What were terrorists doing in BJP, Congress asks PM, HM?

Taking potshots at the Prime Minister and the Home Minister over the arrest of Talib Shah, Jammu BJP minority department’s IT Cell in charge, after his alleged involvement with the LeT.

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday cited several past instances where terror accused had links with the BJP and urged the Prime Minister and Home Minister to come clean over the matter even as it slammed the ruling party’s ‘pseudo-nationalism’.

“It is shocking that the BJP, a party that loses no opportunity to preach to Indians about nationalism, has members and office-bearers who are deeply implicated in violent anti-national activities. This is pseudo-nationalism,” Congress media chairman Pawan Khera said.

“We are still waiting. Will the Prime Minister open his mouth? Will the Home Minister come out and give a clarification to the country? What were these terrorists doing in the BJP? What were you doing with those terrorists in the BJP? These are not simple coincidences, there is a disturbingly long list of BJP functionaries who have been caught participating at the behest of Pakistani agencies in terrorism and espionage,” he said.

To support his charge, the Congress leader cited two incidents over the past week, which, he claimed, have “exposed the Bharatiya Janata Party.” “First, we learned that one of the accused (Riyaz Attari) in Kanhaiya Lal’s horrific murder in Udaipur was a BJP worker. Then, it emerged that a captured Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist (Talib Hussain Shah) in Jammu and Kashmir was not only a BJP office-bearer, who had previously been captured in photos with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and was planning to launch attacks on the Amarnath Yatra,” said Khera.

Referring to a photograph that went viral on the internet, the Congress leader said it showed the BJP Udaipur district president giving party membership to Riyaz in 2019. Talib Shah, said Khera, was appointed Jammu BJP minority department’s IT Cell in charge in February 2022. Referring to a photo where Talib was close to Union home minister Amit Shah, Khera said “it is a matter of concern.”

Stepping up pressure on the BJP, Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasara wrote a letter to NIA chief Dinkar Gupta drawing his attention to the new facts that have emerged, wherein Riyaz Atari has been clearly found as a member of the BJP, not only participating in their various programmes but, a photo of when he joined the party in November 2019.

“Dotasara has drawn the attention of the NIA Chief to these new facts and has requested him to investigate this very critical aspect of this terror incident of Udaipur,” said Khera. The Congress media chairman further listed some more instances to support his charge. “Former BJP leader and ex-sarpanch Tariq Ahmad Mir was arrested two years ago for procuring weapons for Hizbul Mujahideen commander Naveed Babu. Naveed Babu had previously been arrested with Deputy SP Davinder Singh who had himself been accused of supplying weapons to terrorists. The National Investigation Agency has confirmed that Mir is an associate of Davinder Singh. The truth would have come out had the Davinder Singh inquiry been carried through to its conclusion, but it was halted midway,” said Khera.

“We still don’t have answers on why was DSP Davinder Singh allowed to go scot-free? Why did LG Manoj Sinha write in that suspension order, in the removal order, dismissal order that it is in national interest that he may not be investigated further, why? Whose interest was this, was being served here? These are answers that the country now demands.,” said Khera.

“In 2017, the Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested the BJP IT Cell member Dhruv Saxena along with 10 accomplices for spying for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, including by setting up an illegal telephone exchange that allowed their handlers in Pakistan to impersonate Indian Army officials and collect national security information. A picture of Saxena with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan also went viral,” said Khera.

The Congress leader went on to list some more cases. “Two years later Balram Singh, a Bajrang Dal leader from Madhya Pradesh, 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,” said Khera.

“The BJP also knowingly gave 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 Harkat-ul Mujahideen,” he said. “We appeal to the people of India to see through the BJP’s fake nationalism and its disturbing willingness to flirt with anti-national forces,” the Congress leader said.

The Congress leader wondered why persons like Nupur Sharma, who was pulled up by the Supreme Court over her utterances related to Prophet Mohammed, and Talib Shah were in the BJP. “What kind of an ideology finds a 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,” said Khera, adding “Terrorists belong to you, you have money to fund terror; you give tickets to terrorist, you give posts to terrorists in your party.”

Conclusion: