10 May 2002

ADVANI SEES PAK HAND BEHIND GUJARAT RIOTS

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Friday allays MPs' fears assuring them that the relief camps opened for the communal violence victims in Gujarat will not be closed down. He wanted them to take his word that "the state government has not taken any such decision."

He told a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to the Home ministry that the Government would do everything necessary to restore normalcy in Gujarat, stressing that the Rajya Sabha resolution asking the Centre to act under Article 355 "has only made the government more conscious about this obligation."

Advani, however, has his own interpretation of the reasons behind the violence refusing to die down. He claimed "underworld elements being in touch with their mentors in Pakistan regarding retaliatory actions in Gujarat and even in parts of Maharashtra." He claimed intelligence intercepts support this theory.

Maintaining that help from across the border was being sought for supply of arms, ammunition and explosives for undertaking such acts of violence, he said "Pakistan-based leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba and elements of gangs of Dawood Ibrahim and late Abdul Latif are, in particular, involved in such conspiracies." END