By TwoCircles.net news desk,
New Delhi: Strongly condemning the protests against Union Minority Affairs Minister Abdur Rahman Antulay following his Hemant Karkare statement, the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM) said Antulay spoke out what is in the minds of Indian Muslims regarding the Mumbai attacks.
AIMMM, the umbrella body of the Indian Muslim organisations, is “dismayed by the chorus of condemnation and protests faced by the Union Minority Affairs Minister AR Antulay who dared to speak out what is in the minds of almost all Indian Muslims who think that the terrorist attack on Mumbai had to do something with the investigations being carried out by Maharashtra ATS chief Karkare and his dedicated team which was eliminated in the early hours of the attack on Mumbai,” said AIMMM president Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan.
“It seems that the elimination of the ATS chief was the only goal of the terrorists who, surprisingly, made no demand,” he said adding that the AIMMM has already demanded a separate high-powered investigation into the murder of Hemant Karkare and his ATS colleagues.
Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan said it is strange that in the world’s largest democracy people, especially Muslims, are not supposed to speak out their minds. “A very slight expression of unpalatable facts and ugly ground realities, like the statement of actress Shabana Azmi on how she failed to purchase a house of her choice in Mumbai because of her faith, is enough to send you to the doghouse,” he said.
Dr Khan added that he saw no reaction to another statement made same day by the head of a political party represented in our Parliament that the arrested terrorist should be hanged in public without waiting for his trial but there is no uproar against this demand for jungle raj in our country.
Dr Khan said that the margin of democratic freedoms is increasingly shrinking in our country which is a bad omen for democracy and secularism and only strengthens fascist forces whose sinister designs were being uncovered by Shaheed Karkare and his team.