The Congress on Saturday came down heavily on the BJP accusing it of having "links with terrorists" and urged its leadership to explain why their activists were found to have direct or indirect connections with anti-nationals in a handful of recent incidents across the country.
Addressing a press conference here, All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson Dasoju Sravan asked if the activists of the nation's ruling party themselves are involved in such activities, then who is there to protect the people of the country and to safeguard national security.
Pointing out a number of recent heinous crimes, including the barbaric killing of a tailor in Rajasthan's Udaipur, the Congress leader alleged that the connection of the accused in such incidents with the BJP had been exposed but the party leadership was continuing its silence.
"If a ruling party, that too a self-styled nationalist and patriotic party, has relationship...links with the terror activities, all of us are in danger...the country is in danger...the people are in danger. And it is important for all of us to ask straight questions to the BJP as to why this nexus exists," Mr. Sravan said.
Urging the saffron party to explain whether the "terrorist links" was a "sheer coincidence" or "conspiracy", he said the Congress has been raising these question for the past few days but the BJP was not ready to break their silence.
"Being a self-styled patriotic party, why the BJP have a nexus with terrorists and why it does not open its mouth is the question," the leader added.
The AICC spokesperson's press meet, held at the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office, in Thiruvananthapuram was part of a series of press meets held by the Congress in 22 cities across the country today seeking to corner the ruling BJP over the issue of terror and its alleged links with terrorists.
The Congress has alleged that Riyaz Attari, one of the prime accused in the killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan's Udaipur, was a BJP member. It has also released his photographs purportedly with BJP leaders in Rajasthan.
The BJP, however, has denied any link with such elements and claimed that some of them had clicked pictures with its leaders after infiltrating the party ranks.
The Congress also claimed that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Talib Hussain Shah who was nabbed by people in Reasi town in Srinagar recently was an office-bearer of the BJP's minority cell in Jammu and Kashmir, a charge denied by the BJP leadership in the Union Territory.
