HYDERABAD: Congress senior leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir announced that the Congress would organise a State-wide protest against the demolition of two mosques and a temple in the Secretariat complex.
Addressing a press conference after participating in the Hyderabad City Congress Committee Minorities Wing meeting at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday, he said that the demolition was illegal and hurt the sentiments of all communities. Shabbir Ali said that the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who believed that Telangana was his jagir (personal property), needed to be taught a lesson.
In the first phase of the protest, the party would ask its cadre and ordinary citizens to hoist black flags at their residences. They would also wear black masks and badges. People of all communities would be involved in the protest. The second phase of the agitation would be finalised soon.
Shabbir rejected the apology tendered by the CM over the demolition of places of worship. He described it as ‘fake and deceptive’. “The CM’s claim that he was ignorant about the demolition is a joke and a big lie,” said Shabbir.
He also rejected KCR’s offer to construct a new mosque and demanded that both the mosques, Masjid-e-Hashmi and Masjid-e-Mohammadi in the Secretariat complex, be re-constructed immediately. Later, Shabbir along with other Congress leaders, burnt KCR’s effigy outside Gandhi Bhavan.