Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president and Hyderabad Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday lashed out at the National Investigation Agency for its dual faced approach on terror related cases and demanded the agency come out clean on its claims of arresting 5 city youth for their links to ISIS.
Addressing a massive gathering at Mecca Masjid on the occasion of Jummatul Vida (last Friday of Ramazan) on Friday Owaisi challenged the agency to come out with evidence against the five youth who were arrested on charges of planning terrorist attacks in Hyderabad.
Owaisi was reacting for the first time to the NIA’s raids in Hyderabad on Wednesday and arrest of 5 youth for their suspected links to the international terrorist organisation ISIS.
The five youth, against whom cases were booked on charges of waging war against the state and possessing arms and explosives, were now in 14 days judicial custody.
He said the family members of the boys had met him and told him that they were innocent. “We will fight for them legally. We have full faith in courts”, he added.
At the same time he demanded to know from the Government that if these youth were acquitted by the courts after three-four years will it suspend the officials who made these arrests.
“Will you return the precious years of their youth if they were found innocent later”, he said.
Owaisi was also angry with the media for fictitious reports of the arrested youth planning to throw meat in temples for triggering communal riots. Referring to the NIA remand report of the five arrested persons, Asaduddin Owaisi said that nowhere the report has mentioned any plans of throwing the meat in temples. “Why you (media) have so much hatred and enmity towards the old city. Why are you trying to give a bad name to the city and its people. Why are you alienating the old city”, he asked.
Warning against giving the issue a communal color, Owaisi said that the fight of Muslims was not against Hindus but for justice. “We have full faith in the courts”, he said.
Owaisi recalled that in 2010 Sangh Parivar members were caught for throwing pieces of meat in temples in different parts of the city. “Muslims don’t indulge in such acts”, he added.
Targeting NIA he said that ever since the Modi government came to power it was trying to shield the Hindu accused of Malegaon and Mecca Masjid blast cases.
In the Malegaon blast case of 2008, the agency did not tell the court that Muslim youth arrested in the case were innocent and they should be discharged, he recalled. “NIA only said it will leave the matter to the court and court ordered their release. But when it came to Pragya Thakur and her associates in the same case, NIA dropped the charges against them and did not oppose their bail petition”.
In Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid blast case also the NIA acted in a similar manner and did not file an appeal against the bail of an accused Aseemanand within the stipulated time.
He also recalled that soon after the blast in the mosque in 2008, the police and the CID had arrested a large number of Muslim youth claiming they had links with lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaishe Mohammed. “But all these charges were found false and the courts acquitted them and people like Aseemanand and his associates were found involved in the blast”.
He said that such agency was now claiming the arrest of ISIS module. “Please don’t link us to the ISIS. Don’t suspect our loyalty”, he said.
Pointing out that the MIM was first to come out openly against the ISIS describing it as anti-Islam and anti-human organization which was killing and raping Muslims and demolishing mosques and shrines.
Referring to the reports that an India Yusuf Al Hindi was in touch with the arrested youth, he said that he was a coward who had fled the country. “You ran away from this country but we are here. Despite riots, killings in fake encounters, demolition of mosques and other atrocities we have decided to remain in the country because Muslims love this country. They have an equal right. We will fight democratically for our right”, he said.
He termed the ISIS as “the organization of the worst kind of criminals, cowards, killers and murderers of innocent people”. “ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. It is anti Islam and anti Muslim”, he said. The congregation shouted a resounding “No” and “Allah o Akbar” when he asked any Muslim will support ISIS.
Calling for an ideological battle against the ISIS and its influence, Owaisi urged Muslims to teach Islam to their children. “Islam is not a fast food. It takes years to learn the religion”, he said.
Owaisi said that he was planning to invite the prominent Syrian scholar Mohammed Abul Huda al-Yaqoubi to Hyderabad to speak against the ISIS. Al Yaqoubi had termed the ISIS as “un Islamic” and was now living outside Syria.
Owaisi also urged the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to openly condemn the inhuman act of forcing two Muslim traders to eat cow dung and drink urine in Haryana. “Saudi Arabia has honored you with its biggest award and you are keeping silent on such an atrocious act against Muslims in India”, he said.
End.