Akhilesh Yadav criticises BJP, says "If I am a terrorist, then so are they"

|HT|

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav launched an all-out attack at BJP leaders over their remarks that the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts caseterrorist kin had links to the Samajwadi Party.

“I saw BJP leaders touching the feet of a Pakistani General who later went on to become the President. If I am a terrorist, then so are they,” he said. Responding to the photos shared by Union minister Anurag Thakur that allegedly show the convicted terrorist’s father with Akhilesh Yadav, he said, “If just a photo is a parameter, with which leader can pics of industrialists running out of the country with money be seen?”

“As far as Anurag Thakur is concerned, he's a minister. When the (Ahmedabad) blast took place, around that time I and others sat in the same vehicle and went to the Defence office for Territorial Army training. If I'm a terrorist, so are they. Ask him about this,” SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, during his election rally in Pilibhit district yesterday, linked the SP chief to one of the terrorist involved in the 2008 Ahmedabad blast case. “An Ahmedabad court pronounced the quantum of sentence for 38 terrorists in the (2008) serial blasts case. Capital punishment and life imprisonment were awarded. They included some terrorists from UP too. And, the family of one of them was seen with the SP chief asking for votes for the party,” he said.

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