Probe report on firing outside Mecca Masjid after blast submitted

The Justice Bhaskar Rao Commission, probing the police firing on protestors outside the Mecca Masjid after a bomb blast had taken the lives of five worshippers on May 18, 2007, on Saturday submitted its report to Chief Minister K Rosaiah at the Camp Office.

The bomb blast, immediately after Friday prayers, had claimed the lives of five worshippers. The police had opened fire on protestors outside the historic Mosque in which nine persons were killed.

The commission was appointed to ascertain the sequence of events responsible for opening of fire following the violence after the Mecca Masjid blast.

Scores of Muslim youths were picked up and implicated under false charges of conspiring to wage war against the State by joining hands with terror suspects. The Commission also enquired about illegal detentions of police.

The state government had constituted the Commission with “the opinion that it is necessary to appoint a Commission of Inquiry for the purpose of making an inquiry into a definite matter of public importance hereinafter specified. Now, therefore, in exercise of powers conferred by section 3 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 (Central Act No.60 of 1952), the Government hereby appoints Justice V Bhaskara Rao, Retired Judge, High Court as Commission of Inquiry to inquire into the incident that led to opening of fire by police on 18.05.2007 near Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad.”

The commission took nearly three years to submit its much awaited report to the government.

The Special Branch of Hyderabad City Police and State Intelligence in their preliminary reports to the government admitted that the police firing on the protestors was ‘indiscriminate and unwarranted’.  The preliminary reports admitted that the police had shot at not only protestors but also panic stricken worshippers running away from the blast site.

The post-mortem reports too indicated that the police firing was indiscriminate, resulting in the death of nine persons. The bullets were fired from Self-Loading Rifles normally used in encounters with Maoists or terrorists.

The report filed by the City Security Wing revealed that as many as 90 rounds were fired by the policemen.

Six constables of the Quick Response Team of the City Police had fired 72 rounds, three constables of the City Armed Reserve had fired 11 rounds and three constables of the West and North Zone Task Force had fired seven rounds at Punch Mohalla and Charminar bus stop near Mecca Masjid. The policemen used six SLRs, four .303 rifles and two pistols.

Based on the report the government would initiate disciplinary action against guilty police officers.