Author: PTI
Publication: times of India
Date: October 13, 2001
NEW DELHI: The BJP's mouthpiece
said that the one way for the US to redeem its friendship with India was
to make a Noriega of Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of terrorist organisation
Jaish-e-Mohammed, by handing him over to India.
An editorial in party journal 'BJP
Today' said "one way the US can redeem its friendship with India could
perhaps be to make a Noriega of Masood Azhar and hand him over to India
as demanded by Home Minister L.K. Advani."
Manuel A. Noriega was the president
of the Panamian Republic in the backyard of the US, who was so much steeped
in the drug business that America virtually arrested him in his home country
and brought him to the US for facing trials on charge of drug-trafficking.
The editorial said that Masood as
well as Dawood Ibrahim, who was allegedly involved in the Mumbai bomb blasts
in 1993, were "equally ruthless criminals. World opinion would favour making
Noriegas of Masood and Dawood. As for Pakistan, the client state, all it
would do after this operation is to twiddle its thumb at this 'outrage'
by the US. After all, Pakistan is also a conduit for drug trafficking besides
being the epicentre of terrorism."
It further said that the declaration
by US secretary of state Colin Powell that terrorism in Kashmir would be
dealt with after the US and the entire world took care of al-Qaeda was
unlikely to wipe out the tears from the eyes of Jammu and Kashmir Chief
Minister Farooq Abdullah and his countless compatriots all over the country
nor would it extinguish the fire in those hearts calling for action against
terrorists based in Pakistan.
"What every patriotic Indian wants
today is action - decisive action - against terrorists based in Jammu and
Kashmir or across the line of control," it said.
The editorial added that India should
prepare a case before the UN security council for invoking the resolution
against terrorism citing examples of terrorist attacks in India. (PTI)
