India victim of 'jihadi terrorism': Arun Jaitley

Hyderabad, Oct 6: Describing India as a victim of 'jihadi terrorism' perpetrated by Al-Qaeda led by Osama-bin-Laden, BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley today demanded the UPA enact stringent Legislation on the lines of the repealed Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), to fight against the increasing terrorist attacks in the country.

''The Harkat-Ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI) involved in the terrorist strikes in Hyderabad and other places in the country is an outsourced organisation of the Al-Qaeda,'' the BJP leader claimed, while addressing the national convention of BJP's legal cell.

After barbed fencing of India's western borders, terrorist outfits operating in the country had shifted their bases to Nepal and Bangladesh, Mr Jaitley contended, adding that the porus border with Bangaldesh was posing a ''grave threat'' to national security.

Accusing the UPA of weakening the national resolve to fight against terror, he wanted the Manmohan Singh Government to give a ''free hand'' to the investigating agencies to infiltrate into terrorist modules and forestall terrorist strikes well ahead of time.

''Indecisiveness of the Congress is costing the country dearly'', he claimed.

The Congress was demoralising the security agencies by adopting a 'soft approach' to the serious issue succumbing to vote bank politics, he alleged, asking ''how the country can cope with the situation if the Centre is half-hearted in its approach.'' Most of the attacks by the Jehadi terrorist attacks had happened in the non-BJP ruled states as the Congress-ruled states did not give a ''free hand'' to security agencies as part of its policy of ''appeasement of minorities'', he alleged.

On the political crisis in Karantaka he said, ''there is never a last day in the calendar of politics. The day of reckoning would come soon and the people of Karnataka would teach the JD(S) a fitting lesson in the elections.''

The JD(S) had further downgraded politics in the eyes of the public and it was a great blow to the credibility of politics and politicians, Mr Jaitley opined, lamenting, ''it is unfortunate that a person like former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda himself had gone back on his words.''

Highlighting the growth of BJP as the single largest party in Karnataka with 80 seats in the present State Assembly from the mere four seats during BJP's infancy, he expressed confidence that BJP would grab 120 Assembly seats in the next elections to form the first BJP Government in the South.

Opining that individual states could not, on their own, tackle terrorism which had inter-state and international ramifications, former BJP National President M Venkaiah Naidu urged the Centre to constitue a 'federal agency' to curb the menace.

Earlier, inaugurating the convention, BJP National spokesman Prakash Javadekar said unlike in India, USA had not witnessed major terrorist attacks after World Trade Centre incident, since stringent legislation was put in place there.

Parliament attack case accused Afsal Guru would not have been convicted but for POTA, he opined.

Referring to the Congress agreement that terrorist strikes had happened inspite of POTA, he said terrorists should be gunned down whether it was in the case of attack on Akshardam or Ragunath temple or Parliament.

On the other hand, terrorists were neither arrested in the case of recent strikes in Hyderabad nor at Ayodhya, Mumbai and Malagaon, he contended.

''If the UPA does not hang the Parliament attack case convict, people will hang the Government'', he warned.

He charged the Manmohan Singh Government with not allowing the prosecuting agency to go ahead with prosecution whether it was the Bofors case or criminal cases against Central Ministers.

As many as 70,000 people were killed in terrorist strikes as against about 6,000 people in four wars the country faced, BJP Legal Cell National Convenor Pinky Anand said, adding that 3,674 innocent people were killed since the UPA assumed office with 156 districts in 13 states affected by terrorism.

The Congress-led Governent misused Constitutional bodies including the office of Governor in Jharkhand and Goa, claimed former Union Minister and BJP State President Bandaru Datattreya.

UNI