Gujarat govt is responsible for Ram Navami violence: Asaduddin Owaisi

Ahmedabad (Gujarat): All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Chief Asaduddin Owaisi on yesterday held the Gujarat government responsible for the violence citing that the state government failed to maintain law and order and demanded action with a proper inquiry. “Not right for anyone if violence breaks out anywhere. 

If violence breaks out, the onus is on the State government. Inquiry Commission reports of past 20-25 years say that if state governments don’t want it, violence doesn’t break out,” he said. “So, I believe that it is the responsibility of the State government and they failed to maintain law and order. We want that arrests to be made and action be taken with a proper inquiry,” he added.

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the men whom the Gujarat police have booked for allegedly attacking a Ram Navami procession in Khambhat town were innocent as they were performing namaz when the incident took place.

Speaking on the communal clashes in Himmatnagar and Khambhat towns that took place following altercations during Ram Navami processions on 10 March, Owaisi said the BJP-led state government failed to maintain law and order.

"A Gujarat AIMIM (All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen) team had visited Khambhat town after the violence. They learnt that those who were booked by the police were busy offering namaz when the incident took place. And it was the state government's responsibility to see



that the procession passes off peacefully," Owaisi told reporters here.

"If you go through the past inquiry reports on such incidents, it was written that violence will take place if the state wants it and violence will never take place if the state does not. Hence, it was the state government that failed to establish law and order," the Hyderabad MP said.

"I am of the opinion that action must be taken against the guilty. But there should not be a media trial, because it is shown that stones were hurled by the people of the minority community. Show it if there is concrete evidence. Otherwise, a media trial must not happen," he added.

On Wednesday, police in Anand district had said that communal violence in Khambhat town on Ram Navami was a "pre-planned conspiracy" hatched by a "sleeper module" to achieve the dominance of Muslim community in the town.

Police have already arrested 11 persons for their alleged involvement in hatching the conspiracy of the violence.

A senior citizen was killed and another injured in the violence which broke out after a Ram Navami procession came under attack on Sunday. On the same day, similar clashes erupted in Himmatnagar town of Sabarkantha district.