Gujarat has Congress, BJP in Twitter war over Indian Mujahideen

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad has said the banned terrorist organisation Indian Mujahideen was formed as a reaction to the 2002 Gujarat riots, echoing the National Investigative Agency’s claim and targeting the BJP which was in power in the state at the time.

ET had on Saturday reported that the NIA had said in its chargesheet filed on July 17, accusing five IM operatives of hatching a conspiracy for carrying out terrorist acts, that the organisation was formed in 2003 after mobilisation among Muslim youth due to factors such as the Gujarat riots and the Babri Masjid demolition. The NIA also said in its chargesheet that the IM nursed hatred against the Hindus.

“Indian Mujahideen (IM) was formed after Gujarat riots, says NIA in its charge sheet. Even now BJP&RSS will not desist from their communal politics?” Ahmad wrote on microblogging site Twitter on Sunday morning. Subsequently, he told the media that whoever in the country practised communal politics, “BJP or RSS or the Shiv Sena”, must desist from such politics. The BJP, however, reacted sharply, accusing the Congress of fomenting communalism with such statements.

“Is it not a fact that IM has links with Pakistanbased terrorist outfits? Is it not a fact that much before 2002, there was SIMI ( Student Islamic Movement of India) with designs to usher in terrorist attacks in India? These are all too well known. This competitive politics for vote bank to deliberately stoke communalism is reprehensible,” BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Ahmad suggested that organisations such as the IM existed only because of the likes of the BJP and its ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Prasad alleged that the Congress leaders were trying to divert attention from serious issues that their party’s government at the Centre had failed to address.

Former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu said Ahmad should stop “arguing in favour of terrorists” and termed his arguments as “stupid” since Pakistan was funding IM. BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi wrote on Twitter: “Shakeel Ahmed seems (to be) justifying IM, shares their objective and is sympathetic to their cause?”