SP, BJP behind Barabanki communal flare up: Muslim Forum

Lucknow, Oct 6 (UNI) All-India Muslim Forum today charged the ruling Samajwadi Party and the principal Opposition BJP with instigating the October 2 communal flare-up in Barabanki to polarise Muslim votes ahead of assembly elections.

AIMF president Nihaluddin said here the SP and BJP worked together to create communal disturbances in Barabanki during Durga idol immersion to polarise Muslim votes. ''The Muslims are uniting under various political organisations and emerging as an independent political force,'' he noted, adding that two parties were wary of their strength and wanted to polarise votes on communal lines as a run up to 2007 assembly polls.

He claimed the trouble started when some ''Hindu zealots'' tried to forcibly immerge goddess Durga's idol in a Muslim dominated area.

''When tension started building up, police came and took the idol for immersion in Kalyani river. But rumours were spread that Muslims had obstructed immersion of the idol,'' he said.

''As a result, two mobs of hardline Hundutva forces'' started attacking the minority community. While one mob torched Muslim run shops in the afternoon, the other group targetted buses and started beating up Muslims,'' he alleged.

''A local SP leader prevented police from reaching the trouble spots...police reached six hrs after the incident and by that time at least one person was killed,'' he alleged.

Demanding a judicial probe by a retired High Court judge, he also asked for a Rs 10 lakh compensation for the kin of the dead and Rs one lakh for those injured.

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