Hijab row: Al-Qaeda video proves ‘unseen hands’, says Karnataka HM Araga Jnanendra

Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said Wednesday that the police are “going after” a new video by global terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda’s chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in which he is seen backing Muslim women on the Hijab row.

The video has caused ripples as Al-Qaeda touched upon an issue that originated in Karnataka. In the video, al-Zawahiri praises Mandya-based Muskan Khan for shouting ‘Allah-hu-Akbar’ to counter Hindu boys who heckled her with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chants.

“This proves what we’ve been saying from the beginning, and what the High Court stated in its Hijab judgement that there are ‘unseen hands’ involved. It is not ordinary for children to act that way, the court had said. The Al-Qaeda video proves what we were saying,” Jnanendra said.

“The Home Department and the police are going after this to ascertain where that came from, where it is going and what the link here is,” Jnanendra said.

Also read | Hijab row: K'taka HC says unseen hands at work to engineer social unrest and disharmony

In the video, al-Zawahari recites a poem hailing the Mandya girl, calling her “noble” for “upholding the honour of our sisters” and “for offering practical proof of the superiority of the Islamic Ummah - in its creed, norms and Shariah...”

al-Zawahari also prayed for the girl to be rewarded for “exposing the reality of Hindu India and the deception of its pagan democracy”. He called upon Muslims to “shake off the delusions that confound us...we must stop being deceived by the mirage of the pagan Hindu democracy in India...”

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