Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Friday hit out at the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, for his remark that more civilians were being killed in Kashmir than terrorists and demanded an apology from the Congress party over the same.
"I cannot even repeat what Ghulam Nabi Azad has said. But as soon as he made the statement, Lashkar-e-Taiba extended their support to his comment. Congress leaders should apologise to the country for this," Amit Shah said while addressing a public gathering here.
Earlier, Azad had said that "muscular policy" of the government worked mostly against civilians and it killed more civilians as compared to the terrorists. Soon after, the Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit had issued a statement, saying, "We have been of the same opinion as to the ones expressed by Ghulam Nabi Azad and others."
Further, taking a swipe at the People's Democratic Party (PDP), the BJP chief said that they pulled out of the alliance as the former Mehbooba Mufti government ignored the interests of Jammu and Ladakh.
"There is no point for the BJP to stay in power if the goal of equal development in Jammu and Kashmir isn't achieved. Prime Minister Modi's government made several efforts but partiality towards Jammu and Ladakh continued. That's when we decided that we should rather protest in opposition," Shah said.
"The Centre approved AIIMS for both Jammu and Kashmir, but the PDP government did not allocate land for AIIMS in Jammu. It is our right to demand our share," he added.
Shah even blamed the PDP for the murder of Shujaat Bukhari and the cases of stone-pelting on the Army jawans and said, "We could not be part of such a government."
He asserted that major agenda of his party was the development of the state and they did not care much about power.