Muslims protest against vote-bank politics
Over 2,500 Muslims of Delhi under the banner of two nationalist Muslim organisations—My Hindustan and Bharatiya Muslim Parishad—staged a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, protesting against the vote-bank politics of pseudo-secularists in the name of the terrorists killed in Gujarat recently. It was the first protest by the Muslims in the country against terrorism.
Addressing the protestors, Mohammad Afjal, president, My Hindustan, said that the country would be trapped in new problems if pseudo-secularists continued to support and give political patronage to terrorists. “If we have to preserve peace in the country, we will have to work honestly for curbing terrorism. It is possible only when the politicians refrain from indulging in Muslim vote-bank politics. The statements of the Nationalist Congress Party leaders as well as the Samajwadi Party leaders in favour of Ishrat Jahan, who was killed in Gujarat along with other terrorists, expose their feelings and politics to support terrorism and terrorists,” he said.
Dr Tahir, a professor in Jamia Millia University, Delhi, said that traitors should not be supported at any cost. He further said that there was enough evidence to prove the involvement of Ishrat Jahan in terrorist activities. Umer Ahmed Nakshbandi, president, Bharatiya Muslim Parishad, said that the act of pseudo-secularists to arouse the religious feelings of Muslims, instead of encouraging the security forces for flushing out the terrorists from the country, was against the interests of the country.
Social worker Shahin Khan urged the pseudo-secularists not to glorify Ishrat for appeasing Muslim voters. “People like Ishrat cannot be our ideal. The Muslims themselves need to come forward and hand over the suspects amongst them to the security forces so as to increase the credibility of the whole community,” she said, adding that there was no harm in singing Vande Mataram.
The Muslims demanded that all the
political parties involved in the UPA government should clarify their policies
on terrorism and order a CBI inquiry into the killing of terrorists in
Gujarat to expose the politicians. The demonstrators also demanded immediate
resignation of the NCP leader from the post of Deputy Speaker of Maharashtra
Legislative Council. “The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde,
should also clarify the reason why he did not support the demand of a CBI
inquiry into the Gujarat incident,” they said. The protestors also urged
the Union Home Ministry to felicitate the police officers of Gujarat police
who, by killing the terrorists, performed a courageous act in safeguarding
the peace of the country.