Probe Cong leaders' role in 'supporting militancy' in Kishtwar: BJP

The BJP on Thursday demanded probe against role of Congress and its senior leader, whose brother was booked for alleged links with Hizbul Mujahideen terror outfit, in "supporting militancy" in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.

A dozen persons, including Mohammad Shafi Saroori, the brother of a state Congress vice president and former minister G M Saroori, were booked on Tuesday in two separate FIRs for their alleged links with Hizbul.

While six persons, who were named in one of the FIRs were arrested, six others, including Mohammad Shafi are at large and efforts were on to nab them, officials had said.

"The involvement of the brother of ex-minister of the Congress is a serious matter. More so, when the former MLA is also a close ally of ex-CM and presently the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad. We demand a probe into it, said Anil Gupta, state spokesperson of the BJP, in a press statement issued here.

He said that BJP appreciates the role of Jammu-Kashmir Police in carrying out thorough investigations in the re-emergence of terror activities including political killings of its leaders in Kishtwar and bringing to book those who are instrumental in providing moral and logistics support to the terrorists.

The BJP has also demanded a thorough probe of the role of Congress and its leaders in promoting terrorism in the state, he said.

"It also needs to be investigated as to why when the tactics of kidnapping was adopted by the terrorists in early 90s in Kashmir, the kith and kin of prominent Congress leaders alone were abducted and later released unharmed including brother-in-law of the same Congress leader whose brother Shafi has been booked for alleged links with Hizbul Mujahideen, a banned terrorist outfit, Gupta said.

Azad has been very critical of the Indian Army while maintaining a "soft corner for Pakistan and its proxies," he alleged.

Azad had also accused the Indian Army for killing more civilians in Kashmir than the terrorists despite the fact that Indian Army takes extra precautions to avoid any collateral damage, he said.

Speaking the same language as that of separatists, Saif-ud-Din Soz, the other Congress leader, had said that given a choice Kashmiris would prefer to be independent.

"There are enough clues available and the need of hour is that those who acted against the national interest should be exposed so that people know the true colour of the politicians in whom they imposed faith and the political parties for which they have been voting", demanded Brig Gupta.

However, Mohammad Shafi Saroori on Wednesday refuted the charges and claimed the case against him was "politically motivated".

After being declared terrorism-free over a decade ago, Kishtwar district was rocked by killings of four persons including a senior BJP leader and an RSS functionary and two weapons snatching incidents since November last year.

Three hardcore terrorists including Osama who was the brain behind the revival of militancy in the district were killed in an encounter with security forces at Batote along Jammu-Kishtwar highway on Saturday.