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Ahmedabad: Gujarat Muslim Hit Rakshak Samiti announced on Monday that it is launching a month-long statewide protest against the Waqf Amendment Act, which will start on Tuesday. It called the Act discriminatory and a scheme to encroach on Muslim Waqf properties, The Indian Express reported.
Gujarat Muslim Hit Rakshak Samiti is an umbrella body of different organisations of the Muslim community in the state. It also alleged that the Gujarat government, unlike other states, is suppressing their peaceful protests by denying them permission.
On Monday, Ahmedabad Jamaat-e-Islami Hind president Iqbal Mirza told Media that the state committee discussed the Waqf Act issue, which “is completely discriminatory, violates the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution of India and is a scheme to encroach on Muslim Waqf properties”, TIE quoted.
He said that the committee has prepared a statewide protest programme that will launch a protest in the form of a “silent human chain” on Nehru Bridge in Ahmedabad. Men will be on one side of the chain, and women the other, and all will be holding placards, Mirza said. However, he added that the body is still awaiting permission for the Tuesday protest and added that if the same is denied, they will submit representations to the city police commissioner and DGP. Mirza pointed out that the body was recently denied permission to protest when they planned in Himmatnagar and Dholka.
Mirza reminded me that many states allow peaceful protests, but not Gujarat. He said that if attempts continue to suppress their voice, they will move to the Gujarat High Court.