Nagpur: Against the backdrop of recent incidents of stone-pelting in various cities in Maharashtra during the rallies taken out in protest against the purported communal violence in Tripura, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Sunday demanded a ban on Muslim organisation, Raza Academy.
Addressing a press conference at the VHP office in the Dhantoli area of Nagpur in Maharashtra, VHP general secretary Milind Parande said the right-wing body will lodge FIRs in various police stations against the rioters.
If the police fail to register the offence, VHP will take action, he said, adding that a delegation of VHP leaders would meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari in this regard.
He demanded that the Maharashtra government make rioters pay up for the damage caused to public and private property during the incidents of stone-pelting on Friday.
On Saturday, a curfew was clamped in Amravati city in east Maharashtra for four days and Internet services were shut down after a mob hurled stones at shops during a Bandh (shut-down) allegedly organised by local BJP workers in protest against the rallies organised by Muslim organisations the day before to condemn the recent violence in Tripura, police had said.
On Friday, stone-pelting was reported during rallies taken out by Muslim organisations in Amravati, Nanded, Malegaon (in Nashik district), Washim and Yavatmal.
Raza Academy had handed over a memorandum to the Maharashtra governor. Those affected by the violence in Tripura should be given compensation and the mosques which were damaged should be reconstructed, it had demanded.
Meanwhile, queried on actor Kangana Ranaut’s controversial statement on Independence, Parande evaded a direct reply, saying India got cultural and other forms of Independence in 2014.
Ranaut had said that what India achieved in 1947 was “bheek” (alms) but the country got real freedom only in 2014 when Narendra Modi became the prime minister, evoking strong reactions from various quarters.