Union Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said on the question of the country’s safety and security, the Congress party, Trinamool Congress and the Opposition sided with the terrorists and an attempt was made to break the morale of the police with respect to the heinous act of terrorism committed in Delhi.

A day after a Delhi court convicted an Indian Mujahideen operative Ariz Khan in Batla House encounter, Prasad pointed that after the encounter, Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Salman Khursheed, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, Left parties as well as the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party had termed the encounter as staged by the police and called it fake.

“Now when the country’s court has given its verdict of finding these terrorists guilty and sentenced him based on more than 100 witnesses, scientific evidence, and medical evidence, will all these parties apologise to the nation,” he questioned’.

Prasad further stated that according to Khursheed, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had tears in her eyes after hearing about the killing of the terrorists in the Batla House encounter.

“Is Sonia Gandhi still crying after the court found the Indian Mujahideen terrorist, Ariz Khan alias Junaid guilty? Now what will Sonia Gandhi say on the Batla House encounter,” Prasad asked.

Quoting a media report dated October 17, 2008, Prasad said, “Media report says that Mamta Banerjee had gone to Jamia Nagar and had said that the Batla House encounter was fake and that if it is proven that the encounter is not fake then she will quit politics.

“The BJP wants to ask Mamata Banerjee, when is she quitting politics,” Prasad asked.

Prasad mentioned that besides the Batla House encounter case, Ariz Khan alias Junaid was also a conspirator in the Lucknow court blast case, Faizabad and Varanasi blasts, as well as in the blasts orchestrated in Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

“The Congress, Left parties, Mamtaji and the Samajwadi Party (SP) as well as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) made the Batla House encounter a national issue and tried to weaken India’s fight against terrorism. Questions were also raised on the bravery and valour of the Delhi Police. Will India’s fight against terrorism be weaken like this all the time in the name of vote bank politics,” he said.

“A coordinated and planned strategy against this terrorists, after the BJP formed the government at the centre under the leadership of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Terrorist Ariz Khan was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police from Nepal in 2018,” Prasad said.