April 30, 2026 03:42 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
‘Not necessary to humiliate me with arrest’: Pawan Khera to SC over remarks on Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife | ‘Let’s not choose for people capable of choosing’: Supreme Court to Centre on teen pregnancy termination | I-PAC co-founder Vinesh Chandel gets bail after Bengal polls conclude | Exit Polls Give Bengal to BJP—But One Survey Begs to Differ | Big defence push: Rajnath Singh to hold high-stakes talks with Italy’s Defence Minister | “Voting without fear”: PM Modi hails record turnout in West Bengal polls | Mamata Banerjee trying to intimidate Hindu voters, alleges Suvendu Adhikari in Bhabanipur | Operation Sindoor boost: India is now fifth-largest military spender at USD 92.1 billion in 2025, Pakistan's spending is also up | ‘Got the guts?’ Derek O’Brien dares Modi to quit if Mamata Banerjee wins Bengal polls | ECI ‘harassing’ TMC, dancing to BJP’s tune: Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur

After acquittal Akshardham accused pens book on 11 years of travails in jail

| | Apr 10, 2015, at 05:56 pm
Ahmedabad, Apr 10 (IBNS) Mufti Abdul Qayyum, acquitted by the Supreme Court in the 2002 Akshardham temple terror attack last year, has penned a book recounting his personal account of injustice and travails that he faced for 11 years in jail for a crime he had not committed.

The book will be released next week.

Titled 'Gyarah  Saal Salakhon Ke Peeche', the book, as Qayyum says, is the account of a life branded as a terrorist without evidence.  "This book is not just for the Muslims, it is for the most oppressed class of the country. If through my book, even one person is spared from state sponsored excesses then I will be happy that I have achieved something,"  Qayyum told NDTV.

He was 29 at the time of arrest in 2003 - a year after the attack on the Akshardham temple.

Police claimed to have recovered a letter written by Qayyum from the possession of  two terrorists, who were killed in the gun battle with security forces.

A lower court in Gujarat later convicted Qayyum and two others, sentencing them to death.  But on May 17 last year, the top court acquitted him of all the charges.

When Qayyum, now 40, was arrested his son was barely ten months old. All the 11 years he was in jail his wife struggled hard to run the family bearing the stigma of being a "terrorist's wife."

"As my son grew older, his only constant question was about his father. Every day before going to school he would always ask; when will father come home. Every moment was filled with pain,"  Qayyum's wife told NDTV.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.