NRI group asks US to put MNS on terror watch list

PATNA: A group of non-resident Indians (NRI) has asked the US to put Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on the "list of terrorist organisations which are out to hurt the humanity".

“We requested the US department of state to put Raj Thackeray and his group Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on the list of terrorist organisations which are out to hurt the humanity,” said a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by the US-based NRI group called Humane Mumbai.

NRI Ravi Verma, who hails from Katihar in Bihar, formed the group Humane Mumbai.

“There are several Indians of Marathi origin who were among the first to join the group Humane Mumbai,” Verma said over the phone from California.

After the hue and cry in India in the wake of the attacks on non-Maharashtrians, the Indian diaspora is also not taking this lightly, he said.

“The Indian diaspora prays that there is never an insane (person) like Raj Thackeray in the US or UK who starts a US or UK Navnirman Sena and instigates attacks on the Indians living there,” Verma said.

Verma said Humane Mumbai initiated the process of putting Raj Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on the infamous terror watch list Thursday.

Once Raj Thackeray is on the terror watch list, they will be under surveillance by the US for their activities, he said.

Verma, CEO of Telecommand Software and Services in the Silicon Valley, said there was widespread dismay among Indians throughout the world over the persecution of people of North Indian origin living in or visiting Maharashtra.

Indians of Marathi origin are particularly embarrassed at the events back home, he said.

The protests continued in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh against the attacks on non-Maharashtrians.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Steel Minister Ramvilas Paswan have demanded a judicial probe into the killing of Rahul Raj, a youth from Patna, in a Mumbai bus by police Monday and the lynching of Dharamdev Ramnarain Rai from Uttar Pradesh the next day.

Another youth, Pawan Kumar from Bihar's Nalanda district, was allegedly killed by MNS activists in Mumbai after he had gone there to take a railway recruitment exam.