Union Law and Justice Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday condemned the Muzaffarnagar riots as 'a shameful act', and urged everyone to sympathize with the victims rather than raising controversial issues at such a sensitive time.
"I don't think raising controversial issues at this time is right. The incident is shameful and condemnable. We should spread this message today that the whole country expresses grief towards all the victims of this incident. We should understand their sorrows. We should not do anything controversial today as it may worsen the situation further," he said.
Meanwhile, Mufti Mukarram Ahmed, an Indian Muslim religious and literary scholar, alleged that Samajwadi Party used the Muslims to fulfill its political interests.
"The main idea of Mulayam Singh Yadav and his government was to gain votes from the Muslim community and even their election manifesto mentioning assurances was all party politics and the main goal was to win party elections," he said.
"From the very first day, it was understood that they do not have any personal attachment towards the Muslim community. It was purely done to save their government," he added.
Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh yesterday defended the Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh Government, and said that it took stringent measures in the Muzaffarnagar riots and the situation was brought under control within two days.
"The government did everything to control the violence. The situation was under control within two days. We couldn't have opened fire as innocents could have died. What happened in Muzaffarnagar was very unfortunate. The security forces dealt with the problem very effectively," he said.
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"It is because of the sternness shown by the government that the situation remained calm," he added.
He further said that communal elements are trying to take advantage of the violence in Muzaffarnagar and its adjoining areas.
The situation in violence-hit Muzaffarnagar is limping back to normalcy amid heavy deployment of the army and paramilitary forces.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Arun Kumar, who has been closely monitoring the situation, today said that peace prevailed in the district when the curfew was relaxed.
"First, we gave a two hour relaxation and then increased it by half-an-hour. It was peaceful and we faced no problems in closing it. After that, we did not get any information of an untoward incident from anywhere," said Kumar.
Curfew was on Tuesday relaxed for two hours in three areas of trouble-hit Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh even as the death toll in the clashes in the district and adjoining towns climbed to 40.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Government has constituted a one-member judicial commission to probe Muzaffarnagar violence.
The commission, which would mainly look into administrative lapses, if any, in controlling the violence, would submit its report to the government within two months.
Violence broke out in the Kawal area of Muzaffarnagar on Saturday when members of a community returning from a panchayat meeting in Naglabadhod, three kilometres from Kawal, clashed with members of another community.
