The Hindu : Kerala News : ‘Keep religion off terrorism’

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Sunday, Nov 16, 2008
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‘Keep religion off terrorism’

A Correspondent

Yechury sore at role of youth in extremist activities

Seeks action against all involved in terrorism
Says violence by Hindu extremist outfits not new

Nedumbassery: Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury has said that measures to counter terrorism should be taken keeping in mind the fact that religion has nothing to do with terrorist activities.

Talking to The Hindu here on Saturday, he said what was required was the application of equal standards to everyone involved in terrorist activities, and to realise that terrorism had no religious basis. He said that it was the youth of the country who unfortunately got involved in all these activities.

He said that action should be taken against all those who were involved in such terrorist activities and the yardstick to be applied against these elements should be equal, irrespective of the persons involved.

“You cannot have different yardsticks for different persons and different kinds of terrorism in one country,” he said.

He said that violence by some Hindu extremist outfits was not a new phenomenon. These groups had a history of violence in politics and cited the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and some other violent incidents as examples.

“This is a part of their philosophy and this has nothing to do with the Hindu religion. But, this is a policy of an organisation which uses violence as an instrument for mere political gains,” he said.

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