Was quoted wrongly, never talked about arms training: Kalbe Jawad

A day after he announced that a camp would be set up to apprise Muslims and people belonging to the SC/ST community on how to apply for a firearm license, Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad said he was quoted wrongly by the media, as he never mentioned anything about arms training in the camps. He added that a decision has been taken to postpone the proposed camp.

Lucknow: Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad on Sunday said that he had asked lawyer Mahmood Pracha to postpone the programme under which Muslims, SCs and STs were to be helped in applying for firearms.

"Pracha had announced to start an initiative to ensure that arms are given to Dalits, Muslims, and people of oppressed sections of the society. People did not know about filling up of the forms to procure weapon licenses," Jawad said.

"Media quoted us wrongly. It was said that arms training will be given in the camp. It is totally wrong. So, now we have asked Pracha to postpone the programme to see whether the government acts against mob lynching incidents or not. We will meet leaders to demand a law against lynching," he said.

On Saturday, Pracha had announced that a camp would be set in the state capital on July 26 to help Muslims and SC and ST people to apply for the firearm licenses; in the light of recent mob lynching incidents and Sonbhadra firing incident.

"The camp was about to tell the people how to fill up forms which are needed to apply for licensed weapons. No one will be given weapon training," Jawad told reporters at a conference here.

Jawad further said that the government should come up with a law on mob lynching.

"If the government takes any strict action against mob lynching, then there cannot be anything better than this. The government should be given a chance to act against the mob lynching," he said.

On July 19, three men were beaten to death by locals after suspecting the trio to be cattle thieves in Baniyapur in Bihar's Saran district.

In another incident in the state, an unidentified man was beaten to death by a mob in Bihar's Vaishali after he was allegedly caught stealing from a house on July 2.

On June 18, Tabrez Ansari, a Muslim youth, was assaulted by a mob in Kharsawan district of Jharkhand on the suspicion of theft. He later succumbed to injuries at a hospital.

Read: Adityanath visits Sonbhadra firing victims' families