HYV activists arrested

POLICE ARRESTED about four dozen Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) activists on Sunday when they tried to show black flags to Urban Development Minister Mohd Azam Khan for his alleged controversial statement favouring a separate Muslim state. The activists were released in the evening.

Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha burnt Khan’s effigy at the court crossing. Apprehending disturbance by the saffron outfits, the district police made elaborate security arrangements at the venue of the conference.

About four dozen Hindu Vahini activists reached the Jubilee Crossing, where the police arrested them, along with Vahini State president Sunil Singh, Ranvijay Singh, Bhupinder Singh and others.

Sunil said Azam Khan’s statement was bid to divide the the state on the basis of religion. He added that the minister was following in the footsteps of the Muslim League, which had demanded a separate nation. They demanded dismissal of Azam Khan from the State Cabinet.

Members of the World Hindu Federation staged dharna at Shastri crossing to express their anger over the alleged clean chit to the Students’ Islamic Movement. District unit president of federation Bhikhari Prajapati blamed madrasas on the Indo-Nepal border for producing a new generation of separatists. Members of the federation Rana Pratap Singh, Banshidhar Jaiswal, Ashok Kumar Bharti and Ram Chandra Pandey demanded that the State Government impose a ban on the SIMI.