All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Mufti Mohammed Ismail while addressing a gathering on Saturday in the Muslim-dominated constituency of Malegaon made provocative statements after firing took place at party member Rizwan Khan’s house.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR0yQA2m7f0]
He said, “An incident of firing took place in the city. Why was no FIR registered? If it comes to us, then the Police Department should note that we know how to maintain peace. We also know how peace would go away. We are not wearing bangles.”
Fearing a backlash, he clarified on Sunday that the comments were made in the context of the city of Malegaon. Ismail claimed his provocative statement were in context with the firing incident on AIMIM’s Rizwan Khan’s house.
MM Ismail:I said it in context of my city. It’s not connected with Maharashtra or India. Firing which our ppl are being subjected to(at AIMIM’s Rizwan Khan’s house), in this context I said we help the dept in maintaining peace,if we stop that then peace would be disrupted.(01.03) https://t.co/SdyvfkKTb1
— ANI (@ANI) March 2, 2020
Following the footsteps of his party supremo, Asaduddin Owaisi, he cast aspersions about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), Ismail made a bizarre comparison between the “relationship of a chicken and egg” to that of NPR and NRC.
While resorting to fear-mongering about NPR, he claimed, “40 crore people will be stripped of the right to vote, their property will be seized and their children would be denied admission in schools. They will have to live as prisoners and won’t receive any benefits from the government.” This despite multiple clarifications by the government that the CAA does not affect Indian citizens, Muslims or otherwise, in any which way.
This is not the first time that an AIMIM leader has come under the scanner for making highly objectionable statements. In a veiled threat to the Hindus, Pathan resorted to inciting Muslims at an ANti-CAA rally in Karnataka on February 16 by stating that time has come for the Muslims of the country to unite and ‘achieve freedom’. He added that even though Muslims are just 15 crores in the country, they can still dominate over 100 crore Hindus.
Likening protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to ‘jihad’, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said in early February that those who raise their voice against PM Modi and HM Amit Shah are real ‘mard-e-mujahid’.
