Declare anti-terror war mission number one: Sukhbir

Jalandhar, Nov 30 (UNI) While criticising the ''political blame game'' over terror attacks, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief and MP Sukhbir Singh Badal today called for taking a cue from the US and declaring the war against terrorism as ''mission number one'' for the country.

''We should learn lesson from America which after the 9 attack on WTC, virtually waged a war against terrorism as they had even constituted a 'terrorism tracking agency' to find and wipe out it from the country,'' the SAD chief said.

Mr Badal said he would press for this approach in the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of terrorism.

''Punjab was the worst terrorism suffering state and we will love to share our expertise and experience in the formation of national policy of terrorism,'' he said emphasising that there should be a national master plan to eliminate terrorism from the country.

Replying to a query of whether he would support the idea of the Prime Minister to establish federal agency to deal with the terrorism at the national level, Mr Badal said the Centre should establish a ''quick response system'' to deal with any kind of emergency.

Mr Badal also took a dig at Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray for his anti-north Indian campaign and referred to various SMS campaigns asking where was he when non-Marathi commandos were staking their lives to save Mumbaikars under seige.

Mr Sukhbir Badal was here at a function organised by the Hind Samachar Group of Newspapers to hand over the fund of Rs 2 crore for the Chief Minister' Relief Fund to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the help of flood-affected people.

UNI JN JS SW BD1959