Aurangabad, Aug 26: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today dismissed the suggestion that yesterday's Mumbai blasts could have been a fallout of the Gujarat riots. "I feel sad when they say that it was due to Gujarat. It has nothing to do with Gujarat. Had it been due to incidents in Gujarat, they would have happened in Gujarat and not in Mumbai, Delhi, South India and other parts of the country," he said.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chagan Bhujbal had earlier in the day claimed there was a link between the blasts and Gujarat riots and that outfits connected to Pakistan-based terrorist groups, alongwith locals, were involved in it.

Advani said that the primary reason behind the tension between India and Pakistan was not Kashmir but the fact that India was progressing and Pakistan was moving backwards.
He accused Pakistan of not only harbouring but also protecting in huge bungalows the 19 terrorists wanted by India, some of whom were involved in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts in which over 250 persons were killed.

Advani said the country will have to think about the philosophy and ideology which has been behind the terrorist attacks in the last 20 years as also about the country which has been directly or indirectly supporting it.
The Deputy Prime Minister blamed the outlawed SIMI and Lashkar-e-Taiba for yesterday's blasts in Mumbai.

Interestingly, Advani constantly referred to Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar, a nomenclature for the city used by Sangh Parivar and Shiv Sena.
Bureau Report