Rahul Gandhi's statements could compromise national security: Azam Khan

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Friday alleged that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is making statements and remarks that could compromise national security.

Reacting to Gandhi's remark on Muslim youth victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots being approached by Pakistan intelligence, Khan said the Uttar Pradesh Government had no knowledge of the intelligence information that the Congress number two spoke of at a rally yesterday.

"First, for an IB officer to disclose the secret to him when he does not hold a governmental post, and then to put that secret in a public space, it damages the integrity of the government. It shows that he is doused with responsibility, and he is making statements that can threaten the security of the country," Khan said.

Khan also urged Rahul Gandhi to come forward with the names of the Muslim youth that were allegedly contacted by Pakistani agents to help the Samajwadi Party-led Uttar Pradesh to take action accordingly.

"The Uttar Pradesh government is not aware of Rahul Gandhi's contact with Muslim youth in the state, which should be the case. He should tell us the names so that the government also takes note of it. ...You should come clean on the injustice you have committed to the Muslims of the riots and the danger you have put them in with your statements," he said.

Khan also asked Gandhi if he was trying to imply that all Muslim riot victims in the past have gone to ISI camps, which, he said, was the view of the RSS.

Earlier on Thursday, while maintaining his claim that the BJP has been igniting communal fires across the country, Rahul Gandhi revealed at a rally in Indore that 10 to 15 Muslim boys, who had lost their families in the recent riots in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, are being contacted by Pakistani intelligence.

"Day before yesterday, a police officer came to my office. He told me that in Muzaffarnagar there are 10 to 15 Muslim boys, who have lost their brothers and sisters in the riots. He told me that people from the Pakistan intelligence agencies are starting to talk to surviving victims of Muzaffarnagar. The police officer told me that he is trying to dissuade the youth," Gandhi said in Indore.

Violence broke out in the Kawal area of Muzaffarnagar on August 27, when members of a community returning from a panchayat meeting in Naglabadhod, three kilometres from Kawal, clashed with members of another community.