Uttam, Shabbir Ali Hurt In Violent MIM Attacks

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Leader of Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir received injuries when MIM activists physically attacked them in the Mir Chowk police station limits in the Old City when Reddy and Shabbir Ali went there to get Congress candidate Mohammed Gouse Khan released from the police station.

The incidents started at Ghanzi Bazar when MIM MLA Ahmed Pasha Quadri got into a war of words with ex-corporator Gouse Khan who has shifted to the Congress from the MIM. The altercation quickly turned physical as Gouse Khan was threatened and attacked by Quadri and his men. Upon receipt of the information, South Zone DCP Satyanarayana rushed to the spot along with his staff to disperse both sides.

Satyanarayana arrested Quadri and Khan, and shifted them to the Charminar police station. Later, the police shifted Khan from the Charminar to the Mir Chowk police station.

Upon knowing about the incident, Congress leaders went to the Mir Chowk police station and staged a dharna in front of it demanding the release of Khan. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Shabbir Ali reached the police station and joined the dharna.

Meanwhile, MIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, too, reached the police station along with 200 MIM activists and resorted to slogan-shouting against the Congress and in favour of the MIM. In the process, heated arguments took place between the MIM and Congress activists. The MIM activists, led by Owaisi, then attacked the Congress activists and leaders, and destroyed the windshields of Uttam Kumar Reddy's and Shabbir Ali's cars. An MIM activist punched and kicked Shabbir Ali brutally. Shabbir Ali received injuries below his eye, and Uttam, too, received simple injuries.

At this juncture, the police resorted to a lathi-charge to control the situation.

Later, speaking to the media, Shabbir Ali alleged that Asaduddin Owaisi had resorted to blatant goondaism in the GHMC elections.

He said that Reddy and he had gone to the Mir Chowk police station to get Puranapul Congress candidate Gouse Khan released. "Asaduddin came to the police station along with 200 activists while we were coming out from the police station and threatened us asking what we were doing in his area," he said.

Owaisi also resorted to rampant rigging while roaming every polling booth in the Old City, he further alleged.

Shabbir said that the MIM activists had attacked them right in front of the police, who remained silent spectators. They also attacked journalists who had lodged complaints about the rigging, he said, and destroyed the cameras of photographers who tried to take photos of the rigging and the violence.

Later, the Congress leaders staged a protest at the DGP's office. Uttam expressed anguish at the police and the Election Commission for the lapses and incidents of violence. Congress leader K Jana Reddy, too, condemned the incident saying that such incidents were against democracy. He attributed the attacks to the inefficiency of the TRS government and its officials.