PRESS RELEASE

New Delhi, October 21 Muslim organizations have condemned the assertion of an orator, Dr. Taslim Rahmani Muslim Political Council, Delhi Chief at a conference in Azamgarh equating the first Home Minister Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel with Gandhiji’s assassin Nathu Godse.

In a joint statement, Dr. Mohd. Manzoor Alam, General Secretary, All India Milli Council; Mujtaba Farooq, Secretary, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind; Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, President, All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (Zafar); Maulana Amiduzzaman Kairanvi, General Secretary, All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (Salim); and Navaid Hamid, Secretary, Movement for Empowerment of Muslim Indians here today said it was wrong and deplorable to term Sardar Patel a “Terrorist”.

The Muslim leaders were reacting over a news item, “Clerics meet in Azamgarh, put MPs on notice” appearing in Hindustan Times (Page-7) on Tuesday, the October 21, 2008. The Muslim leaders said first terrorist act in post-independence India was the assassination of Gandhiji by Nathu Ram Godse. That’s why all the justice-loving and peace-loving people considered him a terrorist, they added. The Muslim leaders also appealed to the thinking persons and activities to refrain from irresponsible statement.