"240 Million Proud Indian Muslims": Asaduddin Owaisi Exposes Pak In Saudi

NDTV

2 days ago

Exposing Pakistan's propaganda to project its conflict with India as a Hindu-Muslim binary, AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has said more than 240 million proud Muslims live in India and India has many reputed Islamic scholars.
"It is most unfortunate that Pakistan gives out a wrong message to the Arab world and the Muslim world that we are a Muslim country and India is not. There are 240 million proud Indian Muslims living in India. Our Islamic scholars are much better than any scholar in the world. They can speak the best of the Arabic language... This is Pakistan's false propaganda that India is hurting them because they are a Muslim country," he said, adding that if Pakistan stops backing terrorist groups, there will be stability in South Asia.
Mr Owaisi was speaking at an interaction in Saudi Arabia, which he is visiting as part of an Indian delegation for the government's mega global outreach in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.
Calling out Pakistani propaganda about the prowess of their military power, he said, "What happened on (May) 9th? Their nine airbases were targeted. If India had wanted, we could have completely damaged those airbases. But we wanted to show them a mirror and say, 'we are warning you, don't do it, don't force us to go on that path'... nine terrorist organisation headquarters were targeted. Another shocking thing was the person who led the namaz of the terrorists killed is a designated US terrorist."
Pakistan, he said, must be put back on the Financial Action Task Force's grey list to curb terror funding. "Pakistan must be brought back to the FATF grey list. That is how we will be able to control this terror financing of all these terrorist organisations. When this person (Asim Munir) was made a Field Marshal in Pakistan, a US-designated terrorist called Mohammad Ehsan was sitting right beside the Field Marshal. There are photographs of him shaking hands with this field marshal. There is clear evidence of Pakistan's involvement. These terror groups are prospering over there, they are being trained over there, and the whole task is to destabilise India to create more Hindu Muslim riots."
Mr Owaisi also said that the Manmohan Singh government had handed over evidence to Pakistan after the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.
"After 26/11, my government, headed by the then Prime Minister, late Dr Manmohan Singh, the Indian investigators went to Pakistan, gave them all the evidence, but you will be surprised to know that nothing moved forward. What made Pakistan move forward in this terrorist trial was when Pakistan was put on the FATF grey list. One meeting was held in Germany, and India wanted one Sajid Mir to be indicted, but Pakistan said he's dead... Pakistan came up to the Committee of FATF and said Sajid Mir is alive. Can you imagine the country which was saying he's dead, suddenly, he's alive? And then the Pakistani government said that our courts have convicted him for some 5 to 10 years, but the main culprits of the 26/11 are still scot-free. They were convicted of money laundering, not for terrorism," Mr Owaisi said.
"The Indian legal system followed all the due process of law, and Ajmal Kasab was sentenced to death, and he revealed many things. Our agencies were capable enough to record the audio conversations in which the terrorist group, sitting in Pakistan, were having with terrorists who were killing Indians in five-star hotels, and those conversations they were clearly told them not to lose heart, kill as many Indians as you can, and you will go to Jannat," he said.
The delegation Mr Owaisi is part of is led by BJP MP Baijayant Panda and includes BJP's Nishikant Dubey, Phangnon Konyak, Rekha Sharma, nominated MP Satnam Singh Sandhu and former diplomat Harsh Shringla. This delegation has travelled to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Algeria.