"Since when has BJP started believing terrorists?" Congress wondered today, taking a dig at the ruling party for relying on David Headley's claim that Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative.
Party leader Kapil Sibal told reporters that it was "very surprising" as also a "matter of some concern" that suddenly BJP and its leaders have got implicit faith in terrorists and what they say.
"All over the world, Headley is a known terrorist, not to be believed. Suddenly BJP finds truth in what he says", Sibal said, taking a jibe at the ruling party remarking that it would now also believe in what Masood Azhar and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi are saying.
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Trashing demands of BJP that the Congress leadership should apologise in the matter, Sibal said that the implicit faith in the statements of Headley was "yet another example of opportunism of BJP".
Sibal, a senior advocate, also took exception to the way the public prosecutor in the case put "leading questions" to Headley on the Ishrat Jahan issue.
Congress has been insisting that the "fundamental question" was whether she and her accomplices were killed in a "fake" encounter.
Headley yesterday said that Ishrat Jahan -- who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 in Gujarat -- was actually an Lashkar-e-Taiba operative.
(Reopens DEL 49)
When asked about BJP's repeated demand for an apology from the Congress for allegedly using Ishrat Jahan encounter as a political conspiracy, Singhvi hit back asserting that even a suspected terrorist cannot be "liquidated, assassinated in a fake encounter".
"BJP sees politics in very bush and play politics in every sentence. The Gujarat Police do not appear to have given a chance to a suspected terrorist to be caught, prosecuted, jailed and even hung as we hung Kasab and Afzal Guru.
"What you did was to liquidate her in a fake encounter which has no relevance to Headley's testimony of a suspected terrorist. A suspected terrorist actually should have been tried and hung like Kasab and Afzal Guru," Singhvi said.
Noting that the the High Court held that it was a "fake" encounter and there is no Supreme Court order over-turning it, Singhvi said,"we go by an objective standard. The objective standard is a concurrent finding undisturbed till today that you were liquidated, assassinated in a fake encounter.
"Now whether you are guilty or innocent, either the Gujarat Government should have given the opportunity to that person to be proved guilty or they should have taken action under the law.
