Clarion India
NEW DELHI – The Bihar government led by Nitish Kumar and Tejasvi Yadav has drawn flak for arresting an 8-year-old Muslim child and 70-year-old Muslim man over communal clashes erupted in Siwan.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi condemned the arrest of eight-year-old Rizwan and 70-year-old Yasin in Bihar’s Siwan following communal violence during a Mahavir Akhara procession.
The procession, which passed near a mosque, was made up of saffron-clad males who were reportedly armed with clubs and yelled communal slogans. This allegedly resulted in stone pelting in Barharia’s Purani Bazar neighbourhood.
Yasin and his eight-year-old grandson Rizwan were booked for incitement of violence and kept in custody. As of the moment, neither of the two individuals has been released.
Invoking the house arrest of LK Advani in 1990 (which prevented Advani from heading to Ayodhya during the Babri Masjid row on the orders of then Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav), Owaisi satirically asked how many Muslim lives had to be sacrificed to repay this “favour.”
He further said that Lalu Prasad Yadav went on to become a Union minister but children and elders of the Muslim community continue to suffer. He tagged Bihar’s Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav in his tweet.
Bihar police According to several media reports, the Siwan Police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against 35 persons in connection with the event, including 25 Muslims and 10 Hindus, and have detained 20 people.
The police have booked an FIR under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 188 (disobedience to order), 296 (disturbing religious assembly), 337 (causing hurt), 338 (causing grievous hurt), 435 (mischief with intent to damage), 427 (mischief with substance), 505 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and 307 ( (party to criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Rizwan’s brother Azhar told Maktoob Media, “My younger brother was kept in a private ward and my family was initially not allowed to meet him. When my mother saw him, he was handcuffed and scared. He was so terrified that he was unable to recognise his own mother. The child was just crying to go back home.”
The report further said that they were produced in court allegedly with a rope tied around their waist. Rizwan’s family has presented the child’s birth certificate but the police officials have been allegedly demanding money for his release.
