JAMAAT PRESS
AMN / New Delhi

Welcoming the government ordinance awarding death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years, Jamaat-e-Islami has demanded death penalty for every rapist irrespective of victim age.

Talking to media persons Secretary General of JIH, Muhammad Salim Engineer said: “Jamaat supports the Ordinance as it allows the setting up of new fast-track courts and installation of special forensic kits in all police stations and hospitals to expedite investigation in rape cases. Jamaat feels that capital punishment is necessary to deliver justice to the victim and also act as a deterrent for such heinous crimes. It has been demanding death penalty for every rapist irrespective of the age of the victim”.

Jamaat also demanded a complete ban on alcohol and pornographic videos, as they too aid and abet the growing incidents of crime against women.”

Responding to a question on the ongoing trouble in AMU, the JIH Secretary General said: “it is a ploy by fascist elements to polarize society on communal lines. They hope to divert people’s attention from the real issues and hide the failure of the government on all fronts”.

On the question of which party will Jamaat support in the upcoming Karnataka assembly polls Salim Engineer said: ”Jamaat is part of the Muslim Muttehda Mahaz which is doing a constituency wise survey and would come out with a list of candidates that it will support. The policy is to support secular candidates with clean image and who is capable of defeating the communal party”.

On the issue of some anti-social elements not allowing Friday namaz in public places in Gurgaon, the JIH Secretary General said: ”this must be tackled at the local level with the help of the police and administration. It is another brazen attempt to polarize society and vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the country. Those who remained calm in the face of such provocation should be lauded and police must crackdown on these anti-social elements’

Salim Engineer condemned the attack on civilians in Syria, Palestine and Afghanistan.  He said, “there are very disturbing reports from Syria about the use of chemical weapons on civilian targets by the Assad regime. Jamaat expresses its outrage and condemns it severely and we also condemn the recent aerial attack on Syria by US, France and other nations. It is a clear violation of international norms to respect the sovereignty of any country. We urge the UN to intervene and stop these attacks and mass killings of civilians in Syria by both the foreign forces and the Assad regime.”

On recent Palestinians peaceful demonstrations against Israel, he said:  the Israeli armed forces have martyred many Gazans while cracking down on these demonstrations which have succeeded in drawing global attention to the Palestinian cause. Jamaat supports the Palestinian freedom struggle, condemns the Israeli aggression on the peaceful demonstrators and appeals to the international community and especially the influential Arab countries to bring an end to the illegitimate Israeli occupation and a just solution to the Palestinian problem.”