Pune: The Shiv Sena, which had earlier targeted slain Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare for the investigations into the Malegaon blast, today castigated the Congress-NCP coalition government for sending him into the jaws of death symbolised by the "Islamic terrorism".
Paying tributes to the "martyrdom" of Karkare, Sena chief Bal Thackeray in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana said, "The officers of the calibre of Karkare and his colleagues Salaskar and Kamte who led from the front in combating terrorists had done Maharashtra proud with their supreme sacrifice."
Accusing the state government on its policy of Muslim appeasement, the edit said, "What needs to be condemned is the politics played by the ruling coalition in directing ATS to go after Hindu organisations and in the process ignoring the real danger of Islamic terrorism that held Mumbai hostage."
Referring to the criticism levelled by the Sena against Karkare, it said, "We never blamed or held responsible Karkare for the Congress-NCP propaganda of Hindu terrorism and the government's policy of Muslim appeasement for which it used ATS. Karkare was under pressure from the rulers till the end."
"Some newspapers have posed a question to us whether we would apologise for criticising Karkare... We condemn the government that put the police officers in the harm s way with its policy that aided Islamic terrorism. Karkare made supreme sacrifice fighting what was Islamic terrorism," he said.
"What Mumbai has seen for the last three days is piling up of corpses of innocent people and rivers of blood and killings of police and army commandos in the fight against Islamic terrorists," Thackeray said.
"Let the Malegaon accused get punishment if there is evidence to prove their guilt. But what has been achieved by a propaganda reaching a crescendo that these are the only people who are out to destroy the country?" he asked.
