‘Pro-Pak’ slogan row: Digvijaya claims crowd said ‘qazi sahab zindabad’

PTI, Aug 23, 2021, 4:42 PM IST

Ujjain: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has said the people booked under the NSA in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh some days ago for alleged inflammatory sloganeering were shouting ‘qazi sahab zindabad’ and not ‘Pakistan zindabad’.

In a tweet on Sunday night, the Rajya Sabha MP said the slogan was ”tweaked” on the basis of ”fake news”, adding that ”the Madhya Pradesh police should have acted after verifying the matter”. He demanded that the action of arrests, if any in the case, be reversed.

‘Qazi sahab zindabad’ slogan was twisted to ‘Pakistan zindabad’,” the former chief minister minister claimed.

Hitting back, MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra tweeted that Singh was ”supporting” anti-national forces as part of ”appeasement politics” and asked the latter to ”lead such people to Pakistan”.

On Sunday, the stringent National Security Act (NSA) was invoked against four persons for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans during a Muharram event in Geeta Colony in Ujjain on August 19.

”We have identified 16 persons who raised such slogans and efforts are on to identify others,” Ujjain Superintendent of Police Satyendra Shukla had told PTI on Sunday.

Over a dozen people had been booked under sections 124(a) (sedition) and 153 (provocation which can cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code, police had said.

Reacting to the incident, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had earlier said his government would not tolerate ”Taliban-like” mindset.