SP may face Muslim 'ire' in polls

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s attempt to placate Muslims appears to have suffered a serious setback as the community leaders slammed police chief Rizwan Ahmed for terming a Muslim youth arrested on charges of murdering a saffron activist as a ‘dreaded terrorist’.

The SP supremo had earlier called the displaced riot victims in the Muzaffarnagar relief camps ‘agents of Congress and BJP’. Muslim leaders associated with several social organisations and others, including artists, have decried the SP government for its failure to contain communal violence in several parts of the state during its tenure so far.

They also said Mulayam’s attempts to invoke the fear of communal riots to scare Muslims in UP and secure their votes would not succeed under any circumstances.

“If Mulayam thinks that his party will be able to secure Muslims’ vote by inculcating in them a sense of fear of communal riots then he is mistaken,” said Maseeuddin Sanjari, a member of Rihai Manch, an outfit fighting for the release of innocent Muslim youths languishing in UP jails on terror charges.

Sanjari also decried Ahmed for saying that as many as 27 districts were affected by terrorism. The Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav, must explain if he agrees with Ahmed’s statement,” he added.

Sanjari and other leaders had organised a seminar here on Tuesday and slammed the state government for recurring communal riots and also for its failure to give justice to the riot-affected people in Muzaffarnagar.

They launched a scathing attack on the government for not fulfilling its promise to ensure release of several innocent Muslim youths lodged in UP jails on terror charges.

The SP supremo has been going all out to woo the Muslim community saying that the Akhilesh government has done a lot for them after coming to power. “No other government has done so much,” he had said recently defending the government’s handling of the Muzaffarnagar riots.

“The state government has helped riot victims in a big way. But some people are playing politics over the communal riots, which is unfortunate,” Mulayam had said.