Peace Party president injured in road accident

FAIZABAD: The Peace Party president Ayub was seriously injured in a road accident in Ayodhya on Tuesday night. Six other persons travelling along with him in an SUV too were injured. The party, however, alleged it was an attempt to assassinate Ayub.
Ayub suffered injury in the spinal cord along with fractures in legs.
According to Peace Party sources, an unnumbered white Scorpio was following Ayub's car from Lucknow.On reaching Faizabad-Ayodhya bypass at midnight, the Scorpio tried to overtake Ayub's vehicle. But before Ayub's driver could control the vehicle, Scorpio hit it from the side and fled away.
Raising suspicions over the accident, Ayub's aide Mohammad Ibraheem Khan told TOI: "It was not a normal accident as the road was clear. It was a four-lane national highway so there is no question of vehicle getting hit from the side. It is a clear attempt to assassinate our leader who is trying to unite the Muslim community and trying to save them from being used as a vote bank by the political parties."
Ayub was rushed to a private hospital in Faizabad and shifted to Gorakhpur on Wednesday morning. Peace Party spokesman Rehhan Ansari said, "We have demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident and security cover for our leader."
However, the local police ruled out any foul play. Senior superintendent of police, Faizabad, RK Chaturvedi told TOI that Ayub's driver lost control due to overspeeding and that resulted in the accident.
The Peace Party is a fast emerging political party in Uttar Pradesh and even grabbed a sizable number of Muslim votes in the last Lok Sabha elections.