- Monday, February 24, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
VETERAN Indian parliamentarian Sahafiqur Rahman Barq has been booked on sedition charges for allegedly comparing the struggle of India’s freedom fighters during the British colonial era and the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, police on Wednesday (18) said.
Barq, who represents Sambhal in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the parliament, was also charged with deliberate and malicious acts intended to offend religious feelings and promoting enmity between various groups.
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Barq is 91 and is a member of Samajwadi Party, one of the main political players in UP.
An FIR (first information report) was lodged against Barq on the complaint of Rajesh Singhal, reportedly a member of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The police, however, said that Singhal is a private individual.
Sambhal superintendent of police Chakresh Mishra called Barq’s comments inflammatory. He said, “A private person Rajesh Singhal in a written complaint said that in a media briefing Dr. Barq compared the Taliban to the freedom fighters in India and rejoiced over their victory,” he said.
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On Monday (16), Barq, a five-time parliamentarian, said the Taliban wanted to run Afghanistan themselves and according to their will. He said when India was fighting for independence against British rule, the entire country came together. According to him, the Taliban also wanted to free their country similarly from the control of the US and earlier Russia.
Barq’s remarks came a day after the Taliban, who were dethroned by the US in 2001 after it invaded Afghanistan to avenge the 9/11 terror attacks, came back to retake control of Kabul and the entire country.
“Taliban is a force there…They want to run the country themselves as per their ways,” Barq said. He also called it an internal matter of Afghanistan.
Mishra said two other individuals, Faizan Chaudhary and Mohammad Muqeem, who allegedly posted comments in support of the Taliban, were also booked.
“They made inflammatory statements regarding the Taliban,” the SP said.
This is not the first time that Barq has courted controversy. In 2019, soon after taking oath as a member of the parliament, he said India’s national song ‘Vande Mataram’ is against Islam and they could not follow it.
