NEW DELHI, Feb 3: The AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has alleged that shots were fired at his car when he was returning to Delhi after campaigning in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on Thursday.
No one was injured but his car tyres were punctured, he said. “We are all safe. Alhamdu’lilah,” he wrote.
The incident is being probed by Hapur Police and one person has been arrested. The incident is claimed to have taken place at a toll plaza near Delhi, in Hapur in western Uttar Pradesh. The shooters left their weapons and escaped, said the Hyderabad MP. “I was leaving for Delhi after a poll event in Kithaur, Meerut. Three to four rounds of bullets were fired upon my vehicle by two people near Chhajarsi toll plaza; there were a total of 3-4 people,” Owaisi said.
“Tyres of my vehicle (in pic) punctured, I left on another vehicle,” he wrote. Visuals tweeted by Mr Owaisi from the toll plaza showed two bullet holes on his white SUV, which remains at the spot. The third bullet allegedly hit a tyre. The AIMIM leader had addressed a public meeting in Meerut while campaigning for the Uttar Pradesh election starting February 10.
Owaisi’s convoy of four cars was on the Hapur-Ghaziabad stretch of the National Highway 24 around 6 pm when the incident took place. “I urge the EC for an independent probe into the incident. It must be known who is behind this incident. It’s also an appeal to the Modi government and the Yogi government,” Owaisi said.
In September last year, the Hyderabad MP’s official residence in New Delhi’s high-security Ashoka Road area was vandalised allegedly by a group of Hindu Sena men who damaged the door and windows, broke the nameplate, hurled an axe at the house and had called the Parliamentarian a “jihadi.”
(Manas Dasgupta)
