Owaisi’s AIMIM begins UP campaign on ‘riot’ note

AIMIM leaders hailed Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi as the “lion of Islam”, while termed UP’s Muslim MLAs as slaves.

“If we had a presence in Uttar Pradesh, Muzaffarnagar riots would not have occurred. Even Babri Masjid would not have been demolished. Our leader Asaduddin is ‘lion of Islam’ and his brother Akbaruddin has the courage to see the government eye to eye,” said Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri, party’s MLA from Hyderabad, during the rally.

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The rally was held at Muslim-dominated Partawal on Paniyara road in Maharajganj district. The area also has a strong presence of activists belonging to Hindu Yuva Vahini, which has support from BJP’s Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath.

After much deliberations, the local administration had given permission for only four hours — 12 noon to 4 pm — to AIMIM for holding the public meeting.

There was an impressive Muslim turnout at the rally and around 4,000 youths attended it. Many of them claimed that numbers would have been more if police had not imposed restrictions by stopping the vehicles with AIMIM flags.

Sounding a warning to the Akhilesh Yadav government, Pasha said: “Rulers of UP, your future will be ruined. Whole world will see. If you had not tortured our brothers, Majlis would not have come here.”

He also pitched for giving a push to Urdu, saying the language was dying in the state. “No Muslim MLA has not raised the issue. I demand from the government that all offices should have boards in Urdu language,” he said.

Former mayor of Hyderabad Majid Hussain too stepped up the rhetoric, claiming Muslims were the “second-class citizens in UP” and all Muslim legislators were “slaves of their masters”.

He also challenged the UP government saying: “You keep on heaping problems on us and now we are here to solve them.”

Another AIMIM leader from Hyderabad, Syed Khizar Pasha, however, spoke about the political ideas of his party and said AIMIM would “embrace” backwards classes and Muslims in the state. “We are the voice of Muslims in UP.

If you want respect for your mothers and sisters then join us. It is your (government) job to torture us and it is our task to oppose it,” he said.

AIMIM workers from adjoining districts — Azamgarh, Faizabad and Gorakhpur — and office bearers from Lucknow had reached there to attend the meeting.

AIMIM office bearers informed that the leaders from Hyderabad who had reached UP would submit their reports to party chief Asaduddin Owaisi. Owaisi’s is also likely to visit the state soon.

AIMIM had claimed to have enrolled one lakh people as its members and functional units in 55 districts.