``Singh is the chief of the party's minority cell and by making such statements miles away from Mumbai, he is only trying to create a divide among Muslims,'' said an agitated Azmi today. He is contemplating filing a defamation suit against Singh. Earlier, a SP delegation met police commissioner R H Mendonca to request that the investigation into Khan's murder be speeded up.

Khan's Aman committee was the SP's launch-pad, especially in Mumbai in the aftermath of the communal riots of 1992-93. SP chief Mulayam Singh's initial political foray was made at a programme organised by the Aman Committee and it turned out to be the starting point of SP activities. ``Khan also helped me tremendously while I was wrongly locked up under TADAafter the bomb blasts and helped me a great deal to get released. Whatever our political differences, I owe a lot to and respect Khan very much. It's very unfair to link me with the murder,'' said Azmi.

Also, he believes that this is a typical Congress strategy to fragment the community, purely to gain political mileage for the forthcoming elections. ``I didn't think Singh and Congress could stoop so low, but they have. I was shocked to see the news item in the Urdu paper Inquilab this morning,'' he added.