AIMIM leader claims Vande Bharat train in which Owaisi was travelling pelted with stones; police deny it

Surat, November 8

A spokesperson of the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has alleged that the Vande Bharat train in which party president Asaduddin Owaisi was travelling in poll-bound Gujarat was pelted with stones.

Police, however, denied the claim and said a probe was on into the incident which took place on Monday.

AIMIM national spokesperson Waris Pathan said the incident took place before the train reached Surat on Monday evening where Owaisi, the Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad, was scheduled to attend a public rally as part of his election campaigning in the state, where the Assembly polls are scheduled for December 1 and 5.

Pathan said he had photographs to prove his claim.

“Asaduddin Owaisi Saheb, Sabir Kabliwala sir, me and the team of AIMIM were travelling in the Vande Bharat Express train from Ahmedabad to Surat when some unidentified persons threw stones at the train and broke its glass,” he claimed.

However, Superintendent of Police, Western Railway, Rajesh Parmar, on Tuesday said some “grit” hit the train’s glass window due to engineering work under way on the track near Ankleshwar in Bharuch district where the alleged incident took place.

“It was not a case of stone-pelting,” the official said, adding that Owaisi was sitting away from the window.

The cracked window was changed, and an officer of the level of deputy superintendent of police was conducting a probe into the incident, he said.

At the rally in Surat on Monday night, Pathan claimed two stones were thrown one after the other. The stones were heavy enough to break the glass window glass where Owaisi was sitting along with his team members, he said.