Mumbai: A group of citizens in their fact finding report on Satara violence stated that the Muslim community was purposefully targeted to create disturbance. They called for punishment of the culprits, judicial inquiry into the incident, blamed police for not taking preventive measures, sought slapping of terror laws on culprits and compensation be paid to victims and their families. The press conference was held on Friday at the Mumbai Press Club.
Organised by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) and Federation of Maharashtra Muslims (FMM), it was attended by Teesta Setalvad of Citizens for Justice and Peace, Yusuf Muchhala, senior advocate, Abu Asim Azmi, Samajwadi Party leader, Aslam Ghazi from APCR, Dolphy D'Souza among others.
Muchhala talking at the press conference | FPJ
Pattern
“There is a pattern in which it is happening. It happened in Akola, Kolhapur and now Satara. Satara has never seen any kind of communal violence and has been peaceful. Some people went around to create disturbance,” said Aslam Ghazi.
“The violence there could have been stopped had police taken preventive action. The violence left a person dead who has a widow from a five month old marriage. They say there are weapons in the mosque. Where are the weapons? In fact those creating trouble first threw stones and came with weapons,” added Ghazi.
Setalvad said, “We want compensation for Nurul Hasan. The local community wanted to take out a peaceful yatra but they were not allowed to do so. How can a minister tell locals not to come out with a peace yatra,” questioned Setalvad.
"Purposefully creating problems wherever BJP is in state"
“They are purposefully creating problems wherever BJP is in state. They enter mosques and kill people. Terror laws should be slapped on these people who create trouble,” said Azmi.
Muchhala said that peace should be there and issues should be dealt with in a constitutional way. “Those committing atrocity continued to do so and also expected people to not raise voice against it,” said Muchhala. D'Souza said that it was time people of all communities came out on the roads against the spread of hatred and violence.
