New Delhi, 22 January 2013:Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan, President of All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM), the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organizations, said here today in a press statement that the revival of an old case and arrest of the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimin leader and Member of Parliament Mr Asaduddin Owaisi is a clear case of vendetta politics resorted to by the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh only because the MIM opted out of the ruling coalition in the state two months ago. Action should be taken against those police and judicial officials who failed their duty in a case pending since 2005 which, prima facie, seems frivolous and driven by the anti-Muslim  bias which has become the hallmark of the Andhra Police which could not restrain itself from firing even at the protesters who came out against the Makkah Masjid blast in May 2007 and later arbitrarily arrested dozens of blameless Muslim youths who were later declared totally innocent by courts. This is the same police force which failed to take any action against VHP leader Togadia despite a number of FIRs filed against him. He freely spit venom in Hyderabad last month and went away under airport-to-airport security provided by this very force.

AIMMM demands that the A.P. government must stop this petty vendetta politics, release Mr Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother Mr Akbaruddin Owaisi, MLA, on bail and let the courts judge if they are really guilty. As of now, it is the administration which is drastically misusing its powers to silence political dissent.

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