In what appears to be an attempt to provoke Muslims and the Dalits to take up arms, prominent Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad has announced to set up a camp in Lucknow on July 26 to teach them about the ‘right to self-defence’ and how to apply for a firearm licence.
According to the reports, lawyer Mahmood Pracha along with Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad Naqvi addressing a press conference said that they would conduct camps to assist people from the Muslim and Dalit communities to procure firearms. The camp will be held inside the historic Bada Imambara in Old Lucknow.
In a press brief, both the lawyer and Shia Muslim cleric said that the camps would be held in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow on July 26. They further accused the RSS of puppeteering mob lynching against the minority communities.
“We will tell you the legal method of how to fill-up the form and how do we apply for the license,” said Maulana Kalbe.
“The camp becomes all the more necessary in the light of the recent mob lynchings in different parts of the country and the Sonbhadra massacre…,” said senior lawyer Mahmood Pracha, who has been invited to oversee the camp.
Lawyer Pracha claimed that the Sonbhadra incident would not have occurred if those killed also had legal firearms to defend themselves.
“Sonbhadra is a glaring example of this inequality and discrimination in granting firearms licences by our system. While the oppressors or influential class can easily obtain weapons licence, the underprivileged section like the tribals in the Sonbhadra case, don’t even know how to apply for one,” said Pracha.
Reportedly, a similar camp will take place in Kolkata after Lucknow. Pracha said that similar camps would be held all over the country to teach Muslims and Dalits about the right to self-defence and the procedure to avail a firearm licence.
However, after facing severe outrage over arming Muslims, Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawed has taken a u-turn saying that he has asked his lawyer Pracha to postpone the training camp. He added that there will not be any training on how to use the firearms in the camps.
Blaming the media, Jawed said that media quoted him wrong. “We have asked Pracha to postpone the programme to see whether the government acts against mob lynching incidents or not. We will meet the leaders to demand a law against lynching,” said Jawed on Sunday.