Asaduddin Owaisi slams BJP on killing of Atiq Ahmed's son

NIZAMABAD: After the encounter of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed's son Asad and his aide Ghulam by Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does encounters in the name of religion.

Addressing a public meeting in Nizamabad, Owaisi said, "The law and order is a state subject for sure, but tell us that Junaid and Nasir were not killed under the BJP government in Haryana? Whose government is there? Are houses not demolished using bulldozers? Will the BJP also shoot those who killed Junaid and Nasir? No, because you (BJP) do encounters in the name of religion. You want to encounter the Constitution. If you want to weaken the rule of law, what are the courts for? What are CRPC, IPC, and Judges for? If you decide that you will give justice with a bullet then shut the courts. What work will the judges do?"

The remarks come after gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed's son Asad and his aide Ghulam, both of whom were wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case, were killed in an encounter by Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) in Jhansi on Thursday. Each of them carried a reward of Rs 5 lakhs.

The police said that foreign-made weapons were recovered.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting on 'law and order' after the killing of Asad and Ghulam in an encounter.

Attacking the BJP-led Centre, Owaisi said, "Our finance minister went to America and said that Muslims are happy, they are so happy that their population is more than Pakistan. Whatever happens, they talk about the population. You could have compared it to US and UK. Why are you disrespecting us by comparing to Pakistan? Our population is decreasing and not increasing. There is government data. The total fertility rate is decreasing," He further alleged that the Centre has stopped scholarships to minorities.

"It is being told that fellowship has been given. They are lying. Muslims would get Maulana Azad Scholarship to study MPhill, but the government has stopped it. The funds provided through pre-metric scholarship have been restricted only to students of class 9 and 10," the AIMIM leader added.