Political will important in tackling terrorism: Rahul

Jalandhar, Sep 24 (UNI) Congress general secretary and MP Rahul Gandhi today stressed that the menace of terrorism could not be fought by stringent laws alone but needed a ''strong political will''.

"Fighting terrorism is all about political will, which has been amply demonstrated by our Prime Minister, who has neither compromised on this issue in the past nor would he do so in future,'' asserted Mr Gandhi while responding to a media query about the need to re-invoke stringent laws like POTA in view of recent terror attacks in the national capital.

The now defunct Prevention of Terrorists Act (POTA) had failed to tackle terrorism and was instead being ''misued to settle old scores,'' Mr Gandhi said adding that "I agree to the fact that we need a stern law to deal with terrorists but there is no logic in re-implementing POTA.'' Addressing media persons on the final leg of his three-day ''motivation'' tour of Punjab to strengthen the Youth Congress, Mr Gandhi said POTA could not prevent the terror attack on the Parliament nor could it bring to book the terrorists responsible for the Kandhar plane hijack, during which the NDA government ''bowed down and released terrorist leaders who later carried out many terror acts in India while safely sitting in Pakistan".

''At least the UPA government can not be accused of making such compromises regarding national security and the PM was seriously working to bring all political parties to a consensus regarding an effective policy to root out terrorism,'' he said.

UNI XC JN BP1839