Arrests of Indian Mujahideen terrorists is the best answer to BJP's charges: Sushil Kumar Shinde

NEW DELHI: The success in netting all top four Indian Mujahedeen (IM) terrorists in the last six months is the ‘best answer’ that the UPA government has given to the BJP’s charge that the government was weakkneed against terror, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has said. Speaking to ET, Shinde said the arrest of IM’s current chief Tehseen Akhtar on Tuesday was a ‘major success’ for the country’s intelligence and security agencies.

“We first got Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar last August. But we chose not to rest till we got the other two major terrorists too – Waqas and Tehseen Akhtar. The BJP in the past has hurled all sorts of accusations at us for not tackling terror. This is the best answer to those charges,” Shinde said.

Based on Tehseen’s disclosures, two more Pakistani terrorists planning to attack political rallies were apprehended near Gorakhpur on Thursday. This comes even as BJP President Rajnath Singh on Thursday said the UPA “had no comprehensive plan” to tackle terror. At a lecture in Chennai last October, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had said India’s approach against terrorism had been “weak of late”.

After the Hyderabad blasts last February in which the involvement of IM was found, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj termed the government’s response to the blasts as ‘routine’ and questioned the alertness levels of the government to such strikes.

But the recent spate of top IM arrests, with close co-operation from Nepal, has emboldened the government. When asked if the IM had been effectively decimated with these arrests, Shinde said he cannot conclusively say so.

“Whether the back of the IM has been broken—this I cannot say. But yes, their major men are now behind bars. The credit goes to the Intelligence Bureau and security agencies,” the Home Minister said. To buttress his case of UPA’s resolve to act against terrorists, Shinde also pointed out that the executions of the Mumbai 26/11 accused Ajmal Kasab and the Parliament attack accused Mohammad Afzal were carried out in his tenure.

The home minister had, however, earlier admitted to ET that it was a mistake on his ministry’s part that Afzal’s family wasn’t informed well in advance before the execution. Officials in IB as well as the Home Ministry meanwhile give credit to the ‘systems’ put in place by former Home Minister P Chidambaram for the present results.