Mob allegedly attacks Akali Dal MlA Farzana Khatoon’s house
In what could be seen as a mischief by some miscreants, torn pages of the holy Quran were found in Punjab’s only Muslim-majority town of Malekotla late on Friday triggering a night of arson and violence in the city.
Sources said the incident occurred after prayers on the third Friday of the holy month of Ramzan. A mob targeted the house of local Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MlA Farzana Khatoon after damaging 12 cars, including four of the legislator, forcing the police to resort to firing. Police sources said 100 rounds were fired to control the mob.
Farzana, 62, is the wife of former Punjab Police DGP Mohammad Izhar Alam, who is also an Akali loyalist. Alam made Malerkotla his home in 2010 after retirement when he became the Punjab Wakf Board chairman. He would have got the SAD ticket but for Sikh hardliners who raked up his controversial tenure during the days of militancy.
Farzana won the 2012 Assembly elections on the SAD ticket after a bitter battle with her Congress rival and two-time MlA Razia Sultana, 49, who is backed by her husband and IPS officer Mohammad Mustafa. She was a sitting two term MlA when she was defeated by Khatoon. Many in police and bureaucratic circles see the desecration as a power struggle between the two powerful leaders, backed by their husbands in the run-up to the Assembly polls early next year.
Six policemen, including a DSP was injured as protesters who numbered around 300-400 indulged in stone pelting, torched a car and a room meant for security men outside the MlA’s house. The legislator who was in the house was safe, DSP Randhir Singh said on the incident Friday night.
Police and security men of Khatoon fired in the air to disperse the crowd. The mob pelted stones at police personnel injuring to six policemen, including a DSP, said police.
Heavy police force has been deployed in the wake of the incident. DIG (Patiala Range) BS Sidhu said, “Situation (in Malerkotla) is peaceful now.” A case has been registered in this regard, police said, adding that no arrest has been made so far.
DGP (law and Order) Hardeep Singh Dhillon along with IG (Patiala Zone) Paramjit Singh Umra Nangal on Saturday visited the area and reviewed the situation.
BADAl CONDEMNS INCIDENT
Strongly condemning the incident of Sacrilege of Holy Quran Sharif in Malerkotla, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday urged the people to exercise calm in this hour of crisis.
In a statement issued, the Chief Minister said nobody will be allowed to disturb the hard earned peace and communal harmony in the State. He appealed the people in general and especially the Muslim brethren to maintain peace, amity and communal harmony at all costs as preached by our great Gurus, Seers and Prophets.
Expressing deep anguish over this unfortunate incident, Badal exhorted the people to keep restraint in such provocative circumstances by displaying the ethos of religious tolerance, unity and brotherhood. He cautioned the anti-social elements which were hell bent upon to tarnish the congenial atmosphere of peace, communal harmony and brotherhood and asked them to desist from their nefarious designs to divide the society on sectarian lines.
AAP TERMS IT UNFORTUNATE
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has termed the incident of tearing of pages of holy Quran and subsequent tension occurred in Malerkotla extremely unfortunate and criticised Parkash Singh Badal-led Punjab Government for its failure to protect the holy books of all faiths in the State.
Sangrur MP and senior leader AAP, Bhagwant Mann while demanding a judicial probe into all sacrilege incidents occurred in the recent times in Punjab said those responsible for attempting to create a communal wedge between various communities by resorting to desecration must be brought to book.
Mann said prior to Malerkotla incident desecration of Guru Granth Sahib and holy book Geeta was also engineered by certain anti social elements to divide and create communal divisions between the Punjabis on caste and religious lines. However despite such highly provocative incidents people of
Punjab maintained peace and harmony.
“There have been series of incidents in Punjab of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib but the Punjab police have completely failed to identify and nab the culprits. On the other hand two Sikh men who were protesting against the sacrilege were killed in police firing in Bargadi village last year. Instead of registering an FIR against the police for killing two innocent Sikhs the same was registered against unidentified persons to protect the erring cops”, said Mann.
CAPT APPREHENDS CONSPIRACY
Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday apprehended a conspiracy to disturb peace and destabilise Punjab ahead of elections.
Referring to the alleged desecration of the holy Quran at Malerkotla and subsequent police firing on Friday, Capt Amarinder observed that there appeared to be a pattern in these incidents.
Talking to reporters after interacting with general public, the PCC president pointed out , less than a year ago the holy Guru Granth Sahab was desecrated leading to protests and firing on people which killed two protestors.
Now again, he added, the pages of holy Quran were torn out in a clear act of provocation and when the people wanted to meet the local MlA, whose husband Izhar Alam is an ex-DGP, his security personnel fired indiscriminately at them injuring so many.
Demanding a time bound independent probe, the PCC president said, he was sure it will lead to the Chief Minister as an atmosphere of instability and uncertainty will suit him since he has realised that he had lost the trust of the people.