Amid the current uproar over Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar's controversial statement on the killing of top police officer Hemant Karkare in the 26/11 terror attack of 2008, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday termed the statement as unfortunate and an insult to those who got martyred while protecting the nation.
Speaking to the media, the Maharashtra Chief Minister said, "The statement is unfortunate. It is an insult to martyrs. The citizens of the nation will take revenge for such an insult."
He also condemned Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray for his silence on the remarks. The CM added, if Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray had been here he would have severely condemned such a statement.
Speaking further, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde compared the action taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi government against Pulwama attack in 2019 as against the UPA government's 'did not retaliate' response. He said, the UPA government at the time did not retaliate appropriately to the 26/11 attack whereas Prime Minister Narendra Modi carried out surgical strikes following the terror incident in Pulwama in 2019.
Shinde, in his speech, also slammed the Congress for following a policy of appeasement towards the neighbouring country and questioned leaders of the opposition party for not condemning Wadettiwar's statement.
It is pertinent to note that Wadettiwar, the leader of opposition in the state assembly, landed in trouble after he had claimed Karkare, who was the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad chief during the 26/11 terror attack, wasn't killed by terrorist Ajmal Kasab's bullet but by one fired by a policeman affiliated to RSS. Wadettiwar's said his statement were based on the book "Who Killed Karkare" written by retired police officer SM Mushriff.
He said, "Those are not my words, I just said what was written in the book by SM Mushrif. Every information was there about the bullet by which Hemant Karkare was shot, it was not the bullet of terrorists."
