashid’s father had to shut his shop because his customers called him a “terrorist” and a “Jihadi”. Mohd. Shahid still has not gotten back the job, which was the only source of livelihood for his family, which he lost when the police came knocking on his doors back nine years ago. 

“Nothing can compensate me for those dreadful years when I had to live with the tag of being a terrorist; when my family was ostracised by the society,” said Mr. Rashid, 35, a few days after his acquittal. 

“I used to cry a lot in my cell, thinking of my fate, wondering whether I would ever be able to see my family again,” said Mr. Shahid. He was 22 at the time of his arrest.  

The two, along with three others, were arrested by Delhi police’s Special Cell in 2013 under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for having connections with the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and being involved in a plan to kidnap a businessman for ransom to raise money to carry out terror acts in India. 

On May 9, all the five were acquitted by a Delhi court, which stated that the prosecution’s case was based upon “surmises and conjectures rather than any credible evidence”.

Mr. Rashid, who used to work as a school teacher in Haryana’s Nuh district, recalled the nine-year-long trauma he suffered from the time of his arrest in 2013 till his acquittal earlier this month.

“I used to work as a teacher at a school and also took tuitions at my home. The police falsely implicated me in the case and I lost several crucial years of my life,” Mr. Rashid said.