Defending its government’s decision to release Muslim youth arrested on terror charges, the Samajwadi Party said the previous Bahujan Samaj Party regime of UP and the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre had arrested several innocent youths and asked if the Akhilesh Yadav government ordered their release what was the big deal in it.
“The law says that until a person is proven guilty, he or she should not be called a criminal. Terror charges against many Muslim youths cannot be proved in the law of court. So, the government decided to release these innocent people,” SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said in a written statement issued here on Thursday.
Chaudhary said the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party were hurt by the decision. The BJP is hurt because of its religious hatred towards Muslims and the BSP is complaining as this decision has only corroborated the SP government’s assertion to be the saviour of Muslims.
The SP government on Wednesday withdrew a terror case against Tariq Qureshi in the Gorakhpur serial blast case in which six people were injured. An alleged HuJI operative, Qureshi was involved in serial blasts in the Varanasi, Faizabad and lucknow courts also.
The SP spokesman said that terrorism had no religion, caste or creed. “The innocent, irrespective of their caste and religion, should not be punished,” he said.
Hitting out at the Congress, Chaudhary said that it had set up the Sachar and Rangnath Mishra panels but chose to shelve their reports.
“Why the Congress acted like this can only be addressed by its leaders. But the SP has taken the findings of both the committees seriously and has started implementing the recommendations,” Chaudhary said.