By Amit Kumar, Twocircles.net
A four-member delegation of All India Muslim Majlis e Mushawarat, led by its President Navaid Hamid, visited the families of the four Dalits who were beaten up in Una, Gujarat, and the victims, hospitalised in Ahmedabad, on July 28. The Majlis asked for a CBI inquiry into the matter and asked for strictest punishment possible for the perpetrators of such crimes.
Hamid, in a conversation with Twocircles.net, said that the families of the victims were living in fear after the incident and worried about the safety of the victims. After the incident on July 11, four Dalits were flogged by Gau Rakshak Dals over allegations of killing cows. “They were discharged early from the Rajkot hospital even though they had not recovered. We were told that there was pressure from the local administration to discharge them. However, the same night they started vomiting blood; only after that were they brought to Ahmedabad. This shows a severe lack of sincerity on the part of the state government,” he said.
Apart from Hamid, the delegation included Maulana Asghar Ali Imam Salfi, General Secretary, Jamiat E Ahle Hadith; Mohammed Ahmed Secrtary Jamat e Islami Hind and Shafi Madani, Secretary Welfare Party of India.
Adding that given how local state government has shielded and encouraged Gau Rakshak Dals, Hamid added that justice in this case would be possible only if the case wasn’t under the state CID. “The need for a CBI inquiry is essential in this case. Local police will be under pressure from the state government,” he added.
AIMMM also demanded that the families of all victims must be given a government job. “If the government and the vigilantes have so much issue with someone skinning dead cows, then they should be given adequate alternatives,” he said. He also urged the Supreme Court to take Suo Motto notice of violence initiated by the so-called vigilante groups. “These groups are nothing but terror groups and the Supreme Court must break its silence over this matter,” Hamid added.