After hue and cry, Sadhvi says Hemant died of terror bullets so he’s martyr
BJP candidate from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat Sadhvi Pragya Thakur on Friday kicked up a major controversy by claiming Mumbai’s former Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare died during the 26/11 terror attacks because she had cursed him for torturing her while she was in custody in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. However, facing all-round criticism, she later not only apologised for her statement but termed Karkare a martyr.
“I felt that the enemies of the country were being benefited from it, therefore I take back my statement and apologise for it. It was my personal pain... He (Hemant Karkare) died from the bullets of terrorists from the enemy country, he is certainly a martyr,” Pragya said.
Left red-faced, the BJP had earlier sought to undo the damage by saying the party considered Karkare a martyr. Nevertheless, at the same time while the BJP termed Pragya’s remarks as her personal opinion, it reasoned it could be due to the physical and mental torture she underwent for years. Pragya is facing trial in the Malegaon blast case and is at present out on bail.
“The BJP believes that Karkare died while bravely fighting terrorists. The BJP has always considered him a martyr,” the party said in a written statement in a damage-control exercise.
Earlier, addressing party workers in Bhopal, the Sadhvi said, “Hemant Karkare falsely implicated me. He died of his karma. I told him, he will be destroyed. I told him his entire dynasty will be erased. Maine kaha tera (Karkare) sarvanash hoga.”
Pragya had alleged Karkare committed an anti-national act by falsely implicating her in the Malegaon blast case and keeping her behind bars without evidence. “It was treason. It was against religion,” she had said.
Karkare was killed along with two other senior police officers while fighting terrorists during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in November 2008.
Pragya is contesting against former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh, who is seen by the BJP as the propagator of the term ‘saffron terror’. Thakur said she would expose and tell the torture she underwent while in the police custody. Incidentally, it was the police under then BJP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that had arrested Thakur for her alleged involvement in the murder of a former RSS worker Sunil Joshi in 2018 and 2011.
