The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena Sunday slammed the Congress over Vijay Wadettiwar’s purported remarks, saying ‘Kasab did not kill ATS chief Hemant Karkare’, and alleged that the grand old party is giving clean chit to Pakistan in the terror attack case.
In a post on X, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, “Shocking & unbelievable. Congress gives clean chit to Pakistan again on 26/11…No wonder Pakistan is praying for Congress and Rahul…Congress is again putting Votebank Rajniti above Rashtraniti…After crying for Batla, Afzal, Yakub, and Naxals and labelling them Shaheed now doubting patriots like Ujjwal Nikam & clean chit to Pak! Bharat won’t ever forget these traitors.”
During a media interaction, Wadettiwar allegedly said that the Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare was not killed by Ajmal Kasab’s bullet during the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai, but was shot by a policeman who was affiliated to RSS and accused Ujjwal Nikam as an “anti-national” for hiding the information.
Former special public prosecutor Nikam was recently fielded by the BJP as a candidate from the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency replacing sitting MP Poonam Mahajan.
Shiv Sena leader Milind Deora said, “It is a very shameful statement…During the 26/11 attack…I saw the pain, suffering and terror that the people of South Mumbai, Maharashtra and India had to witness during that time. The government back then was trying to demonstrate that Pakistan was behind this attack on Indian soil…Even at that time leaders from the same party went out and released a book and tried to blame one particular religion. As an Indian, a responsible leader from an Opposition party is making this statement for the second time from the same party and giving a clean chit to Pakistan.”
When asked about his statement, Wadettiwar clarified that those were not his words but were based on the book “Who Killed Karkare”, written by retired police officer SM Mushriff. “Those are not my words, I just said what was written in the book by SM Mushrif. Every information was there about the bullet by which Hemant Karkare was shot, it was not the bullet of terrorists.”
#WATCH | Kolhapur, Maharashtra: On his reported statement about the killing of former Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar says, “Those are not my words, I just said what was written in the book by SM Mushrif. Every information was there about… pic.twitter.com/avLzLZRbqL
— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2024
Earlier, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also condemned Congress leader Vijay’s purported remarks on 26/11 martyrs and Mumbai Police.
“Wadettiwar should be detained by NIA and investigated to find out why is defending terrorist Ajmal Kasab (who was hanged after trial). The Congress party promotes terrorism,” the Shiv Sena said in a statement, PTI news agency reported.