Peace should be the priority and not provocation, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Monday, amid a row over a Uttar Pradesh police official’s purported “Go to Pakistan” remark during a protest against the amended Citizenship Act.
“If the video is true, then appropriate action should be taken,” Mr. Naqvi said. “At any level, peace should be the priority and not provocation.”
The incident purportedly took place on December 20 in Lisari Gate Police Station area, when Meerut Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Narayan Singh was speaking to some locals after violent protests in the city last week left five dead.
Mr. Singh said he made the remark to people shouting slogans in support of Pakistan during the protest. “I advised them to go to the place in support of which they were raising slogans,” he said.
Mr. Naqvi said Muslims were living in India not by compulsion, but by commitment. Their social, economic, religious and constitutional rights are absolutely safe and secure, he said.
