(Image source from: BJP demands apology from Sonia and Rahul in Ishrat Jahan case})

Home Minister Rajnath Singh led the clarion call for the Congress and other parties to apologise and said, "You must have heard what David Headley has just said in Court, that Ishrat Jahan was a suicide bomber. Ishrat Jahan regarding whom so many accusations were cast on our leaders. Tell me, will the accusing political parties now apologise to the nation for trying to fool the people?"

"I think Pakistan has been exposed. Even then, we would like to have a very cordial relationship with Pakistan," Singh told the media.

Headley had so far stated in the special court that the ISI of Pakistan was helping different terror outfits and was providing the financial, military and moral support. Headley admitted that, he had conducted recce of the places in Mumbai which were attacked by 10 LeT terrorists on November 26, 2008 and also revealed that the outfit had initially planned to attack a conference of Indian defense scientists in the Taj Mahal Hotel. He said that he had conducted a recce of the famous Siddhivinayak Temple and Naval Air Station on directions of LeT commanders.

Headley stated in a Mumbai court that Lakhvi had mentioned a "botched-up operation" conducted in India by another LeT operative, Muzammil Butt, where a female member of the terror outfit was killed. Headley said, "(I was told) It was a shootout with police in which a (female) suicide bomber was killed." Headley said Jahan's name and told the court that "there is a female wing in LeT and one Abu Aiman's mother headed it."

Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley's deposition that Ishrat Jahan, was an LeT operative led to a political slugfest with BJP demanding that the Congress leadership should apologise for "targeting Narendra Modi over her killing at the cost of national security". BJP accused the Congress of politicising the encounter as part of its "hate politics" against Modi, and said that if its chief Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi had any "shame" left, they must apologise to the nation.

"Headley's deposition that she was a LeT's suicide bomber has unmasked those who do politics over terrorism. We do not expect any morality from Congress. But if Sonia and her son Rahul Gandhi, who is a champion in politics of conspiracy, have any shame left, then they must apologise to the nation. They should apologise to the police personnel' families who had to suffer after they were put in jail for killing these terrorists in encounter. Congress and its allies linked terrorists with religion to mask their corrupt governance," BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma said in a press conference.

By Premji