Snap ties with Pak if it refuses to mend ways: Rajnath to Govt

New Delhi, Oct 17: Taking exception to the reported statement of Pakistan Foreign Minister Kursheed Mehmood Kasuri offering to plead for clemency on behalf of Mohammad Afzal, convicted by Supreme Court in the Parliament attack case, the BJP today demanded the government warn it that India would snap all its ties, with if did not mend its ways.

Addressing a rally and a dharna organised by Delhi BJP unit to pay respect for the innocent victims of Sarojini Nagar bomb blasts last year, BJP President Rajnath Singh, without referring Mr Kasuri, said that yesterday a Pakistan official was pleading for clemency for a convict and is this what the joint mechanism meant for, he said, taking a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for taking a 'U-turn' barely a month after the Mumbai blasts and announcing a joint mechanism with Pakistan -- "a perpetrator of terror" at Havana.

Urging President A P J Abdul Kalam not to entertain the demand for clemency to the convict who was unrepentant about his crime, Mr Singh said that a mercy petition is valid only if the guilty person files it. "The country is not safe in the hands of UPA Government which is fond of pandering the separatists elements with kid glove treatment for appeasing the minorities, ''he alleged.

Calling Pakistan a 'rougue state', the BJP President said there were reports that A Q Khan, believed to be the father of Pakistan's Nuclear Bomb was actively involved in smuggling of nuclear technology, stressing that people wanted to know if this technology was provided to terrorist organisations like al-Qaeda and demanding that the Pakistan's nuclear programmes be brought under intense scan of international nuclear agencies.

Meanwhile BJP General Secretary and former Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley said that the neighbouring country pleas for Afzal's clemency were only "candid confirmations" of its own involvement in cross border terrorism inflicted upon India. He said Afzal was an Indian citizen and the Judiciary and the country was capable of dispensing justice to its subject according to law and there was no scope for any other country to plead the case for Indian nationals.

Recalling the desire expressed at the Committee of Secretaries to come out with War Against Terrorism Act (WOTA), Mr Jaitley claimed the UPA government had repealed POTA in pursuance of its vote bank politics. Two vital provisions -- treating confession made before a police officer and making bail difficult for those charged under the act should be brought back to strengthen the authorities to fight terrorist designs. Gujarat and Rajasthan states should be allowed to have the same provisions that were in place in the states of Maharshtra and Karnataka framed to fight organised terror. "If TADA were not to be in place, than there would have been no conviction in Rajiv Gandhi assassination", he remarked.

UNI

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