By TCN News
NEW DELHI: Scholars and activists from all sections of Indian civil society have come out in support of Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, the Delhi Minorities Commissioner days after he was booked for sedition by Delhi Police.
Pertinently, a delegation of Delhi BJP MLAs had met Governor Anil Baijal demanding registration of a case against him.
Jamaat-e-Islami, Popular Front, Campus Front, Students Islamic Organization of India and other groups have condemned sedition charges against Dr Khan.
Popular Front Chairman O M A Salam said, “This is indicative of the very low level of individual targeting and character assassination ongoing in our country under the patronage of BJP government,” expressing that a “malicious campaign” of vilification of Indian Muslims is being perpetuated by Hindutva agents.
Praising his efforts for speaking out against extremism and intolerance, Syed Sadatullah Hussaini of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has said that if Khan says something against the growing extremism and communalism in the country, “then it should be taken as his love for the people and the nation and as part of his ongoing fight against extremism and radicalism.”
The supporters of Khan have also quoted his latest clarification he issued after media reported he had deleted his tweet.
In the last few days, several media agencies had published in the last few days that he has apologized and deleted his tweet of thanking Kuwait for supporting Indian Muslims, but Dr Khan has refuted the claims in a statement.
“I have apologized not for the tweet itself but because it was ill-timed and insensitive in the midst of a medical emergency faced by our country,” Dr Khan said in a statement.
Khan was booked under sedition charges after special cell of Delhi Police received a complaint against one of his tweets calling out Islamophobia by Indians on Arab social media.
In the statement, the renowned Muslim writer and intellectual clarified that “I will continue, now and in future, the fight against hate politics in the country.”
Dr Khan further said that FIRs’ arrests and imprisonments do not change the course he had chosen for representing a secular India.
A number of individuals including Kavita Krishnan, Saba Naqvi, Iftikhar Gilani, Mariya Salim, Shamsul Islam, and many other professors, doctors, journalists and activists have spoken in support of Dr Khan.
A public statement, signed by more than 50 individuals, NGOs and groups was also released to condemn FIR on Dr Khan, stating that “any attack and targeting of him, is actually an insult to Indian constitution and ethos.” The signatories of the public statement have demanded “strong legal action against those who are distorting Dr Khan’s Facebook post, and spreading vicious false propaganda against him.”