Qaida sowing discord: Hijab mascot’s father

MANDYA/MYSURU : The family of

Bibi Muskan Khan

, the hijab-wearing Karnataka girl whose response to heckling on campus turned her into a mascot of the agitation against the school and college dress code, on Wednesday distanced itself from a purported al-Qaida video in which the outfit’s chief Ayman al Zawahirilavishes praise on her.

Mohammad Hussain Khan

, Muskan’s father, told reporters in

Mandya

that his family didn’t want any appreciation from the head of a global terror outfit. “We don’t know anything about it (video), we don’t know who he is,” he said. “I saw him today for the first time. He says something in Arabic. . . In India, we all live peacefully like brothers with love and trust. ”

On the demand from some quarters for a probe into the possibility of al-Qaida being the force behind hijab campaigners like his daughter, the TV technician said the police and the government were free to initiate any such inquiry. “His (Zawahiri) statement appears to be aimed at sowing discord and creating division among us Indians,” Khan said.

Khan said the row had already disturbed his family’s peace, prompting him to contemplate enrolling

Muskan

in a college that allows students to wear the hijab. At the peak of the controversy in February, Muskan, a second-year BCom student, had been heckled by a group of students wearing saffron shawls while entering her college in a burqa. Muskan responded to shouts of “Jai Shri Ram” with “Allah-hu-Akbar. ” Many Muslim individuals and organisations in India feted Muskan with cash rewards that her father said would be donated towards buying an ambulance for a government hospital in the district. “By God’s grace, we are leading a happy life without much struggle. We will use the money for a cause,” he said. Former CM and JD(S) veteran H D Kumaraswamy said “Kannadigas won’t fall prey to al-Qaida’s designs”.