BJP condems serial blasts, appeals to people to maintain peace

New Delhi, July 11 (UNI) The BJP today strongly condemned the dastardly serial blasts in Jammu and Kashmir and Mumbai killing scores of people and leaving many seriously injured and said that the Government should act firmly against terrorists, their organisations and their patrons.

Asking the people to maintain peace and calm in the face of grave provocations, on behalf of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Leader of Opposition L K Advani and BJP President Rajnath Singh, party Spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the root of the problem was the "kid glove handling" of the terrorist menace by the UPA constituents for the sake of vote bank politics.

''While the UPA government repealed Prevention Of Terrorism Act (POTA) after it came to power knowing fully well that the existing normal laws were too inadequate to handle terrorism operations of the present scale, one UPA ally was unwilling to act and ban the extermist Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI),'' he said.

Noting that the BJP asks Pakistan to remember its January 2004 agreement between its President Pervez Musharraf and then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee vowing not to allow its soil for terrorist purposes, he said they want Pakistan to adhere this agreement for a long term relationship with India.

''As far as Government of India is concerned, it is unwilling to use this agreement because they saw votes for not acting against terrorism,'' Mr Prasad claimed.

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