Uttar Pradesh Minister for Minority Affairs Haji Muhammad Yaqoob Qureishi, who created a storm by promising a reward of Rs 51 crore to anyone who would kill the Danish cartoonist behind the Prophet cartoons, today took on his own leader Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Qureishi held Mulayam responsible for his “failure to carry out any work for Muslims as a minister” because “Mulayam and his machinery are averse to any such development for minorities”.

Addressing a large gathering of Muslims at the Ramlila Maidan, mostly from Meerut and western UP, he said he would quit the Mulayam government if his demands for the progress of Muslims were not met within three months.

“I have given Mulayam Singh three months to address all the problems, failing which I will resign on August 15. This will be his doom,” he warned.

Qureishi, elected from Kharkhauda assembly (Meerut) as a BSP candidate who later joined the Samajwadi Party, criticised UP Urban Development Minister Azam Khan for “interfering” in his work as a minister.

At the rally organised by the Muslim Vikas Manch, he said the allegation that he campaigned for Narendra Modi in assembly polls following Gujarat violence was “baseless”.

Qureishi’s demands include reservation for Muslims in education and government jobs; package on the line of ’84 Sikh riot victims to all Muslim riot victims in UP; immediate release of all innocent Muslims held under POTA; return of Waqf properties under the UP government’s use and immediate arrest of police officers who fired on Muslims in Aligarh riots.

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