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Cong says Sangh linked to SIMI
PNS | New Delhi / Bhopal
Terror debate plunges to gutter level
The Congress on Friday took the terror debate to an abysmally low level when it accused Sangh Parivar affiliates of having links with terror organisations like the Indian Mujahideen and SIMI.
As the Congress demanded setting up of a multi-disciplinary task force to conduct detailed investigations into recent terror acts in New Delhi, its senior general secretary and former MP Chief Minister Digvijay Singh equated the VHP and Bajrang Dal with the banned SIMI in Bhopal. Even party veteran and HRD Minister Arjun Singh supported the party’s stance.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari started the debate at the party’s official Press briefing on Friday evening. Speaking to reporters about the Malegaon blast investigation, Tewari said: “Even more disconcerting are reports appearing in a section of the Press that the Malegaon blast was outsourced and that the perpetrators may have been different from the planners. It raises pertinent questions… Are there linkages between the Indian Mujahideen/SIMI and various organisations affiliated/ inspired by the Sangh Parivar, like the Hindu Jagran Manch, Jai Vande Mataram, Jankalyan Samiti and Abhinav Bharat, to name a few?”
He said the proof coming so far from the ATS investigations indicated that they were linked somewhere. “If one terror act has been outsourced, why not the others?” Tewari said, stressing that there was a need to investigate other blasts from this angle.
He said: “The revelations point out that the conspiracy has forward and backward linkages... If reports of outsourcing the (Malegaon) blast are correct, it would be childish to think that only one blast was outsourced."
Launching a frontal attack on the BJP and "Sangh Parivar-affiliated and inspired" organisations, Tewari asked whether the conspiracy to perpetrate and outsource the Malegaon terror strike ended at the fringes or did it go deep into the heart of the Sangh Parivar.
Asked whether he was challenging the investigations of the Delhi Police and other State police indicting the Indian Mujahideen and SIMI for the blasts, Tewari said: "That is not the case. But till yesterday, it was presumed that Samjhauta Express blast was done by a specific group. Now, it is a different situation."
This line was supported by Arjun Singh as well. Asked about the party's charges on Sangh Parivar's links, Singh said: "From the very beginning, I have had my doubts about the Sangh Parivar. This was brought out immediately after the assassination of Gandhiji. But it was not taken up."
Meanwhile, Digvijay Singh said in Bhopal: "These (SIMI, VHP and Bajrang Dal) groups were all involved in similar anti-national activities." Whether it was 'Muslim terrorism' or 'Hindu terrorism', both worked to harm the nation's security, Singh added. Asked whether the Bajrang Dal should be banned, he said it would be "much better if RSS, which was the fountainhead of the Bajrang Dal, was outlawed".
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