AIMIM chief and Hyderabad Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday asked Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav when the eight-year-old minor boy Rizwan Qureshi, who was arrested along with his seventy-year-old grandfather would be released from jail.
The minor boy was arrested on September 10 after communal violence erupted in Bihar’s Siwan district.
“We want neither secularism nor power. We want respect. Rizwan, 8, has been in jail for the last 4 days. How can you ignore his mother’s helplessness? @yadavtejashwi @NitishKumar Why is Rizwan being treated like this? When will our Rizwan be released?,” he asked on Twitter.
Communal violence in Bihar’s Siwan district:
Communal violence erupted on Thursday, September 10, during a Mahavir Akhara procession in Bihar’s Siwan district, prompting the arrest of a 70-year-old man and an eight-year-old Muslim minor boy along with many others.
The march, which passed near a mosque, was made up of saffron-clad males who were reportedly armed with clubs and yelled communal sentiments. This allegedly resulted in stone pelting in Barharia’s Purani Bazar neighbourhood.
According to a report by Maktoob media, Mohammad Yasin, 70, and his eight-year-old grandson Rizwan Qureshi were both taken into custody by the police, despite the family’s insistence that they are both innocent. The report further said Yasin recently underwent two surgeries and suffered from other health issues.
According to their family, they were booked for incitement of violence and kept in custody.
Rizwan’s brother Azhar told Maktoob Media, “My younger brother was kept in a private ward and my family was initially not allowed to meet him. When my mother saw him, he was handcuffed and scared. He was so terrified that he was unable to recognise his own mother. The child was just crying to go back home.”
The report further stated that they were produced in court allegedly with a rope tied around their waist. Rizwan’s family has presented the child’s birth certificate but the police officials have been allegedly demanding money for his release.
According to several media reports, the Siwan Police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against 35 persons in connection with the event, including 25 Muslims and 10 Hindus, and have detained 20 people.
Owaisi had strongly criticised Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday and asked whether the arrested boy would have been treated in the same manner as an ‘animal’ if he belonged to the chief minister’s caste.
“Had the boy been from the same caste of @CMBiharNK or Health Ministers caste he wouldn’t have been treated like a animal. Remember the name is RIZWAN, an 8 years Old,” he tweeted on Saturday night.
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