Al-Qaeda operative alleges sexual harassment in Tihar jail

Suspected Al-Qaeda operative and British national Samiun Rahman, arrested on charge of radicalising Rohingyas to fight the Myanmar Army, on Friday told a court that he was "sexually harassed" in the Tihar Central Jail here.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma asked the jail officials to file a response on Rahman's plea and listed the matter for November 8.

In an application moved through counsel M.S. Khan, Rahman said that on November 2, five securitymen came to see him in jail Number 1 and touched his body parts inappropriately and told him to strip.

Rahman said his cell lacked basic facilities and he did not get proper food, drinking water, or medicines.

Rahman, 27, was arrested near Shakarpur bus stand in east Delhi on September 17.

Police claimed his mission was to set up base in Manipur or Mizoram and radicalise Rohingya Muslims to fight the military in Myanmar.

Police said the accused was in India for the past two months under a fake identity of Shumon Haq from Kishanganj in Bihar and held a fake voter identity card in the same name.

Rahman, an alleged operative of Al-Qaeda for four years, had received three-month arms training in Syria and also fought in Alleppo.

Police said Rahman's father, hailing from Bangladesh, was a businessman in London while his brother and three sisters also worked in London.

--IANS

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