AMN
Several Muslim organisations have decided to hold a dharna on July 29, a day before the designated hanging of 1993 bomb blast convict Yakub Memon. The dharna will be held at Azad Maidan to seek the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report which was set up to find the reasons behind the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai. A press conference was held at the Marathi Patrakar Sangh and was attended by Jamiat Ulema-E-Hind, Jamaat-E-Islami, and Ulema Council, besides Azmi.“If innocents are killed, the guilty should not be spared. But over 2,000 innocent lives were also lost in the Mumbai riots. The perpetrators are still free. Justice can’t have two faces. It needs to be same for everyone and for that reason, we are seeking implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report,” said Maulana Mehmood Dariyabadi, general secretary of the All India Ulema Council. Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi claimed that the 1993 bomb blast was a “reaction to an action”. He also suggested that the 93 blast conspirators were akin to freedom fighters who had killed General Dyer to avenge the Jalianwala Bagh massacre. Local clerics also claimed that the non-implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report was a black spot on India’s secular democratic nature. “If the report is not implemented, then the future of this country is bleak,” said Abdul Hafeez Farroqui of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.Maulana Mustaqeem Azmi, president, Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind (Maharashtra), called the Babri Mosque demolition and the riots in its aftermath a “blot” on India’s history and demanded justice for the riot victims.