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Bal Thackeray backs Sadhvi Pragya

Pune: Coming out in support of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and two other Malegaon blasts accused, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray on Saturday lashed out at pro-Hindutva elements for “disowning” them and asked the legal community to defend the trio.

“The entire Hindu community should support the Sadhvi, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Samir Kulkarni, who are being framed by the Anti-Terrorism Squad,” Mr. Thackeray said in his editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna.

Mr. Thackeray said he did not support any kind of terrorism that “weakens the country and we regret the loss of life in the Malegaon incident. But if the pseudo secularists in the country are supportive of Afzal Guru [Parliament attack case convict], why should we not love and be proud of Sadhvi Pragya, Ramesh Upadhyay and Samir Kulkarni?”

“Every day Islamic terrorists are planting bombs to kill Hindus in India. The latest blasts in Assam too were engineered by Bangladeshi migrants. If a Sadhvi Pragya or a Ramesh Upadhyay or a Samir Kulkarni is born in the present milieu, they cannot be blamed,” the editorial said.

Alleging that the ATS machinery was being misused at the behest of the Congress which was practising politics of Muslim appeasement, Mr. Thackeray said: “The arrest of cultured and educated individuals in connection with the Malegaon blasts is an effort to crush Hindus to please Muslim fanatics.”

Supporting the Sena, the BJP said there was nothing wrong in using private funds for helping someone. “We have no objection to the Sena announcing legal aid to the Malegaon blast suspects. For that matter, even the RSS has promised help. It is not wrong to use private funds for helping someone. It is everyone’s right,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said. — PTI

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