Modi govt can't take credit for UN action on Azhar: Raj Babbar

Senior Congress leader Raj Babbar claimed Friday that the United Nations (UN) designated Jaish- e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a "global terrorist" for his activities in Afghanistan, and not for the Pulwama and Pathankot terror attacks in India.

The credit for getting Azhar designated as a global terrorist went to the previous UPA government because it was related to Afghanistan and was the result of a process started by the Manmohan Singh government in 2008-09, he told reporters here.

Babbar, who heads the Uttar Pradesh unit of Congress, further said that while designating Azhar as a global terrorist, the UN did not mention Pulwama and Pathankot attacks, but the Narendra Modi government was claiming credit for the development.

"You (the then BJP government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee) had released Masood Azhar and taken him to Kandahar," he said, referring to the 1999 Indian Airlines aircraft hijacking.

"The credit for getting Masood Azhar designated as global terrorist should go to our foreign policy which Manmohan Singh and our other senior leaders executed. They (the current NDA government) are trying to take credit for the process started by the UPA government," Babbar said.

"We got a dreaded terrorist like Hafiz Saeed designated as a global terrorist in 2008-09. But we have not taken any credit for it. We brought several terrorists including Lashkar-e-Taiba's operations commander Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi under this category," the Congress leader said.

"Now they are claiming credit and what will they do when the truth comes out?" he asked.

Referring to the BJP's decision to field Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur against Congress veteran Digvijay Singh from Bhopal, Babbar said at this rate the saffron party would be "sitting in jail to look for candidates".