The Hyderabad police have booked a non-bailable case against Taslima Nasreen for hurting the sentiments of Muslims through her writings. However, they booked bailable cases against the three Majlis MLAs who attacked her in full media view here on Thursday.
Three legislators, arrested by the police for rioting, trespassing, criminal intimidation and causing hurt, were released on bail the same evening. The police commissioner defended himself by saying that the police was going soft on Majlis as it was an ally of the ruling Congress. Police booked the case against Taslima under IPC Section 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, language etc) on a complaint of Majlis MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi.
However, when questioned by the media about what action he was taking against Owaisi who publicly stated that Taslima should have been killed and that she would be killed if she stepped into Hyderabad again, Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said on Friday that he was taking legal opinion.
No case had been booked against Owaisi till Saturday evening. Meanwhile, the Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT), a rival of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, alleged that Majlis had foiled its (MBT’s) plan to kill Taslima outside the Press Club and painted Majlis as an insincere servant of the Muslim community.
Interestingly enough, several Urdu newspapers criticised Majlis for allowing Taslima to leave Hyderabad unhurt and took the Majlis MLAs to task for attacking her with nothing more lethal than bouquets of flowers.
Considered a critic of Majlis, an Urdu daily lampooned the legislators for their failure to inflict injuries to a woman when in fact they could have killed her as the police reached the scene 30 minutes after the attack. Meanwhile, several organisations of women, media and political parties held protest demonstrations in support of Taslima in Hyderabad on Saturday and burnt effigies of Majlis party for attacking her.
state writers criticise attack
Bangalore, DHNS: State Legislative Council Chairman B K Chandrashekhar and a group of writers have strongly criticised the attack on Bangladeshi Writer Taslima Nasreen by a group of activists and legislators belonging to the MIM paty at Hyderabad.
In a joint statement issued in Bangalore on Saturday, writers U R Ananth Murthy, Girish Karnad, Marula Siddappa, Ki Ram Nagaraj, Shudra Srinivas, Lakshminarayana Nagawar, Dr G Ramakrishna and Mr Chandrashekhar said the “sick mindset” of the attackers went on to justify their violence without any sense of remorse.
Stating that no religion in the world justified fundamentalism and intolerance towards other religions or for that matter towards women. “ While one can difer with Taslima’s views on women’s emanciapation, religion etc, one cannot be allowed to question her freedom to hold such opinion. It is shocking that the attack was led by MLAs who have sworn to the Indian constitution’s values of secularism, right to life to etc. Their attack indeed is a justification of Taslima’s views on fredom and democracy. Whether they can continue as legislators is as imortant an issue as the issue of unsparing punishment that should visit the perpertrators for this shameful act”, they stated.
