Three days after al-Qaida's "sleeper cell" suspect Ahmed Masood Akram Sheikh was arrested with aide Nasim Akhtar, a delegation of religious and political outfits on Thursday met East Singhbhum DC Amitabh Kaushal to demand that the entire minority community should not be tarred with the same brush.

Led by Qazi Daud, head of Imarat Shariah, a regional religious outfit, and Firoz Khan, district president of JVM, the delegation submitted a memorandum with the DC seeking immunity for innocents from harassment.

They also demanded that the administration should inform family members of detained persons where they had been kept and in what condition. The memorandum also went on to state that due to a handful of people, the whole community should not be viewed as militants.

Kaushal, who confirmed meeting the delegation, said: "I have told them that the law will take its own course."

Qazi Daud also spoke to the media, saying they were "strongly opposed" to militancy in Jharkhand and elsewhere in the country.

But, he also expressed anger at the police and investigating agencies who "pick up people from the community in the name of interrogation for being involved in militant activities".

"The police should stop harassing innocent persons in the name of interrogation of the suspects," he stressed.

Asked for his comments, East Singhbhum SSP Anoop T. Mathew said: "There may be several suspects in the steel city. We are only trying to find them out."