Advani responsible for delay in Guru hanging : Congress

New Delhi, Nov 24 (UNI) Disturbed by the continuing attack by the BJP over the delay in the execution of Parliament attack case accused Mohammed Afzal Guru, the Congress today said BJP leader L K Advani was responsible for the delay.

AICC Spokesman Manish Tewari told mediapersons that the mercy petition of Afzal Guru was the 26th in the list of several such petitions pending before the President for a final decision.

He said decisions were not taken in many execution cases when Mr Advani was Home Minister for six years. This had resulted in accumulation of pending cases and delay in the final decision, including that relating to the hanging of Afzal Guru which was listed as 26th in the list, by the present government.

Referring to the ongoing investigations into the alleged involvement of right wing Hindu organisations in the Malegaon blast, Mr Tewari alleged that it was also established that the VHP's International Secretary Pravin Togadia had provided the initial funds to Abhinav Bharat, which masterminded the conspiracy behind the Malegaon blast.

He said Mr Togadia had been opposing any narco test on the accused of the Malegaon blast during the past one month as "he was afraid of his role being exposed." Mr Tewari alleged that the RSS in Nepal was outsourcing its training camps to Maoist activists.

''The BJP was defending the accused of the Malegaon case as it wanted to malign the investigation as new revelations were embarrassing for it,'' Mr Tewari maintained.

The BJP, he said, was also trying to communalise terrorism and trying to divert the attention of the people to terrorism from the non-performance of its governments in states.

When his attention was drawn to the BJP's criticism that the UPA government was using the Malegaon investigations as a political weapon, Mr Tewari said the BJP, which had been charging the government with being soft on terror, was now taking a 'u-turn' in the context of revelations about the involvement of the people sponsored by it.

"Our policy on terror has been consistent," he said.

Asked why the government was not ordering a judicial inquiry into the Batla House encounter, Mr Tewari said, ''The issue was under scrutiny by the National Human Rights Commission.

"The NHRC has powers to issue directions for inquiry," he informed.

UNI SH AE HS1945