PATNA: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi launched a scathing attack on Pakistan for orchestrating the terror attack on tourists at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22. He said that no outsider has the right to come to India and take the lives of innocent people.
Addressing a public rally at Bahadurganj in Bihar’s Kishanganj district, Owaisi expressed his displeasure over the incident and promised full support to the Central government in dealing with terrorism. “The time has come for a powerful response,” Owaisi said, adding that terrorists asking tourists about their religion before killing them was highly condemnable.
“We have seen terror groups from Pakistan commit such heinous crimes before. I am standing firmly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue. Whatever action is decided against the terrorists, we are with you. We want justice for the victims and their families, who are shell-shocked by the incident,” he told the gathering.
Referring to Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), the Hyderabad MP said, “The ISI chief who is speaking nonsense—let me remind him that we chose to stay in India in 1947. We rejected Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s message. India was, is, and will always remain our motherland,” he told the crowd, which had gathered from far-flung areas to listen to their leader.
The AIMIM chief also criticised Pakistan’s internal divisions and failures. “In Pakistan, people are still divided—Muhajir, Pathan, Baloch—and poverty is so severe that your own people feel uneasy. You have conflicts with Iran and Afghanistan. Pakistan is a failed state, and that is why it tries to create disturbances in India. The time has come to dismantle these terrorist groups,” he asserted.
He lauded the Central government for taking tough diplomatic and economic stances against Pakistan. “I praise the Indian government for suspending all trade and air and water routes used by Pakistan. Whatever missiles Pakistan can test—India is much stronger and more capable,” he added.
Talking about the upcoming Bihar assembly elections due later this year, Owaisi said that AIMIM would win 24 assembly seats. Taking a dig at RJD leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, he said that the RJD would beg before AIMIM leaders, including Akhtarul Iman and Tausif Alam, a former MLA.
He appealed to people to strengthen the base of AIMIM by extending their support in the upcoming assembly elections scheduled to be held in October-November this year. “You must see which party is fighting a war for the protection of mosques and their sanctity,” he said, adding that people should make the right decision at the right moment.
Owaisi also slammed both the BJP-led Central government and the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar over the Waqf (Amendment) Act. He raised a strong objection to the allegation that AIMIM was a ‘B’ team of the BJP. He reiterated his resolve to fight against the Waqf (Amendment) Act until it is withdrawn.