Hyderabad September 03 (VM): The All-India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) here on Saturday wrote to Central and State Governments urging to observe September 17, as a National Integration Day rather than Liberation Day.
In his 4-page letters to Amith Shah, Minister of Home Affairs and K. Chandrashekar Rao, Chief Minister Telangana State AIMIM Supremo Asaduddin Owaisi said that September 17 marks the date when the erstwhile state of Hyderabad had merged with the Union of India.
“This date marks the end of indirect colonial and feudal rule for the people of these territories. In this regard, I am writing to you to suggest that the Government of Telangana marks this occasion as “National Integration Day’’. This day must be a celebration of the struggles of people of erstwhile Hyderabad against both British colonialism as well as the feudal autocratic rule of Nizams,’’ opined, Asaduddin Owaisi, in his letters to Central and State Governments.
He further wrote to celebrate the September 17, at University Women’s College, Koti, as the building was once the British Residency and was subject to an attack by Maulvi Alauddin and Turrebaz Khan on July 17, 1857.
“Maulvi Alauddin was the first prisoner of Kaala Paani (Andaman Cellular Jail) and Turrebaz Khan was perhaps one of the first martyrs of India’s War of Independence,’’ remembered Asaduddin Owaisi in the letters written to either government.