Unwilling to accept the government’s position that David Headley’s bargain plea with US prosecutors was not a setback to India, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday said it would accept “nothing short of extradition” of the Pakistani-born terrorist who is believed to have played a key role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
“Instead of expressing major concern, the Indian government is trying to rationalise the US position (on Headley),” BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Ruddy told reporters.
“The BJP will accept nothing short of extradition of Headley for interrogation on the Mumbai terror attack,” Ruddy said.
The BJP, he said, “feels strongly that without the custodial interrogation of Headley the investigation in the Mumbai terror attack won’t be complete.”
The remarks came after Home Minister P. Chidambaram said India hoped to get access to Headley to cross-examine or interrogate him and stressed that the Pakistani American’s plea bargain to escape the death sentence for planning the Mumbai mayhem was “not a setback to India”.
The BJP leader also questioned America’s anti-terror policy. “The US is our ally in the fight against terrorism. But it has a differentiated stand. It is fighting the terrorists only on the western front of Pakistan and has a different approach on terrorists in its eastern front.”
