The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Centre urged to pressure UN for action against Pak, Bangladesh

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Wednesday, Sep 19, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Centre urged to pressure UN for action against Pak, Bangladesh

Every State has a sleeper module of the ISI
They are more dangerous than a nuclear bomb

HYDERABAD: Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh urged the Centre to mount pressure on the United Nations Security Council to warn Pakistan and Bangladesh that economic sanctions would be imposed if they failed to comply with its resolution 1373 on containing terrorism.

At a press conference here on Tuesday, he demanded that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government intensify diplomatic efforts to enforce the resolution. Pakistan and Bangladesh were neither cooperating in the war against terrorism nor were ready to dismantle the terrorist training centres and infrastructure.

Charging the UPA government with being soft on terrorism, he said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not mentioned terrorism during his speech on August 15 from the ramparts of the Red Fort. “Every State has a sleeper module today. ISI-aided sleeper modules are more dangerous than a nuclear bomb.” He accused the government of neither having any policy nor the political will to deal with this “deadly menace.”

Mr. Singh said it was “shameful” that the U.N. Security Council had raised questions about India’s ability to fight terrorism. The counter-terrorism committee, set up post 9/11 to implement the 1373 resolution, said India lagged in efforts to contain terrorism. It faulted India for not cracking down on informal channels of financing terrorism, such as hawala. Also, India lacked legislation that allowed the use of techniques such as e-surveillance.

He said the BJP would support the UPA government if it brought in legislation more stringent than POTA.

On the recent bomb blasts here, he said it was unfortunate that the investigations were being viewed through a “communal” angle.

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