UPA govt let terrorists go scot-free: BJP

A BJP MP alleged during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha on Friday that the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government had allowed Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) terrorists to go scot-free in the Samjhauta train blast case and had “defamed” the Hindu religion, a reference to the arrest of several Hindutva right-wingers.

Demanding a probe into the matter, Rajendra Agrawal (BJP) alleged that a former home minister, without naming P. Chidambaram, was behind the “conspiracy”.

“Sushilkumar Shinde said he was not the home minister then. We all know who was the home minister. There should be a probe to find out if there was a conspiracy,” he said.

Ten years ago, blasts in two coaches of the Samjhauta Express had charred 68 people to death near Panipat. While the needle of suspicion had pointed to LeT terrorists and SIMI activists, the investigators had held a group with right-wing Hindu leanings responsible for the blasts.

Another BJP MP said the then investigating officer in the case had claimed he had released a suspect under pressure.

The Samjhauta Express runs twice a week between Delhi and Lahore in Pakistan.

Mr Agrawal also referred to the Batla House encounter and the recent meeting of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi with the Chinese ambassador here and wondered whether the main opposition party was “complicit” with antiIndia forces.