All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday said Union Home Minister Amit Shah openly “defended” the Delhi Police in the Lok Sabha while replying in the debate on last month’s violence in the national Capital. The Hyderabad MP said no justice will be done to the Muslims after the response Shah gave.
“He has openly defended the Delhi Police, though the riots took place because of the Delhi Police only,” Owaisi told ANI. “He has proudly said that the communal carnage was stopped in 36 hours. There is only one reason behind defending the Delhi Police that he [Shah] doesn’t want that justice should be given to especially those Muslims who have lost their lives, whose houses were set ablaze. No justice will be done after Amit Shah’s reply today.”
On Wednesday, Shah told the Lok Sabha that 52 people had been killed and 526 injured in the violence. Also, 371 shops and 142 houses had been destroyed, he said. Shah said over 700 cases, including 49 under the Arms Act, had been filed and 2,647 people have been detained or arrested.
Shah claimed the violence was a “well-planned conspiracy”. He denied the Opposition’s claims that the police had sided with those indulging in violence. Police had to throw stones in some instances to deter mobs, he claimed. More than 5,000 tear gas shells and 400 bullets were fired by police during the violence, the home minister said.
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Owaisi claimed “one-sided arrests” were taking place in Delhi. “Over 1,100 Muslims are in illegal detention,” said the MP. “We had demanded that one commission should be set up under the Inquiries Act, to be headed by a sitting Supreme Court or High Court judge, that was also denied. What will the SIT do?”
Owaisi pointed out how Shah avoided commenting on Bharatiya Janata Party leaders who made provocative remarks ahead of the violence. “He did not talk about Kapil Mishra,” said the AIMIM chief. Just hours before violence broke out in Delhi on February 23, Mishra had warned police that they must clear an anti-CAA protest site in three days. Opposition leader and protestors have alleged that his remarks were the immediate provocation for the violence.
In the run-up to last month’s Delhi elections, Union minister Anurag Thakur had exhorted a crowd at a rally to shout “shoot the traitors” – an apparent reference to those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act. An MP, Parvesh Verma, had claimed that Delhi voters must think hard about which party they choose in the elections because “lakhs of protestors” gathering in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh locality to demonstrate against the Citizenship Amendment Act will enter their homes to “rape their sisters and daughters and kill them”.
AIMIM Waris Pathan too made a controversial remark when he suggested that Indian Muslims should dominate other communities. “As far as Waris Pathan is concerned, he has taken his comments back,” said Owaisi. “FIR is registered against him. But has any FIR been registered against Anurag Thakur or Kapil Mishra? The government is trying to save them. The country is watching it.”
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