Advocate N M Siddique, a long time friend, writer and activist, was picked up by police at Ernakulam on Thursday evening, produced before the magistrate at his residence at 8 pm today, and remanded to 14 days' custody.
I am not going into the details, but he was arrested because he raised his voice against police atrocities now going on in full swing in various parts of the State. He was president of the NCHRO Ernakulam district committee and had filed a petition before the National Human Rights Commission two weeks ago, following which the state DGP has received a notice from the NHRC. Siddique was involved in a number of struggles that included the campaign against Gwalior Rayons in Mavoor, the Plachimada struggle, the struggles of the displaced in Goshree, etc. A prolific writer on rights issues, he has been writing a column in Thejas for the last five years. Avakasangal, Nishedangal was a column originally supposed to have been handled by Mukundan C Menon, but his untimely death made it necessary to look for other writers, equally committed and talented. Siddique was an obvious choice. More than a year ago, I was in Ernakulam for the release of his book, Bengalil Ninnun Varthayonnumilla, a collection of his articles on human rights concerns. Mostly analytical reports from the field. Besides me, K Venu, his political guru in the pro- CPML days was also there and on our return home, I had a long talk with Venue on a variety of issues. Anyway, now Siddique is behind bars and I hope he will be able to come out with his spirits unbent. N P Chekkutty. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
