HDK denies saying Madrasa may shelter terrorists

Bangalore, Sept 19: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today denied that he had ever said that terrorists could take shelter in Madrasas in the State.

Speaking to a large gathering of Muslim religious heads at the Shabrul Irshad Arabic college on the teeming Tannery Road here, he said he had never taken the name of Madrasas during the Chief Ministers' meeting on internal security, convened by the Prime Minister in Delhi recently.

Media reports said Mr Kumaraswamy had said that intelligence sources had indicated that LeT terrorists were likely to infilter into Kolar district from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and were likely to take shelter in Madrasas. They had hatched plans to target major IT firms in Bangalore, temples and other vulnerable places.

Admitting that such a paragraph had indeed been included in the speech copy prepared by the Home department and circulated to the Press, Mr Kumaraswamy, however, said he did not refer to the copy as he delivered an extempore speech.

Interestingly, the paragraph was found only in English and Kannada speech copies, but not in Urdu.

''I did not read the speech copy before hand. It was my mistake.

Had I done that, I would have ordered its withdrawal forthwith. The controversial paragraph would not have creeped in had the Principal Secretary of the Home Department, who was on leave, or a couple of other key officials of the department been present. I know that such reports have brought pain to your hearts. I will never say something that pains my Muslim brethren. If I ever had to do it, I will not stay in the Chief Minister's 'Gaddi' even for a minute,'' he said.

UNI

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