On 7 February 2016, Owaisi surrendered before Hyderabad police and was later granted bail for an assault by a mob that he allegedly led, carried out against Telangana Indian National Congress legislators. His close aide and AIMIM Party social media head, Syed Abdahu Kashaf, assaulted the congress MLC and leader of the opposition Shabbir Ali. In March 2016, while addressing a public rally in Maharashtra, Owaisi said that he would never say the slogan Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Hail mother India) in response to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's comment that the new generation needs to be taught to chant slogans hailing mother India; the comment was a reference to the 2016 JNU sedition controversy. Owaisi said, "Whom is he (Bhagwat) trying to frighten? He can't force his ideology on others. Nowhere in the Constitution it says that one should say: 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'." Later he clarified that he had no issues with slogan 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', but he had objection to RSS forcing people to chant the slogan as a test of patriotism. Controversies Owaisi's political opponents in the BJP have linked the leader with a proliferation of terrorist activity in Hyderabad. In 2019, India's Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy claimed that most of the country's terrorist incidents can be traced back to Hyderabad. Echoing Reddy's comments, BJP MLA for the Goshamahal assembly constituency in Hyderabad T. Raja Singh claimed, "If we take Gujarat Haren Pandya case, the accused were from Hyderabad consistency and 12 ISIS terrorist have also been caught from his (Owaisi's) constituency". Singh also accused Owaisi of financially supporting terrorists in the region. In 2016, Owaisi was arrested for sedition after providing legal aid to five members of a so-called Islamic State terrorist cell. The complaint, filed to the Eleventh Metropolitan Magistrate court accused Owaisi of, "directly or indirectly helping the ISIS". Owaisi filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the former politician turned writer Syed Waseem Rizvi for allegedly offending Muslim religious sentiments following the publication of Rizvi's book, Muhammad. Owaisi claimed, "The book, written in Hindi, vilifies Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and uses objectionable language against the Prophet, the religion of Islam and its followers." Rizvi defended his book claiming that it was based on "hidden facts" and that Owaisi should have read the text before reacting to it. In the same statement Rizvi accused Owaisi of radicalising