The BJP on Tuesday rejected the Opposition demand for a judicial probe into the killing of eight persons suspected of being members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) after they had escaped from a Bhopal jail on Monday. Party national secretary Shrikant Sharma also launched a blistering attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for “denting the morale of the uniformed forces” for questioning the encounter.
Mr. Sharma repeatedly referred to the Congress as “Italy Congress,” an apparent reference to its president Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origin, and claimed there was mourning in the Opposition party over the deaths of SIMI “terrorists” while the BJP congratulated the brave policemen who gunned them down. “The Italy Congress leaders are mourning. Why does the Congress have so much sympathy for terrorists whether they belong to SIMI or Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) ... They had questioned the Batla House encounter too,” he said.
Eye on votes Suggesting that the Congress was doing so with an eye on Muslim votes, he said it considered the community a “vote bank factory” and was insulting them with its stand on these alleged terrorists. “The fact is that 125 crore Indians are all behind the fight against terror and by mentioning the Muslim community in connection with terror outfits, the Congress is doing an injustice to that community,” Mr. Sharma said.
He said the Congress had not uttered a single word on the death of head constable Ramashankar Yadav, who was killed by the alleged SIMI operatives as they escaped.
