Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari alleged that the community's youths were being targeted and killed in fake encounters.
LUCKNOW: A top Mulsim cleric on Sunday alleged that the community's youths were being targeted and killed in fake encounters after being branded as terrorists and demanded an inquiry by a non-government agency into such cases.
"Be it the alleged terrorist attack at the disputed site in Ayodhya or Sankatmochan Mandir in Varanasi, innocent Muslim youths were killed by police in fake encounters," Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, said here.
Bukhari demanded that all such deaths, especially in the Uttar Pradesh in the past three years during the tenure of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, should be probed by human rights activists as the state government had a "dubious distinction" in this regard.
When asked about those involved in the 2001 attack on Parliament, he said they were not nabbed by the police but killed in a gunbattle.
"If Muslim youths are involved in any case, why are they not nabbed alive so that an investigation could be carried out to probe their links?" Bukhari, who is also patron of political outfit United Demoractic Front, asked.
Alleging that the Congress and Samajwadi Party were "befooling Muslims", he said that while Yadav had not yet issued a notification to prosecute those responsible for the demolition of the Babri mosque, the Congress had come up with the Sachar Commission's report to woo the community.
Holding Yadav's government responsible for the deteriorating law and order in the state and the riots in Gorkahpur, Bukhari demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation should also probe the role of Public Works Department Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav in the Nithari killings.
On his party's plan for the Uttar Pradesh polls, he said, "Except for the Bharatiya Janata Party, we can talk with any party for an alliance in the coming assembly elections if they come to us. So far we have had talks with big leaders of two parties over phone but nothing concrete has come up till date.
"An alliance with any party would be on our conditions," he stressed.
He said that the UDF had identified strong candidates in 200 assembly seats of the state and after talks with its partners, the list would be finalised by February 28.
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