By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
Mumbai: Aggrieved with the maligning campaign run on social media allegedly by unidentified All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) workers, Liyaqat Khan Pathan, Congress Aurangabad city president has lodged a police complaint.
The plaint alleges that MIM workers are running a campaign on social networking sites urging people to boycott Muslim leaders linked with the Congress and the NCP.
MIM rally in Mumbai (File photo)
The incidence came to the fore a couple of week after poll result that displayed an upsetting repercussions for the community due to bickering fight between many Muslim candidates in the just concluded Maharashtra election. The alleged campaign and subsequent complaint explain that the internal strife has not seized even after the results are out and (hence) the single largest community in the state suffered a setback by sending only 9 Muslim MLAs to the assembly.
MIM candidate Abdul Gaffar Qadri from Aurangabad (East) assembly constituency lost election to BJP’s Atul Save by a margin of around 4,000 votes. Apparently embarrassed, the MIM workers reportedly started blaming Muslims who voted for the non-MIM candidates.
These workers also allegedly launched an online campaign through social networking sites and mobile phone applications against Muslim leaders supporting Congress and NCP alleging them to be responsible for Qadri’s loss. As per the police complaint, an unidentified person with ‘Being MIM’ as Facebook page name posted a list of “traitors responsible for the loss of Aurangabad East constituency.”
Pathan lodged the police complaint when he found his name in the list. The police registered a case under section 66 (A) of IT Act against administrator of ‘Being MIM’ Facebook page and said they are investigating the case.
“Such offensive contents are in circulation since October 19. I saw my name along with 13 others in a post on a social networking site appealing the masses to boycott us,” Pathan told ToI.
Speaking with TCN, Zameer Khan, a Pathan sympathizer from Aurangabad said, “Even if the reason of Qadri sahab’s defeat mentioned (in the post) is correct, it is not proper to malign individuals who voted or campaigned for non-MIM candidates …after all this is a democracy.”
Meanwhile, MIM office holders have reportedly disassociated the party from the alleged campaign and said the party cannot be blamed for something done by an individual that is not approved by the party.