Oppn politicising SIMI encounter to prevent BJP's popularity: Swamy

Reacting to opposition parties questioning the veracity of the encounter of SIMI terrorists in Bhopal, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy today said all political parties are living in neurosis of how to prevent the saffron outfit from getting more popular.

Swamy said the BJP earned accolades from all quarters post the surgical strikes which frightened the opposition parties.

"It is a tragedy that today the opposition is living in neurosis of how to prevent the BJP from becoming more popular. After the surgical strike across the Line of Control, there was international appreciation and then the opposition here got frightened," said Swamy.

"Now, the terrorists have got a message that you will escape, we will chase you and you won't even be in the position to go for trial because once you are out in the society we will put an end to you. And just to prevent the credit going to the BJP, the opposition is doing all this drama," he added.

The opposition parties have been cornering the BJP ruled- Madhya Pradesh Government over the killing of eight people from the banned SIMI group.

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh yesterday questioned the authenticity of the encounter video.

The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister wondered as to what is the reason that only Muslims break out of jail and not Hindus while stating that he was against all those playing politics in the name of religion.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) dubbed the encounter as "dubious" and demanded an explanation from the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government.

In response, Chouhan condemned the opposition parties for indulging in vote bank politics.

"I don't know what sort of political mudslinging has begun. Few leaders of our nation cannot see the martyrdom of our soldiers. They cannot see the sacrifice of Ramashankar Yadav. They are the ones who murdered Shiv Prasad Kushwaha. They killed Sitaram Yadav in Khandwa. Some people are doing vote bank politics on this matter which is highly condemnable. One must refrain from doing this," he said.

The Chief Minister said it is extremely unfortunate that they do not utter a word about the martyrdom of the soldiers.

On Monday, eight terrorists of the banned group SIMI were killed in an encounter after escaping from the Bhopal Central Jail.