New Delhi: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday warned Pakistan for commenting on the Karnataka hijab row.
While addressing a poll rally in Uttar Pradesh, Owaisi asked Pakistan to focus on its own issues instead of interfering in India’s internal matter. He reminded the neighbouring country that Malala was forced to flee to a foreign country for pursuing education.
Lashing Pakistan for meddling in the Karnataka hijab row, he said, “We want people of Pakistan to focus on their own problems and not to look towards India”.
Owaisi’s remarks came after some Pakistani leaders and activists condemned the ongoing Karnataka hijab row.
Pakistan FM, Malala on Karnataka hijab row
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi commented on the hijab row. “Depriving Muslim girls of an education is a grave violation of fundamental human rights. To deny anyone this fundamental right & terrorise them for wearing a hijab is absolutely oppressive. World must realise this is part of the Indian state plan of ghettoisation of Muslims”, he said in a tweet.
Earlier, Nobel laureate and education rights activist Malala Yousafzai expressed views about the hijab controversy. “College is forcing us to choose between studies and the hijab. Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists – for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women,” Malala said in a tweet.
The hijab row began in January this year at a government college in Karnataka’s Udupi when six girls wearing headscarves were asked to leave campus. On Tuesday, protests took a violent turn. The matter has spread to other parts of the state as well.
Asaduddin Owaisi speaks to hijab-clad girl
Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday spoke to the hijab-clad girl student who was heckled by boys wearing saffron scarves in Karnataka.
“Spoke to Muskan and her family on call. Prayed for her to remain steadfast in her commitment to education while also exercising her freedom of religion and choice. I conveyed that her act of fearlessness has become a source of courage for us all,” Owaisi said in a tweet.
Recently, a video went viral depicting Muskan, the female Muslim student who was heckled on arrival at her college in Karnataka on wearing a hijab by saffron-clad students.
