Congress on Thursday demanded Centre's clarification on whether the US had given any assurance of help in combating terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir to reciprocate India's offer of assistance to Washington's ongoing campaign in Afghanistan. “We want the Centre to clarify its position in the matter,” senior CWC member and WBPCC president Pranab Mukherjee said at a sit-in demonstration in Kolkata organised by his party in connection with the preparation of the list of people below the poverty line.
India, he said, remained a victim of terrorism for a long time. Not only the common people, personalities like Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh had been slain by terrorists, he said. “We would like to ask (US) President George W Bush, (British) Prime Minister Tony Blair and the leaders of other allied countries whether they will reciprocate India's offer of assistance by helping to combat terrorists in J&K and destroy terrorist camps in Pakistan and apprehend (underworld don) Dawood Ibrahim,” the former minister of external affairs said.
Stating that ordinary Afghans were not associated with terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, he said that questions should also be raised on the justification of attacking the impoverished country in the name of wiping out terrorism.
Bureau Report