BJP to launch "Bell Ringing" agitation on July 24

Chennai, July 18 (UNI) The BJP will launch a nation-wide ''Bell Ringing'' agitation on July 24 to 'wake up' the Congress-led UPA Government, which it alleged was 'sleeping' on the issue of combating terrorism.

The agitation would be organised from 1100 hrs to 1130 hrs in all the 234 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu on the opening day of the Monsoon session of Parliament, Senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya told reporters here after Party's State committee meeting.

The Bell ringing agitation was also to condemn the Centre's failure to prevent suicide by farmers and control the rising prices of essential commodities.

Alleging that the UPA government had totally failed to combat cross border terrorism, he said India had become a recruiting ground for Islamic fundamentalists under the name of different organisations, particulary in States like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The crack down on the activities of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in the aftermath of the recent serial blasts in Mumbai showed that the outfit was active in India.

''The SIMI is recruiting unemployed youth and sending them to Pakistan and Bangladesh for training to execute their plans in India,'' he alleged.

Mr Dattatreya claimed that Bangladesh infiltrators were present in places like Coimbatore and Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu and also SIMI-linked youths in Tirunelveli, Ramanathapuram, Thanjavur and Chennai.

He also alleged that Hyderabad was the ''biggest'' centre for all activities and the conspiracy for attacks in Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai and Varanasi were hatched there.

The Centre had not taken any stringent measures to combat terrorism. ''It (the UPA government) did not have the political will, which has led to increase in terrorist activities in the country,'' he added.

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