Azam Khan levels rape allegation against army

Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former UP minister Azam Khan stirred a huge controversy after he virtually called the army jawans rapists.
 
Speaking at a function in his assembly constituency of Rampur, about 325 kilometres from here, on Tuesday night, Azam alleged that women terrorists had beaten the army jawans in different parts of the country and chopped off their private parts.
 
''Army jawans have been attacked by women terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Assam and other places....the women chopped off the private parts of the jawans,....they did not touch their hands or heads but chopped off the part against which they had complaint,'' he said virtually inferring that the jawans were punished for raping the women.
 
''The country should be ashamed of such incidents,'' he added. 
 
He said that the country had deviated from the path of peace and adopted violence under prime minister Narendra Modi and referred to the lynching of a Muslim boy in a moving train in Haryana recently.
 
Azam's remarks drew stinging criticism from the BJP, which said that the SP leader needed to be treated at a mental asylum.
 
Earlier also Azam had made controversial remarks on issues of rape and molestation. He had once asked the women not to venture out after dark to avoid being raped or molested.