A protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) here on Thursday evening, with All India Majlis-e- Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi as chief guest, ended up embarrassing the organisers after a student-activist, who was allowed to talk on stage, suddenly raised pro-Pakistan slogans.
The college student, identified as Amulya Leona , has been charged with sedition, provoking enmity between groups, and intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Ramesh Bannoth.
It was just after Mr. Owaisi’s arrival on the stage at Freedom Park here that the 19-year-old student was asked to speak. After preliminary remarks, she suddenly shouted “Pakistan zindabad” thrice, leaving the crowd and organisers stunned.
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Whisked away
Some of the organisers rushed to her and tried to take the mike away and stop her from speaking further. Mr. Owaisi too joined in. Holding on to the mike, the girl then went on to shout “Hindustan zindabad” twice, before a posse of police personnel and organisers whisked her away from the stage.
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Soon after the student was taken away, a visibly upset Mr. Owaisi told the crowd: “Whatever has been spoken [by the girl] is wrong. Neither my party nor I has any connection with it. As long as we are alive, we will be raising Bharat zindabad slogans. Never had we any relationship with Pakistan nor will we have anything in future,” he announced.
He further stated: “This is condemnable. The organisers should not have invited such people to this place. If I had known that these kind of things would be said here, I would not have come here.”
It is unfortunate that the organisers have invited such people and a wrong message is going out, he said.
“Now, BJP has got an opportunity and will blame me,” he added.
Every speaker, who took the podium after the incident, condemned the pro-Pakistan slogans raised by Amulya.
Janata Dal (S) councillor representing Gurappanapalya, Imran Pasha, one of the organisers of the protest under “Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isayi Federation”, claimed that they had not invited the “activist” and were not aware that she would be speaking from the stage. Mr. Pasha said that such statements were “a deliberate attempt to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims”.
Meanwhile, the BJP State unit tweeted, “Truth is that protests against CAA are a joint venture between Pakistan and anti-National forces led by INC India.” In a press release, BJP State unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel termed this as an “anti-national act” and urged the police to take action.