UP dismisses Rahul’s remark on Muslim youth

Lucknow – The Uttar Pradesh government Saturday dismissed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s statement that some Muslim youths in riots-hit Muzaffarnagar were in touch with Pakistan’s intelligence, and said it had “no inputs in this regard”.

“We have received no input whatsoever in this regard by either the Intelligence Bureau (IB) or the union home ministry” Home Secretary Kamal Saxena said.

The anti-terrorist squad (ATS) chief Mukul Goel also ruled out any such inputs from intelligence agencies at the centre. He said the state intelligence units were on their guard against any such nefarious design by any anti-national group.

“We are on vigil, and surveillance across the state has not brought to light any such thing,” the official added.

Gandhi, at an election rally in Indore, Madhya Pradesh Thursday had said that an intelligence official had briefed him about 15-20 Muslim youth from riots-ravaged Muzaffarnagar district of the state as being in touch with Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) over killings of their brothers and sisters.

Muslim clerics had also denounced the statement while Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had at a rally in Jhansi Friday asked the Gandhi scion either to name such youngsters or apologise for his remarks.

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and Urban Development Minister Mohd Azam Khan also questioned the “riot track record of Congress” and asked the Congress vice-president to come out with figures of Muslims in touch with ISI.

Prominent social activist Nutan Thakur also wrote to Gandhi Friday, seeking to know who was the intelligence official who held this “illegal briefing” about ISI being in touch with Muslim youth in Muzaffarnagar.