India's security under threat, says Advani

Bhopal, Oct 5 (UNI) Senior BJP leader L K Advani today expressed serious concern over the threat to India's internal security and decried the UPA government's casual approach in dealing with cross border terrorism.

''The Centre should follow zero-tolerance policy with regard to terrorist activities'', he told reporters here.

Supporting the execution of Parliament attack case accused Mohammad Afzal, the former Deputy Prime Minister said the BJP would launch a country-wide debate for not changing the verdict against Afzal. ''Sparing such terrorists would be like creating martyrs'', he said.

A decision to launch the debate was taken at a meeting held at the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday, he said.

Stating that the UPA government had failed to follow the right foreign policy, Mr Advani said India was a victim of cross border terrorism. He criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his recent statement that Pakistan was also a victim of terrorism.

The BJP leader said the Prime Minister's comment drew unprecedented criticism from a number of senior officials associated with RAW, IB and other security agencies.

He said terrorist incidents in the country gave credence to the 'Bharat Suraksha Yatra'' taken out by BJP to highlight threat to internal security.

The BJP leader said an impression was gained that the government was serious to check terrorist activities after the Prime Minister's statement after the Mumbai train blasts that there was no propriety of talks with Pakistan. However, subsequent incidents showed the government was not much concerned about internal security, he added.

The Maharashtra police had also exposed the involvement of Pakistan's ISI in cross border terrorism in the context of the Mumbai train blast, Mr Advani added.

UNI Team-SP VD BS1502