Telangana: Mohammed Ali Shabbir condemns arrest of JAC activists

Hyderabad: Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir has strongly condemned the arrest of activists of various organisations and individuals who tried to visit the Secretariat to offer prayers at the two mosques, Masjid-e-Hashmi and Masjid-e-Dafatir Mohammedia, which were illegally demolished by the TRS government in July last year.

Shabbir Ali, in a media statement on Sunday, said that the Joint Action Committee of various Muslim organisations had given a call for 'Chalo Secretariat' to offer prayers at the same place where two mosques existed till they were razed by the State government on the intervening night of July 7 and 8, 2020. He said that the demand for resuming prayers at the sites of Secretariat mosques was fully justified as Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has illegally demolished them to facilitate construction of the new Secretariat complex. He said that CM has also demolished an old temple on the Secretariat premises.

Shabbir Ali said that the Chief Minister openly cheated the Muslim and Hindu communities on the promise of reconstructing the two mosques and a temple which his government had demolished illegally. Instead, he said that the State government awarded the construction work to a Gujarati company Shapoorji Pallonji. The construction of the first floor of the new Secretariat complex has already been completed. However, the Chief Minister did nothing to honour his promise of reconstructing the places of worship, he said.

The Congress leader demanded that the Chief Minister immediately order re-construction of both the mosques and a temple at the same place without further delay besides withdrawing the cases booked against those who tried to visit the Secretariat mosques on Sunday.