Owaisi's stand on IS suspects boosting morale of terrorists: Govt

NEW DELHI: With AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi defending his decision to provide legal aid to five IS suspects arrested from Hyderabad, the Centre on Sunday condemned his decision and asserted that such proceedings only fuel terrorism in the country. Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Owaisi's statement boosted the morale of the terrorists. "One should not fall so low in politics that they begin to appear favouring terrorists and terrorism. Play politics and take on the opposition, but don't do something which shows that you are on the side of terrorism," Naqvi said. Condemning Owaisi's decision to back the IS suspects, he further said that his decision would not be accepted by anyone across the country no matter his or her religion. The Congress also condemned Owasi's stand with party leader Digvijaya Singh stating on one hand the saffron party is hell bent on saving the Malegaon blast accused while the AIMIM chief on the other side is attempting to protect those caught by the NIA in alleged terror cases. Backing his party's decision, Owaisi earlier said that the legal system would anyway have offered legal help to the accused and urged the media not to blow the issue out of proportion and be a hindrance in the legal process. The AIMIM chief had on Friday announced that his party would provide legal aid to the five IS suspects arrested from Hyderabad earlier this week by the National Investigation agency. According to reports, Owaisi had earlier decided to support the accused after the family members of the youth met him and claimed that they are innocent. The Hyderabad MP then said he had directed a lawyer to provide the legal help. The NIA on Friday received 12-day custody of the five accused, who were arrested from Hyderabad over suspicion of having terror links. The agency had detained 11 people for suspected terror links in raids conducted at several places in Hyderabad on June 29. In a major development since the arrest of five IS suspects, the NIA yesterday revealed the suspects had money transactions from Middle East on several occasions through 'hawala' and that they also pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State. Stating that the suspects had divided portfolios among themselves for carrying out their objectives, the NIA report further said that they had also entered into a joint pledge owing allegiance to the Islamic State and its commander Baghdadi and one of them confessed that the pledge had been conveyed to him.