BJP seizes upon ex-cop Maria’s book to attack Congress

NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD: Seizing upon the confirmation from former Mumbai Police commissioner Rakesh Maria about ISI’s plot to pass off Ajmal Kasab and other 26/11 attackers as Hindus, top BJP functionaries, including Union minister Piyush Goyal and general secretary Ram Madhav on Tuesday said Congress and terror outfits like LeT had an identical agenda behind coining the “Hindu terror” term.
BJP members alleged that the term was coined at the behest of former home minister P Chidambaram, whose bid in this direction had helped Pakistan-based terror outfits, which tried to disguise Kasab as a Hindu and the attack on Mumbai as the handiwork of “Hindu terrorists”.
Claiming that terror had no religion, Goyal accused the UPA and the Congress party of raising the "bogey of Hindu terror" in the country.
While referring to excerpts from Maria's book on 26/11 that Kasab would have died as Samir Dinesh Chaudhari "with a red thread tied around his wrist" had LeT succeeded in its plan, Goyal said, "Why is Mariaji speaking these things now? He should have said that when he was police commissioner. According to service rules, if some information is with senior police officers, they should take action on it."
Kasab, a Pakistani national, was part of the group of terrorists which attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008. He was caught alive and later hanged.
"UPA and Congress conspired... at that time we saw another example of lies when they tried to raise the false bogey of Hindu terror. I condemn Congress and others who tried to mislead the nation over Hindu terror, for which they had to face consequences in 2014 and 2019. Terror has no religion. A terrorist is a terrorist," Goyal added.
Ram Madhav said the ISI plan did not succeed but there was an attempt by some Congress members to make the conspiracy successful. “Some intellectuals had tried to link the Mumbai attack with RSS as they had the support of Congress leaders. The book has confirmed that it was an ISI conspiracy, which was supported by so-called intellectuals,” he added.
BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said the term “Hindu terror” was coined as a joint venture by Congress and LeT. “Congress was responsible for floating Hindu terror tag to defame the Hindu community and Pakistani terror outfits too have worked on a similar plan, which shows that the two have identical thinking and are dangerous for the country at large,” he said.