Karnataka college student Muskaan Khan’s praise and remarks by Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on the hijab controversy has been termed as wrong by the girl’s father. Muskan Khan’s father Mohammad Hussain Khan on Wednesday said that the remarks of the terrorist group leader are wrong and that he and his family have lived in India peacefully.
Mohammad Hussain Khan also said that the police and the Karnataka government can initiate any investigation to find out the truth. “We don’t know anything about it (video), we don’t know who he is,” news agency PTI quoted Khan as saying. I saw him for the first time today. He has said something in Arabic… We all are living here with love and trust like brothers.’
When asked about Zawahiri praising Muskaan, Khan replied “People say whatever they want… they are creating trouble unnecessarily.” We are living peacefully in our country, we don’t want him to talk about us. It’s not good for us. This is an attempt to create division between us.
Zawahiri, who was rumored to have died in 2020, has been released on Tuesday by As-Sahab Media, a nearly nine-minute video. In the video clip, Zawahiri also praised Karnataka student Muskan Khan for confronting a group of students who were protesting against the hijab at her college in early February.
In the video, Zawahiri can also be seen reciting a ghazal in which the al-Qaeda leader says he wrote it for “our Mujahid sisters” and their “spirit”. This is the second video of the al-Qaeda chief in the past six months, which mainly mentions the hijab controversy.
The hijab controversy started in January at the Government PU College in Udupi, Karnataka, where six girl students who wore hijab to class were thrown out in violation of the prescribed ‘dress code’. After this the matter was caught quite a bit and reached the High Court.