Hyderabad member of Lok Sabha and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi has demanded a high level inquiry into the communal riots in Hyderabad over the last five days, and charged the police with behaving in a partial and biased manner.
"We have strong reservations about the impact of Indo-US nuclear deal on foreign policy aspects but for us the top priority is to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party and L K Advani from coming to power. That is the why the MIM has decided to support the UPA government," Asad Owaisi told a press conference in Hyderabad.
With the election results on a knife's edge earlier in the day, many thought AIMIM could play a key role in the formation of the next government in case there was a hung assembly, having captured a sizeable number of seats in the state's Seemanchal region, which was being seen as a stronghold of the grand opposition alliance.
Ehsan Jaffry was killed by a mob in the Gulbarg Society massacre on February 28, 2002, following the Godhra incident.
The AIMIM chief questioned whether the public will have any faith in the Constitution and law and order of the country after this incident.
"I don't want Z category security. I want to be an A-category citizen, at par with you all. Why was UAPA not invoked against those who fired at me? ...I want to live, to speak. My life will be safe when the poor are safe. I will not get scared of those who shot at my car," he said in Parliament.
In the aftermath of the incident, the UP police also conducted a flag march in Lucknow's Husainabad.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi will join hands with the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen to fight the corporation elections together. Vicky Nanjappa reports
The murder of Atiq and his brother and the police encounter with his son have raised many questions about the propriety of how crime is tackled by the Yogi government. But Yogi knows he has the support of the people who are fed up with crime holding the state to ransom for decades, asserts Ramesh Menon.
In a freewheeling interview to rediff.com's Mohammed Siddique, Owaisi explains what went wrong between the Congress and the MIM and lays out his future plans.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that India's High Commission in New Zealand is in touch with local authorities for more information.
A constipated, constricting UCC would be worse than the current scenario of competing personal laws, says Devangshu Datta.