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SP leader resigns citing Akhilesh's silence over ‘atrocities against Muslims’
Last week, Samajwadi Party MLA Shazil Islam Ansari’s petrol pump was razed days after the legislator was booked over a “provocative remark” against UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
A Samajwadi Party leader tendered his resignation on Thursday citing “no action” by party leader Akhilesh Yadav and others against “rising incidents of atrocities meted out to Muslims” in Uttar Pradesh. Mohammad Kasim Raeen, an SP leader from Sultanpur, said that Akhilesh Yadav and the office bearers of the party have not raised their voice against several actions by the UP government, including the imprisonment of Azam Khan and his family and demolishing SP MLA Shazil Islam Ansari’s petrol pump.
He added that the “indifference of the Samajwadi Party on all these issues shows that the party is not interested in raising its voice against the atrocities on the Muslim community.”
Raeen’s resignation comes amid Yadav’s continued silence over several burning issues involving the Muslim community.
Last week, Ansari’s petrol pump was razed days after the legislator was booked over a “provocative remark” against UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The authorities alleged that the petrol pump was built illegally at Parsakheda on the Bareilly-Delhi National Highway.
Bareilly Development Authority (BDA) vice-chairman Jogendra Singh said Ansari's petrol pump was built without the required clearance.
"The notice in this regard has already been issued but no reply was received," he said.
Watch: Samajwadi Party MLA's petrol pump bulldozed after 'threats' to Yogi
Earlier, an Azam Khan's aide had expressed disappointment with Akhilesh Yadav for ignoring his colleague over the years and not visiting him in jail.
"Akhilesh Yadav met Azam Khan only once in the jail and the party made no attempt for his release in the past two and a half years," Khan's media in-charge Fasahat Ali Khan Sanu said at a party program in Rampur on Sunday.
"Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath's comment was right that Akhilesh Yadav doesn't want Azam Khan to be out (of jail). We made you (Akhilesh Yadav) and Mulayam Singh Yadav UP CM but you didn't make Azam Khan as leader of Opposition," he added.
