BJP counters Congress' terror charge, lists Khalid, Batla...

NEW DELHI: Having been attacked by Congress for several days over terrorism and allegations that it had falsely accused Rahul Gandhi of indulging jehadis, BJP on Saturday hit back saying the Congress leader is indeed guilty of appeasing terror for vote-bank considerations as it cited several instances.
Pointing to Rahul Gandhi’s visit to JNU in 2016, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Congress leader had expressed solidarity with Umar Khalid and others who were accused of shouting “Bharat tere tukde honge” and supporting Parliament House terror attack convict Afzal Guru. He said it would not be “an exaggeration to say Congress is with terrorism”.

“Afzal we are ashamed, your murderers are alive... How many Afzal will you kill, Afzal will come out of every house. Rahul Gandhi, who supports such statements, should be ashamed today, should look into his own conduct holding a presser on terrorism,” Patra said.
He noted the reported remarks of the then Union minister Salman Khurshid that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was in tears on seeing the pictures of the Batla House encounter and the party’s attack on the Gujarat government headed by then CM Narendra Modi over the police killing of suspected terrorist Ishrat Jahan.
Some organisations had alleged the 2008 Batla House encounter was fake and a few Congress leaders had joined the chorus for a probe.
Patra noted that terror outfit LeT had admitted that Jahan was associated with it but Congress called her “innocent” and had gone after the state government over her encounter. LeT founder Hafiz Saeed had praised Congress as a good party, he alleged.
“The same party now dares to hold press conferences at 22 places over the issue of terrorism,” he said. Patra alleged appeasement is the foundation of Congress, leading to the abetment of terrorism. He said the UPA rule was “marked by frequent terror attacks” while the current government led by PM Modi controlled terrorism.