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White paper covers up DMK's support to Muslim extremists, says Jaya

All India Anna DMK general secretary and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha today described the white paper on the February 14 serial blasts at Coimbatore, tabled by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi in the state assembly yesterday, as a cover-up for the DMK regime's tacit support to Muslim fundamentalist groups in the state.

In a strongly-worded statement in Madras, Jayalalitha alleged that the white paper was nothing but a belated attempt to whitewash the DMK regime's complicity with fundamentalist groups and Karunanidhi's election campaign speeches which provoked these groups towards violence against the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"I wonder why the white paper tries to hide the fact that the Coimbatore blasts were targeted at BJP leader L K Advani," she said.

Disputing the white paper's contention that the activities of Muslim fundamentalist groups in the state got a fillip after the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in 1992, Jayalalitha claimed that Tamil Nadu had remained unaffected by the demolition during the previous AIADMK regime.

The white paper had said the blasts in the RSS headquarters and Hindu Munnani office in Madras had occurred during the AIADMK regime.

Jayalalitha claimed that communal and caste clashes had started occurring in a big way in Tamil Nadu only after the DMK assumed office.

She claimed that Karunanidhi's campaign speeches, in which, according to her, he had warned that mosques would be demolished if the BJP came to power at the Centre, provoked the Muslim groups to indulge in violence.

She said the DMK government had released several Muslim fundamentalists detained under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act. Speeches made by two key fundamentalist leaders of banned groups -- Kunangudi Haniffa and Abdul Raheem -- showed how close they were to the DMK, she added.

She said the white paper only referred to the warnings issued by the state government to the Coimbatore police commissioner. It was not clear on why no orders were issued to apprehend the fundamentalists, she added.

Jayalalitha said the white paper attempted to shift the blame for the blasts onto the Coimbatore commissioner. "It is clear that we are being ruled by an inefficient government," she added.

Referring to the state government's promise to enact legislation to curb extremism, she wondered whether Karunanidhi thought the National Security Act would not be effective.

On the move to set up a special court to try the culprits behind the blasts, she feared that it might be an attempt to falsely implicate the DMK's political opponents in these cases.

Reiterating her demand for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the blasts, she said the white paper was nothing but a summary of haphazard steps taken by the DMK regime which is now afraid of the wrath of the Centre.

The Pakistani agency, the Inter Services Intelligence, has played havoc with peace in Tamil Nadu which will continue to remain a terrorist-affected state if there is no monitoring or drastic intervention on the part of the Centre, she said.

UNI

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