Sydney hostage crisis: BJP urges to fight it with unity

Reacting to the ongoing hostage crisis in Sydney, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said there was a need to counter the incident in a united manner.

"This is a poison which requires everybody to cooperate, fight and eliminate before it creates a very serious havoc in our country," said BJP spokesperson MJ Akbar.

"This only proves how far the poison has spread, it doesn't now stay in any single geography, it is not even within the geography of the region between Pakistan and Iraq and beyond, and it is spread even up to Australia," he added.

Earlier in the day, an armed man took an undisclosed number of people hostage at the Martin Place Cafe in Sydney and displayed a black flag with Arabic script in the window, sparking a security alert in Australia.

Authorities in Australia have reportedly sealed off surrounding streets in Sydney, evacuated people from buildings, and suspended rail services following the incident.

Meanwhile, experts have called for an anti-terrorist international organization to deal with such events and have also warned that through such activities the terrorists are sending out a message to the important nations of the world that this is what they can do.