Haryana: Days after making a hate speech in favour of those arrested in connection with the lynching of a Muslim man during a mahapanchayat held in Haryana state’s Nuh district, Karni Sena chief Surajpal Singh Ammu has been appointed as BJP spokesperson for Haryana.
On June 11, 2021, BJP Haryana president Om Prakash shared a list of his new media team on Twitter, which includes the name of Surajpal Singh Ammu.
Ammu has been actively involved in hate speech against various individuals and communities particularly Muslims.
In 2017, he had come to the limelight for announcing a reward for beheading actor Deepika Padukone over the controversy surrounding the film ‘Padmaavat’.
Recently, he attended an event in support of men arrest on charges of killing Asif Khan, a gym trainer from Khalilpur village of Haryana’s Nuh district. Speaking at the event, he justified killing of Muslims.
“Can’t we even murder them?” Ammu asked in his speech.
Amu made the comments at a mahapanchayat held at Indri village on May 30 when coronavirus-induced restrictions were in place in the state. Local Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and members of Karni Sena and Bharat Mata Vahini attended the event along with 50,000 people. “We have taken cognizance of this viral video and we will take action,” district Superintendent of Police Narendra Bijarniya told NDTV.
Several villages held mahapanchayats to support the accused in the lynching case and demand their release. The Muslim Raksha Dal filed a complaint against these mahapanchayats. “None of the mahapanchayats held in the district had prior permission of the district administration,” said Bijarniya.
Reacting to the ‘hate speech’, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen President Asaduddin Owaisi said that the mahapanchayat amounted to radicalization. “50k gather in “Hindu Mahapanchayat” to support Asif’s killers,” he tweeted. “Speeches celebrate violence against Muslims & blame Asif for his death. This is radicalisation. Lowly thugs who would be rejected in a decent society enjoy social/political support here.”
Asif Hussain Khan, a resident of Khera Khalilpur village in Nuh district of Haryana, was lynched May 16. The incident happened when Khan, 27, had gone out to Sohna, about 15 km from his home, to buy medicines with his cousin and a friend. His car was surrounded by a mob and they were beaten. The gym trainer is survived by three children and a wife.
“On 16 May in the evening my son Asif along with my nephew Rashid (31) had gone to a medical store in Sohna to buy medicines,” his father Zakir Hussain told The Quint. “While they were on their way back they got in touch with Wasif (22), who they also gave a lift back home. This is when the accused, in three to four cars, repeatedly hit my son’s vehicle and eventually surrounded them from all sides.”
Zakir Hussain said the vehicles hit his son’s car from all sides at a railway crossing near Jakhopur. After that, Rashid and Asif Khan fell out of it. Wasif was dropped off before the incident happened.
“Rashid somehow managed to escape but Asif was kidnapped,” Zakir Hussain told Newslaundry. “He was taken to a place near Nangli village. They were carrying guns, country-made revolvers, and sticks. These goons beat Asif mercilessly. They stabbed one of his eyes and broke his bones. They stabbed him in the chest with an iron rod and shot him in the arm and leg.”
Rashid said the accused pulled Asif out of the car and killed him. “They said they will not leave any of us alive and also said they will make us chant Jai Sri Ram,” he added.
Six people were arrested the next day after Khan’s family filed a first information report and staged a protest while refusing to bury his body. The sections under which the six were arrested include section 148 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 365 (kidnapping and abducting a person) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 25 of the Arms Act.
Khan’s father registered the FIR against 14 men. The police had said they were looking for the other accused.
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