Stepping up its attack on alleged terror links of members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra on Tuesday wrote to the chief of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate the ‘fact’ that both Udaipur killer Riyaz Attari and arrested Lashkar-e-Taiba militant from Jammu, Talib Hussain Shah, were members of the BJP.
Separately, the Indian Youth Congress put up hoardings with the photos of Riyaz Attari and Hussian with BJP leaders in a few arterial roads of Lutyen’s Delhi. “Is this Nationalism or Terrorism of BJP” read the posters.
Addressing a press conference at Congress headquarters, chairman of the media and publicity department Pawan Khera shared Mr. Dotasra’s letter in which the Rajasthan Congress chief raised the issue of BJP’s involvement in the Udaipur incident.
“As per media reports, Riyaz Attari was an active member of the BJP. The kind of politics that the BJP is indulging across the country, it is natural to suspect that the BJP may have had some involvement with this [Udaipur killing] incident,” Mr. Dotasra wrote in his letter.
In a scathing attack on the ruling party, Mr. Khera gave a list of BJP members who were alleged to have been involved in terror-related activities.
“Former BJP leader and ex-sarpanch Tariq Ahmad Mir was arrested two years ago for procuring weapons for Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’ Naveed Babu. This is the same Naveed Babu who had previously been arrested with DSP Davinder SIngh and accused of supplying weapons to terrorists. The NIA has confirmed that Mir is an associate of Mr. Singh. The truth would have come out had the Davinder Singh inquiry been carried through to its conclusion but it was halted midway,” Mr. Khera said.
The Congress leader cited the 2017 arrest of BJP IT Cell member Dhruv Saxena along with 10 accomplices by the Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad on charges of spying for Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence Directorate and the 2019 arrest of Bajrang Dal leader from Madhya Pradesh, Balram Singh , in a terror-funding case.
He also referred to the 2017 sentencing of Assam BJP leader Niranjan Hojai to life imprisonment by an NIA court for participating in a ₹ 1,000 crore scam to divert government funds to support a militant group.
“One after the other, whether it is Riyaz Atari in Udaipur, whether it is Talib Hussain Shah in Kashmir, and I have given you five more examples. One after the other, you see there is a clear-clear link between these terrorists and the ruling BJP,” said Mr. Khera, adding, “We still don’t have answers on why was DSP Davinder Singh allowed to go scot free? Why did the Hon’ble LG Mr. 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”.
