Owaisi alleges part of his speech being quoted out of context

The speech he made was in reference to the alleged provocative and communal statements made against minority communities during a three-day 'Dharma Sansad' in Haridwar.

Lucknow: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president, Asaduddin Owaisi, said on Friday that a clipped video footage of his speech was being circulated on social media to trigger controversy.

The speech he made was in reference to the alleged provocative and communal statements made against minority communities during a three-day ‘Dharma Sansad’ in Haridwar.

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“A clipped one-min video is being circulated from a 45 min speech I gave in Kanpur. I have shared my entire speech on Twitter now. The context to my speech is amply clear. I was talking about cops who torture 80-year-old men. I was talking about cops who watch silently as mobs thrash a rickshaw driver in front of his daughter. Also, cops who rained lathi blows on a man as held his child in his arms,” Owaisi said.

He further said: “I said we will remember these police atrocities. Is this objectionable? Why is it offensive to remember how police have treated Muslims in UP? We cannot forget the oppression that was meted out to Anas, Suleiman, Asif, Faisal, Altaf, Akhlaq, Qasim, and hundreds of others,” he asked in another series of tweets.

Owaisi clarified: “I did not incite violence or make threats. I talked about police atrocities.”

The event in Haridwar that Asaduddin Owaisi was referring to in his speech was attended by several Hindu religious leaders, who allegedly called upon the community to take up arms against Muslims as they gave a clarion call for a ‘Hindu nation’.

The three-day religious assembly was organised by Yati Narsinghanand, a controversial Hindutva figure known to make communal statements.

Yati Narsinghanand reportedly said that “arming the Hindu brigade with bigger and better weapons” would be the “solution” against the “threat of Muslims.”