By Imran Inamdar, TwoCircles.net
Beed (Maharashtra): A week after a huge rally in Nagpur, as many as 2 lakh Muslims flocked the streets of Beed in Maharashtra demanding Muslim reservation and an end to inference in Muslim personal law. The Muslims also raised the question “Where is Najeeb” regarding the JNU student who is missing for the last two months.
The rally was organised by the Beed Zila Muslim Samaj ,an umbrella organisation of religious, social and political organisation in the district.
The rally started in the afternoon near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Stadium. Protesters carrying the Indian tricolour sang the national anthem before going ahead with the rally, which saw the participation from students of various school and madrasas addressing the gathering and put forward their view on the constitutional rights of Indian citizens and importance of reservation in education and job sector.
The rally passed through Subhash road, Gaundipura, Bal Bheem chowk, Karanja chowk, Basheerganj and Shivaji chowk and District collector office.
The rally was peaceful, disciplined and no untoward incident was reported during or after the rally. The protesters were seen raising slogans in favour of Maratha and Muslim reservation, Najeeb Ahmed, Sachar committee report implementation and Muslim personal law.
It is notable that Marath and Dalit community activists arranged water and breakfast for the rally participants at various places as a part of communal harmony.
Hafiz Zakir, president, district unit of Jamiat-e-ulema-Hind said, “We are economically and educationally backward. Being a citizen of this nation, we too have equal right to put demands before the government. We organised the rally to avail reservation facility in a democratic way and as per the guidelines of Islamic Sharia.”
Professor Omair Saleem, Secretary, Millat group of schools spoke to Twocircles.net. “Muslims are marginalised and far from the mainstream and to join the same, we are in dire need of at least 10% reservation,” he said.
Before this rally, the region had witnessed two big rallies in Nanded and Latur.
After successful organisation of Muslim awareness campaign in above cities, there is another rally scheduled in Osmanabad district on January 5, 2017.