Cong., Left condemn terrorist attacks

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 12. The Congress president and Leader of the Opposition, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, has described the terrorist attacks in the U.S. as a ``crime against humanity''. In a statement here, she said the terror unleashed ``is unparalleled in its enormity and unpardonable in its barbarity''.

She also conveyed her condolences in a letter to the U.S. Ambassador-designate, Mr. Blackwill. Expressing deep sympathies to the President and the U.S. people, she said she watched with horror the scenes of devastation. ``The enormity of the loss and the cruelty of those responsible for it leaves us numb.''

The Left parties condemned the terrorist strikes in the United States which has resulted in vast destruction and loss of several thousand lives, spreading panic and fear across the country and the world.

Vehemently condemning the `barbaric act', the CPI(M) Politburo said it hoped that all countries would take lessons from these events that any encouragement to fundamentalists and terrorists would endanger their own safety.

The party conveyed its deep condolences to the thousands of bereaved families and sympathies to the families whose members have suffered grievous injuries.

Expressing shock at the attacks on sensitive civilian and official sites, the CPI central secretariat said the party always opposed terrorism and along with it State terrorism, as weapons of pursuing political aims. ``They only let loose a chain of retaliatory attacks in an ever rising crescendo of violence.''

The party said the present attacks also showed the tragic truth that accumulation of the latest and most sophisticated weapons of offence and defence, and unleashing an arms race on land, in seas and even in outer space did not guarantee internal security. ``This is a lesson that in the first place, the U.S. leaders should not forget at this grim hour'', the Secretariat said in a statement.

The CPI(ML) condemned the attacks saying that no sane person could ever support or even condone terrorist actions causing such enormous devastation. The party said for a country that did not have to suffer any major loss during the two World Wars, the collapse of the World Trade Center and partial destruction of the Pentagon, had ``shaken the very notion of American power and invincibility''.

The Janata Dal (U) adopted a resolution at a meeting of its office-bearers last night condemning the attacks. It said India has been facing the scourge of terrorism for the past decade and time has come when the world should take steps towards nuclear disarmament to prevent its misuse.

The terrorist attacks also came in for criticism from the Chairperson of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, Ms. Najma Heptulla, and the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. G.M.C. Balayogi. In a statement faxed from Burkina Faso on behalf of the elected representatives of 106 countries, Ms. Heptulla alongwith Mr. Maurice Taraore, Speaker of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso, described the attack as `monstrous', and pledged solidarity with the people of the U.S.

Mr. Balayogi, who is also in Burkina Faso attending the IPU conference, said that it was time for everybody to unite and recognise terrorism in every form and everywhere as the greatest threat to the world. The immensity of the tragedy was a signal to all democracies to redouble their efforts to defeat this threat.

'Global action needed'

UNI reports from Srinagar:

Expressing shock and grief over the huge loss of human life in attacks on the U.S., the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, called for immediate global endeavours to crush terrorism.

``Nations having respect and concern for human rights should join hands and stand behind America in the fight against terrorism'', he said, while talking informally to mediapersons after the swearing-in ceremony of the new Chief Justice at Raj Bhavan here.

``It is an attack on humanity and not on one nation,'' Dr. Abdullah said. He, however, opposed retaliatory action against any nation merely on suspicion and said it would be wrong to do anything without any firm proof. ``Let no more innocents be killed.''

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Next     : A crime against humanity: Narayanan