US Establishment Can Paint Any Person, Nation As Criminal: Indian Minister

New Delhi, April 30, IRNA – The US establishment can paint any person or nation as criminal. It had been for long targeting Muslim nations and individuals, said an Indian Minister Monday in Rampur, a city of Uttar Pradesh (UP) state. Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan, who suffered a brief detention at Boston airport last week, today said that security officials acted against him because he was a Muslim. Khan, who returned home yesterday from the US, told reporters in Rampur that the American establishment can paint any person or nation as criminal and alleged it had been for long targeting Muslim nations and individuals, pti reported. ˈI being a Muslim was harassed and insulted by that country,ˈ he said. Khan was briefly detained at the Boston airport while he was with UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on a trip to the US during which the duo were to address a gathering in Harvard University on the recently-concluded Maha Kumbh. That speech at Harvard was ultimately boycotted and the UP CM and Khan have returned to India in protest against the ˈinsultingˈ treatment meted out to the minister. Khan even cited the US invasion of Iraq as evidence of the countryˈs attitude of religious bias./end