Owaisi slams BJP for protecting mob lynching accused

The Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were on Tuesday slammed by AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi for allowing killers of Tabrez Ansari, the victim of a mob attack, escape the punishment they deserve.

Owaisi said it was not just enough for Modi to say he was pained at such incidents. “If he is pained, then why does he not bring in a law against mob lynchings?” he said.

Owaisi was reacting to reports of the Jharkhand police charging the 12 men accused of beating Ansari in June this year, with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Owaisi told reporters that he has always maintained that mob lynching incidents would not end in the country until the Centre and BJP ruled States want to send a strong message that such acts will not be tolerated.

“All that the BJP wants to do is to protect the accused in such cases. Why is it that in BJP ruled States such incidents happen and we see miscarriage of justice?” the AIMIM president



said.

Refusing to be drawn into whether his party will make the Ansari case and its handling an election issue in Jharkhand, Owaisi said this was not something for polls but a question of humanity.

“A man was killed, his wife of two months suffered a miscarriage. Elections come and go. But right to life is a fundamental right and if a Government cannot protect it, then it is a reflection on that Government,” he said. Those who should have been charged with murder, have been charged with homicide. The Government was helping the accused and not the victim’s family, he said.

Owaisi said the National Security Advisor and the Central Government were giving Pakistan unnecessary credit by linking that country’s actions to lifting of restrictions in Jammu & Kashmir. I condemn the NSA statement that curbs on communication and movement would be lifted only if Pakistan stops interfering in Jammu & Kashmir.