Cong, BJP trade barbs over report on LeT trying to lure victims

Amid reports that suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had approached Muzaffarnagar riot victims to recruit men to their module, Congress today said it has proved right Rahul Gandhi's assertions that Pakistan's ISI was working to lure the riot-hit while BJP asked the government to explain facts of the "LeT operation".

Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh said the report has lent credence to Gandhi's remarks on riot victims at an election rally in October last, which had invited flak from opposition parties.

"If this information is correct that some people from LeT had gone to relief camps to lure refugees, then it proves right what Gandhi had said," Singh told reporters.

According to a media report, two Haryana clerics arrested last month for their suspected links to Lashkar-e-Toiba, and another LeT operative, had allegedly visited Muzaffarnagar relief camps and sought to recruit men to their module.

Targeting BJP, Union minister Manish Tewari said, "Those who believe in the politics of polarisation, who believe in the politics of communalism should become cognizant of the damage which they do to the idea of India".

However, BJP demanded that the home minister explain the "facts", terming the present situation as "unacceptable",

"This shows how well-entrenched the network of LeT and other such outfits supported and funded by Pakistan are in UP...What action they have taken on their own. It is a national issue. Nobody is nabbed, nobody is traced. This is unacceptable," party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

Now the UP government and the Centre must answer, he said, adding the BJP had sought to know from the Centre as to what action it had taken on its own after Gandhi had spoken about it.

SP leader Naresh Agarwal said Muzaffarnagar had become a "political pawn" for many parties but added that he was not aware of the facts of the case.

Delhi Police should do what it should but let there be no politics over it, he said.