Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) on December 9 condemned the Varanasi blast, which killed a toddler and injured more than 20 people December 7, saying that terrorism was against the principles of Islam. “Muslims are against terrorism of any kind as it is against the principles of Islam. Darul Uloom at Deoband too had issued a fatwa against terrorism sometime back,” president of the Madhya Pradesh unit of the JUH Haji Haroon said. Varanasi blast investigators have named an Azamgarh resident as the prime suspect and raided villages in the district, prompting residents to allege that clueless sleuths were treating them as soft targets. No one was picked up during the raids on Azamgarh, which saw a spate of terror arrests in 2008 and where police went looking for Mohammad Shahnawaz. Sources claimed the hitherto little-known Shahnawaz had been involved in all these 2008 blasts but had fled by the time his name came up during investigations. A local Congress leader, Anil Singh, said: “The police should take care. Sanjarpur residents should not be harassed without evidence.” Shahnawaz had studied Unani at Siwan, Bihar, and got a job at Lucknow’s Mayo Hospital in 2005. “He was soft-spoken and withdrawn,” said a former colleague. “Every time there is a blast, my son Shahnawaz’s name crops up. I don’t know where he is and whether he is alive,” said father Shadab Ahmad, a former Samajwadi Party leader.
MUSLIMS CONDEMN VARANASI BLAST
Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) on December 9 condemned the Varanasi blast, which killed a toddler and injured more than 20 people December 7
