Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and Delhi Waqf Board chairman Amanatullah Khan’s failure to fulfill his promise of giving Rs 5 Lakh to the families of those killed during the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019 has come under severe criticism.
Khan is seeking election for a third consecutive term from Delhi’s Okhla constituency in next week’s election.
Activist Farhan Ahmed, who had followed up on the compensation promise of Khan, said the MLA did not give Rs 5 Lakh to the families of the victims killed during the historic protest.
On 21 December, Khan took to Facebook to announce that the Delhi Waqf Board will give Rs 5 lakh to the families of all those who were killed when the police opened fire on the anti-CAA protesters.
“The families of those who were killed so far during the protest against CAA and NRC will be given Rs 5 lakh by the Delhi Waqf Board. Those who have personal details about them should share them with me at my number through the message,” reads the post Khan had put out making the promise.
He had also given a contact number at which these details should be shared.
“We are wholeheartedly part of their sorrow. Their sacrifice will not go in vain, in sha Allah,” he wrote.
Over two dozen Muslims were killed across the country when massive protests erupted against the CAA in the last month of 2019. Most of those of them were killed in Uttar Pradesh when the police opened fire at the protesters.
But Ahmed, who is from Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad, said none of the victims were given compensation even as he and another activist Ahsan Firozabadi had shared the details with Khan and followed the matter with him. They had shared the details of six deceased from his district Firozabad.
“After that, I made several calls to him. I also personally met with him in this regard. Both of us had followed up on the issue for several days. But he made excuses. I had earlier written about him two years ago. None of the victim families were given compensation,” said Ahmed in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
Ahmed accused Khan of being from the class of politicians who play politics on the dead bodies of Muslims.
“He is also among those politicians who secure power by making the ladder with the dead bodies of their own people. As much as these netas are complicit, people also follow the wrong path. People also like such politicians who are experts on fooling them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Khan is locked in a fierce fight with Congress’s Areeba Khan, AIMIM’s Shifa-ur Rahman and BJP’s Manish Chaudhry in the February 5 polls. AAP is being held accountable for the statement made by the party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal about Tablighi Jamaat during the COVID pandemic and JNU scholar Sharjeel Imam. On the other hand, Khan had heavily attacked AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi calling him an agent of the BJP.