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May 15, 2008
Put ISI on
International Watch List: BJP
New Delhi
India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday
demanded that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) be put on
the watch list of the international community "for fomenting
divisive activities in this country".
"The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government
should make immediate diplomatic efforts to put ISI on the
international watch," BJP president Rajnath Singh said in a
statement.
The BJP chief was commenting on the serial blasts in Jaipur Tuesday
evening which left at least 61 people dead and 216 injured.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will travel to Islamabad
to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Shah Mehmood
Qureshi May 21. The foreign secretaries of the two countries will
meet the day before.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon Wednesday made it clear that
terrorism was back on the agenda for talks with Pakistan.
However, so far India has not blamed Pakistan or any other country
for the Jaipur blasts.
In the wake of the Jaipur blasts, BJP has mounted a frontal attacked
on the Manmohan Singh government for its alleged soft stance on
terrorism.
The party has been ruling Rajasthan, of which Jaipur is the capital,
for nearly four and a half years.
"The existence of over 500 sleeper modules operated directly and
indirectly by the ISI in almost all parts of the country is a clear
indication that India is virtually sitting on a tinder box," Singh
said.
Accusing the Congress of playing divisive politics, Singh quoted a
recently released report on global terrorism by the US Department of
State, which said 2,300 people were killed in terror attacks in
India in 2007 - nearly 10 percent of 22,685 people killed by
terrorists in the world during the period.
BJP's spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Ravi Shankar Prasad told
reporters that Mukherjee must raise India's concerns on terrorism
with his Pakistani counterpart during their talks in Islamabad.
"At the same time, the government must evolve a mechanism to share
credible intelligence inputs with the states to avert terror
attacks. The centre and states must work in tandem to deal with
terrorism, the biggest challenge the country is facing."
The party spokesperson said the government had strengthened the
morale of terrorists by withdrawing the Prevention of Terror Act (POTA).
"A stern mechanism is required to deal with terrorism. They are now
targeting the country's centres of economy like Jaipur, Mumbai,
Bangalore, and Hyderabad," Prasad said.
May 15, 2008
IANS | Top
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