Those who call Indian Muslims “Pakistanis” should be jailed for at least three years, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has demanded.
Addressing the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Owaisi asked the Union government if it could bring in a law to punish people who make such statements.
“Can you bring in a law to punish those who call Muslims Pakistani? Let them face a three-year jail term,” he said adding that he was sure that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government will never bring such a law.
The AIMIM chief further said that Indian Muslims had rejected Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory, he added.
Owaisi was speaking in the lower house of Parliament on the motion of thanks to President Ram Nath Kovind’s address.
The AIMIM chief’s comment comes days after the district magistrate (DM) of Bareilly questioned the “trend” to enter Muslim localities by force and raise anti-Pakistan slogans in the wake of Kasganj communal violence.
Meanwhile, BJP MP Vinay Katiyar alleged that there were many Pakistani sympathisers in Kasganj who were responsible for the violence which resulted in the death of a youth, Chandan Gupta.
(With agency inputs)