'Cong was soft on terror': PM in Gujarat poll salvo

Terrorism was at its peak under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the PM said at a public meeting in Mehmedabad town of Gujarat's Kheda district.

AHMEDABAD: The Congress views terrorism from "the prism of vote bank", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a scathing attack on the opposition party on Sunday, accusing it of crying in support of the terrorists at the time of the Batla House encounter in 2008.

"The Congress views terrorism from the prism of vote bank. Not only Congress, but many like-minded parties have come up now who view terrorism as a shortcut to achieving success and this small party's hunger for power is even bigger," he said, without naming the party. The PM accused the Congress of going soft on terror in a bid to protect its vote bank.

The Gujarat elections are expected to be a three-cornered contest, with the BJP launching a campaign blitzkrieg to retain power, the Congress seeking to gain lost ground and the Aam Aadmi Party looking to make inroads in the state.

Modi said the mouths of these parties remain "locked when big terrorist attacks take place so that their vote bank is not offended. They even go to courts from the back door to save terrorists". "When Batla House encounter took place, a Congress leader cried for terrorists," he said, adding "Gujarat and the country should remain alert from such parties".

The 2008 encounter, which was launched following specific input about the presence of terrorists affiliated with the Indian Mujahideen, resulted in the deaths of two terrorists hiding in a flat in the Batla House area in Okhla. A police officer was also killed in the operation on September 19, 2008.

The Gujarat police have said that the encounter was a result of investigations into the serial blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, in which 56 people were killed and 246 others injured.