Upping the ante against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its alleged links to terror elements arrested in Udaipur and Kashmir, the Congress fielded its spokespersons in different parts of the country on Saturday.
Addressing a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram, All India Congress Committee national spokesperson Sravan Dasoju said when the self-styled nationalist party that was ruling the country had links with terror elements, the country and the people were facing grave danger.
Holding up photographs and social media posts, Mr. Dasoju said that one of the accused in Kanhaiya Lal’s murder in Udaipur was a BJP worker named Mohammad Riyaz Attari. He had joined the BJP in the presence of a senior local leader. Attari was employed by the son-in-law of the BJP’s Leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha, Gulab Chand Kataria. He was seen attending numerous party programmes in the presence of senior BJP leaders.
Citing another case, he said Irfan Khan, accused of masterminding the murder of Amravati chemist Umesh Kolhe, had close links with independent MP Navneet Rana and her husband Ravi Rana, who were known to be close to the BJP. When Talib Hussain Shah was captured by locals in Kashmir recently for supplying arms and ammunition to Lashkar-e-Taiba, he was revealed to be a BJP office-bearer in Jammu and Kashmir. He was also BJP Jammu province Minority morcha IT Cell Chief, alleged Mr. Dasoju.
He further alleged that BJP leader and ex-Sarpanch Tariq Ahmad Mir was arrested in 2020 for procuring weapons for Hizbul Mujahideen commander Naveed Babu. Naveed Babu had previously been arrested with DSP Davinder Singh and accused of supplying weapons to terrorists. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has confirmed that Mir is an associate of Davinder Singh’s. The truth would have come out had the Davinder Singh inquiry been carried through to its conclusion, but it was halted midway.
In 2017, the Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested the BJP IT Cell member Dhruv Saxena along with 10 accomplices for spying for the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate. The spy ring had set up an illegal telephone exchange to facilitate espionage. A picture of Saxena with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan also went viral.
“It is important that all of us ask straight questions to BJP as to why this nexus with terrorists exists. Is it a sheer coincidence or some kind of conspiracy? It appears to be a ploy to gain political advantage. Despite these glaring evidences, the BJP leaders have remained tight-lipped. We need to know why is it that every time there are elections terror activities take place,” said Mr. Dasoju.
