MUMBAI: The Shiites in Mumbai have expressed their anguish against Abbas Kazmi, the Shiite lawyer representing the lone surviving terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, arrested after the Mumbai terror attacks.
Arshad Naqvi, a businessman, deplored Kazmi for taking the brief to defend Qasab when the Muslims throughout the world had condemned the November terror attacks in Mumbai. “It is not good for Kazmi to have agreed to defend Qasab, when the main accused, Qasab, had killed hundreds of innocent people,” Naqvi said.
A Shiite organization, Tahaffuz-e-Hussainyat of central Mumbai, yesterday came out with a statement saying that “Shiites have always condemned oppression of the innocents and the actions of the terrorists. Despite knowing this, Kazmi has committed the grave mistake of becoming a lawyer for Qasab. It does not appear decent of Kazmi, a trustee of a Shiite mosque in downtown Bhendi Bazar, to defend a terrorist,” the organization said.
Kazmi, after accepting the papers to defend Qasab, had in an interview to a newspaper claimed to be a prominent leader of Ashrafi Jamaat of Shiites.
Referring to the interview, the Shiite organization had condemned his claim of being a leader of the Shiite community. “At a time when the Shiite community is deploring all acts of terrorism, a person defending a terrorist like Qasab, is not worth being a leader of the Shiite community,” the organization said.
Reacting to the criticism, Kazmi said that his detractors were criticizing him for defending Qasab.
“The special court has ordered me to defend Qasab, and as a professional lawyer, it is my duty to honor and abide by the court order,” he said.
Meanwhile, several other Muslim organizations have joined the Shiite organization in condemning Kazmi for defending Qasab.
“Forget the Shiites, every Muslim in the country is against a Muslim lawyer defending the alleged terrorist. A terrorist who kills innocents in the name of Islam, does not deserve mercy or sympathy,” said Abdul Basit, leader of Muslim Youth Circle of India.
