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Raza Academy, Muslim groups apologize for
violence
Sunday August 12, 2012 06:05:11 PM,
IANS
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Mumbai: Mumbai's
liberal Raza Academy Sunday offered unconditional apology to the
media and Mumbaikars for the widespread violence Saturday and
sought forgiveness.
"The people who indulged in violence cannot be Muslims. No Muslim
would dare to do anything like this during a Ramzan fast. Some
mischief mongers have taken advantage of the situation," Raza
Academy president Mohammed Saeed Noori told IANS.
He said Raza Academy and others - All India Sunni Jamaitul Ulema,
All India Sunni Ayema-e-Masajid, Jamaat-E- Razae Mustafa and
another 20 Sunni Muslim groups - felt "deeply ashamed" over
Saturday's violence after a protest march against attacks on
Muslims in Assam and Myanmar.
On behalf of everyone, he sought "forgiveness" of the police and
the media which have always supported different causes in the
past.
Founded in 1978 and generally regarded as a secular outfit, the
Raza Academy's reputation suffered a serious setback after
Saturday's violence left two people dead and another 100,
including 45 policemen, injured.
Ahmed Raza, one of the organisers, took pains to explain that they
had never anticipated such a large turnout for the procession.
They had thought around 2,000 would participate.
"We have ordered only 1,500 chairs for the public meeting at Azad
Maidan in the afternoon but the huge turnout from all over Mumbai
shocked us," Raza told IANS.
Awami Vikas Party chief Shamsher Pathan, which had supported the
procession, said the violence was "highly deplorable but nipped in
the bud".
"I helped police to prevent the crowds from rushing towards CST
and diverted them towards New Marine Lines, from the rear side of
Azad Maidan," Pathan, a former assistant commissioner of Mumbai
police, told IANS.
"I also appealed on the mike to the groups which were outside the
Azad Maidan not to attack the media and police. Simultaneously,
with police help, we diverted the 20,000 people inside the Azad
Maidan precincts to leave the venue from the backside, towards New
Marine Lines.
"If they had gone out of the front side, with angry police and
media in confrontation with the rioters, it could have been
another Jallianwala Bagh," Pathan told IANS.
Meanwhile, prominent peace activists including retired Admiral L.
Ramdas and film-maker Mahesh Bhatt Sunday condemned Saturday's
attack on the media as "mindless and shameless action by misguided
individuals".
"Using violence in a protest against violence is an insult to the
suffering victims in whose support the protest was purportedly
called," a statement said.
They urged the government and police to take exemplary action
against the guilty. The other signatories to the statement
included Jatin Desai, Lalita Ramdas, Mazher Hussain, Ram Punyani
and Kamla Bhasin.
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