Mamata government traded national security for vote bank: BJP

In the wake of the NIA's claim that the terrorists involved in the Burdwan blast had conspired to overthrow the government in Bangladesh, the BJP on Tuesday charged West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress of trading national security for the sake of vote bank.

A day after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) chargesheeted 21 people for conspiring with militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to topple the Dhaka government, Bharatiya Janata Party's national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh asked why the Mamata Banerjee government was deliberately allowing the terror module to flourish in the state.

"For cheap vote bank politics, national security has been traded. I want to ask why the Mamata Banerjee government opposed the NIA probe and who ordered the destruction of bombs that was recovered from the blast site?" Singh told media persons here.

"The NIA has clearly stated how the terror module flourished here and Bengal was being used to export terrorists.

"This has not happened in a day. You (Banerjee) have been in power for the past four years. What have you been doing?" Singh asked, referring to the October 2, 2014 blast in Burdwan district in which two JMB militants were killed and another was injured.

Accusing the Trinamool government of promoting only the "bomb-making" industry, Singh demanded Banerjee to publicly apologise for the Burdwan incident.

"The only industry that is visible in Bengal today is the bomb-making industry.

"Why no action has been taken against the administrative and police officers in the districts where the terror module flourished? It's time the chief minister apologises to people at large and tries to undo the harm that her government has done to national security," Singh said.