By Hasan Zia Rizvi, TwoCircles.net,
Lucknow: People Campaign against Politics of Terror (PCPT) organized a rally cum convention where many religious and political leaders participated in front of huge mass of people including young Indian Muslims gathered at Rafhe Aam ground in Lucknow.
This was the first convention of PCPT in Lucknow which was organized by Rajya Saba MP Mohammad Adeeb and Imam Eidgah Lucknow, Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali and his associates.
The main objective of the convention was attempts at preventing arrest of Muslim youth under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), which targets young Muslims for the act of terrorism without any evidence; what PCPT called the “politics of terror.”
Maulana Khalid Rashid said, “From years the Muslim religious leaders are proving that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam and Muslims have no connection with terrorism as it has no religion, but still jailing of innocent Muslims without evidence is carried out by the Government”.
Prominent political leader A B Bardhan, Former General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) supported the campaign and Atul Kumar Anjaan of CPI was also present on the occasion. He said, “It is not battle of Muslims only, it’s the battle of every human, every Hindu. A human, belonging to any religion, should protect secular India and promote secularism,” adding, “innocent Muslim youths of Rampur, Bijnor, Banaras, Faizabad and Lucknow are arrested and but still no charge-sheet has been filed”.
Tehelka editor, Ajit Sahi said, “All the cases against SIMI are false and fabricated and it was proved and now these bureaucrats and media have created a new name, Indian Mujahideen, which they say were the prime accused of the recent Hyderabad Blasts. If there is any organization of Muslims of this name, I appeal to government to please tell us where is there office and from where they operate?”
Leaders of all the political parties were invited. However, not everyone turned up. Samajwadi party general secretary Dr. Ashok Bajpai said, “SP government has not arrested any innocent youth or Muslim in the state.” As he was speaking, people started shouting slogans against him and the SP government and some started moving towards the dais. He had to stop in between. Maulana Khalid Rashid calmed down the public and invited Saeedur Rehman Kazmi on the stage.
Rajya Sabha MP Mohd Adeeb did not mince words when his turn came. He said he has been seeking the appointment of the UP CM for seven days to invite him for the programme, but he was not given the appointment.
He warned state government of ignoring this issue, adding, “We want that the public, the common man, the youth of the community to wake up and stand united against the police and government, who in the disguise of war on terrorism are arresting innocent people…Muslim community never searched for Jinnah but for Mahatma Gandhi but nobody becomes true Gandhi here, people just use his name to get the votes in the elections”.
Maulana Khalid Rashid explained the proposals of the PCPT movement. “Media should stop using words like ‘Islamic terrorism’ which is highly misleading and it hurts the sentiments of Muslims. Why only Muslims are targeted as soon as any terrorist attack took place?”
Others speakers at the event included Akhtarul Iman of Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) and Dr.Shafiqur Rehman Barq of Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP). Barq said, “We should learn from the events of Karbala as Imam Husain (as) sacrificed his whole family for the sake of Islam and humanity”.
PCPT demanded from the UP government for the dissolution of UAPA as TADA was dissolved years ago, which is being misused against innocent Muslims.
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