BHUBANESWAR: India today asserted it would crush Saudi-born terrorist Osama bin Laden’s plan to launch jehad (holy war) against it.
"Terrorist organisations and their foreign patrons are mistaken if they think that India is a soft state that will be deterred by their violent threats and acts," Union Home Minister L K Advani told reporters here referring to Laden’s announcement of ‘jehad’ against India and the United States.
Advani said Laden’s threat was yet another instance of religious terrorism and an attempt to disturb the democratic process and communal peace in the country.
"Laden’s call has come in the wake of stepped-up attacks by ISI-backed terrorist organisations on Indian security forces and citizens after Pakistan’s humiliating defeat in Kargil, he said pleading that the country must pool all its resources to defeat Laden’s threat.
Laden’s plan will be crushed with the same firmness as was manifest in the operations against Pakistani intruders in Kargil, the Home Minister said.
Advani said the Government had launched a systematic drive to identify and neutralise the ISI modules, he said.
Advani, who addressed three election meetings in Orissa, charged the Congress Government in the state with failing to protect the minorities and to arrest Dara Singh, prime suspect in the killings of Australian missionary Graham Staines, his two sons and a Muslim trader.
The BJP leader ruled out permanently shelving the party’s pet issues of temple construction in Ayodhya, Uniform Civil Code and Article 370.
"There is no question of giving them up but whenever a coalition is formed on the basis of an agreed common programme it becomes the sole guide for governance, Advani said.
Terrorist organisations and their foreign patrons are mistaken if they think that India is a soft state that will be deterred by their violent threats and acts, Advani said.
Laden’s call also contained a threat to disrupt elections in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
Laden’s threat, Advani said, and continued terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East once again reminded the electorate that the country must have a strong and uncompromisingly nationalistic Government at the Centre to effectively foil the menace of terrorism and separatism.
The threat is also a reminder that frequent destabilisation of democratically elected Governments by the Congress and its corrupt and opportunistic allies like the RJD and the Communist Parties would cost the country dearly, he warned.
Advani said terrorism and religious fundamentalism made an explosive mix from which the world must be saved.
No corner of the world seems to be safe from the murderous eyes of such bigoted extremists, he said adding the recent string of explosions in Moscow, the like of which had been witnessed in India too, are a reminder to the world community that we must pull our will and resources to defeat this new menace to humanity. (PTI)
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