Addressing the Lok Sabha on the Ishrat Jahan case on Thursday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said there was a “deep conspiracy” to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the chief minister of Gujarat at the time. Singh added that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had flip-flopped on the fact that Jahan was a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, reported PTI. The home minister said Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley's recent deposition before a Mumbai court only reaffirmed the first affidavit filed by the UPA government on August 6, 2009, before the Gujarat High Court that Jahan had links with the LeT. Jahan and three other LeT operatives were killed in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004.
Singh also said that any issue related to terrorism should not be politicised. “Colour, creed and religion should not be associated with terrorism. Terror has no colour... The seculars (sic) gave colour to terrorism. Selective secularism cannot be accepted by the country,” he said. This was after the Bharatiya Janata Party moved a calling-attention motion on the Ishrat Jahan case, demanding a debate in the Lower House. Following the BJP's allegations, Congress MPs staged a walkout, while other Opposition leaders disrupted Parliament proceedings, which led to a brief adjournment of the Lok Sabha.
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