Vinay Katiyar , member of Parliament belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), issued a controversial statement saying “Muslims should not even be living in this country, they should go to Pakistan or Bangladesh”.
The population of Muslims in India is roughly estimated at around 179 million.
Katiyar, who founded the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) youth wing, Bajrang Dal, further said a bill should be introduced in Parliament that frames a punishment for those “who do not respect Vande Mataram, (and) those who insult the national flag, or hoist the Pakistani flag.” [image: Vinay Katiyar]
Katiyar’s comment was reportedly in response to politician Asaduddin Owaisi belonging to All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen who demanded the framing of a law to punish anyone who calls an Indian Muslim a “Pakistani”.
Katiyar further claimed that “Muslims partitioned the country” on religious lines.
“Muslims shouldn’t even be living in this country, they’re the ones who partitioned this country based on their population, so why do they need to live here? They were given separate territory, they should go to Pakistan or Bangladesh, what business do they have here,” said Katiyar.
Yesterday, the AIMIM’s Owaisi, who was speaking in the Lok Sabha , advocated a three-year jail term for anyone found guilty of calling an Indian Muslim a ‘Pakistani’.
“Even after 70 years I am called a Pakistani. Why? We rejected Jinnah’s invitation. Now I can’t even hoist the tricolour at free will. Why can’t there be a law just like those that apply to SC/STs?” asked Owaisi.
Owasi’s comments came days after Bareilly’s district magistrate questioned the “trend” of “entering Muslim localities by force, raising anti-Pakistan slogans and then creating a ruckus”.
Bareilly district magistrate Vikram Singh was recently under severe criticism over a Facebook post in which he said: “A very strange trend has started of late. Take out processions by force through Muslim dominated localities and raise anti-Pakistan slogans. Why? Are these people Pakistani? The same thing had happened in Khailam village of Bareilly. Then stones were pelted, FIRs lodged,”.
Later he deleted the post after outburst of anger from ruling quarters.
Source: Times of Islamabad
Ghneimat family sued for $28,000 to fix vehicle which ran over and killed 21-year-old Abdullah. in Palestine.
Iyad Ghneimat’s remembers the day her oldest son, Abdullah, was shot, run over, and left to die under an Israeli military vehicle near his home in Kafr Malik, northwest of Ramallah.
Nearly three years later, in January of this year, the Ghneimat family was sent a bill for $28,000 for damage caused to the vehicle.
Sitting in a living room decorated with dozens of pictures of Abdullah and posters commemorating him as a martyr, Iyad recounts the events of that June 2015 morning as if it were yesterday.
It was about 4am and Abdullah, 21, was returning from work at a nearby chicken farm, as Israeli forces were conducting what they described at the time as “military activities”.
“The neighbours came to tell us that an Israeli vehicle had flipped over and a young man was stuck underneath, but we didn’t know who it was,” Iyad told Middle East Eye as he held his youngest son, Abdullah’s namesake, who was born a year and a half after his brother was killed.
Iyad, several of his family members and neighbours rushed to the scene, still not knowing who was trapped. “We tried for more than three hours to free him, but every time we got close the soldiers would fire live bullets into the air and sound bombs and tear gas at anyone who approached.
“We pleaded with the soldiers, telling them that if it was one of theirs trapped under the vehicle, they would have sent a helicopter and ambulances and got them out in minutes.”
It was only after the muezzin of the village mosque called out over the loudspeaker that the martyr was Abdullah Ghneimat that Israeli forces allowed Iyad’s uncle to use his bulldozer to lift the vehicle, allowing residents to free the body.
It was then that Iyad saw his eldest son’s body for himself – his head smashed and legs mutilated, and blood everywhere.
“The army and Israeli media first said that it was an ‘accident’,” Iyad said, “but later they claimed that Abdullah threw a petrol bomb at them, leading them to shoot him and lose control of the jeep.”
Iyad and his wife, Zenaat, insisted the petrol bomb was hurled from a rooftop where young men had been throwing stones at soldiers to push them out of the village that night – not from street level, where Abdullah was.
“Whether it was an accident or not, they did not just run Abdullah over, but they watched as we saw him bleed for hours, and left him to die,” Zeenat said, clutching onto a pendant with a picture of Abdullah’s face printed in black and white.
“Now, they have the audacity to tell us we should pay for the damaged vehicle? For them, a vehicle is more important than the life of a Palestinian.
“I told our lawyer, she can tell the Israelis that we will pay for their vehicle if they bring me my son back.”
Source: Middle East Eye
