AIMIM leader Waris Pathan's face blackened by man in Indore

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All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Waris Pathan's face was blackened by a man in Madhya Pradesh's Indore on Tuesday, an official said.

The incident took place when Pathan, the party's national spokesperson and former MLA from Mumbai's Byculla, visited a dargah in Khajrana area of the city to offer prayers, it was stated.

The role of a local identified as Saddam Patel (32) is being probed in the incident, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Sampat Upadhyay said.

According to the police, Patel had soot from a tea pot in his hands and as soon as Pathan came out of the dargah, he smeared it on the AIMIM leader's face after garlanding him.

Patel was arrested as a preventive measure under the CrPC section 151 for blackening the face of the AIMIM leader and later released on bond, Khajrana police station in-charge Dinesh Verma said.

The accused has claimed that he was angry about Pathan's controversial statements on society and other issues, and blackened his face when the AIMIM leader came to Indore, he said.

Meanwhile, Pathan laughingly told reporters that the incident showed that people love him.

"Someone garlanded me and put a black teeka on my face to protect me from evil," the AIMIM leader said.

Pathan also said that his party is preparing to enter the electoral politics of the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.

Expressing anger over the incident, the AIMIM's state unit working president Dr Naeem Ansari said that his party has complained to the Khajrana police and demanded an investigation.

Pathan had arrived in the city during the day to participate in the party's organisational activities, Ansari said.

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