From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday blasted the Bharatiya Janata Party citing two incidents in the past one week for having members and office-bearers deeply involved in the anti-national activities while preaching the people about nationalism.
The latest is the capture of a Lashkar-eToiba terrorist in Jammu and Kashmir, who has his photos with Home Minister Amit Shah and who was planning to launch attacks on the ongoing Amarnath Yatra. Earlier, one of the accused in the Kalhaiya Lal’s horrific murder in Udaipur was found ot to be a BJP worker.
Congress spokesman Pawan Khera told a press conference here that there is a long list of the BJP functionaries caught participating in terrorism and espionage at the behest of Pakistan. Just to give some examples, former BJP leader and ex-sarpanch Tariq Ahmed Mir was arrested two years ago for prosessing weapons for Hizbul Mujhideen commander Naveed Babu. He is the same Naveed who was previously arresed with DSP Davinder Singh, who was himself supplying weapons to terrorists. The NIA has confirmed that Mir is an associate of Davinder Singh. The truth would have come out but for the inquiry against Davinder halted midway, Khera said.
— In 2017, the Madhya Pradesh anti-terrorism squad had arrested BJP IT cell with 10 accomplices spying for the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate of Pakistan, including an illegal telephone exchange set up to let the Pakistan handlers impersonate as Indian Army officials and collect the national security information. A photo of Saxena with MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had also gone viral.
— Two years later, Balram Singh, a Bajrang Dal leader from MP, was arrested in a terror funding case.
— In 2017, a special court of the NIA sentenced Assam BJP leader Niranjan Hojai to life imprisonment for participating in a Rs 1,000 crore scam to divert government funds to support a militant group. The funds were to be used to buy weapons and carry out attacks on our security forces.
— The BJP has also knowingly given a ticket to Masood Azhar’s acolyte Mohammad Farooq Khan to contest the Srinagar municipal election from Ward 33. Khan was previously a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and the Harkatul Mujahideen.
Khera said the Congress appeals to the people of India to see through the BJP’s fake nationalism while its willingness to flirt with national forces.
“What kind of an ideology finds place for both Nupur Sharma and Riyaz Attari? And accommodates radicals like Talib Hussain? Is the BJP inspired by the alliance between the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League in which extremists of all religions banded together to prevent nationalist forces like the Congress to come to power,” Khera asked.
