Hand over Afzal so we can hang him, try me in Pak court: Modi

Responding to Sonia Gandhi’s “merchants of death” remark — an expression she used for his government at an election rally last Saturday — Modi said: “I say Sonia Behn, it is your government that is the protector of merchants of death.”

Citing the case of Afzal Guru, he said the convict has not been hanged despite being sentenced to death by the highest court of the land. “In Gujarat, we have eliminated the merchants of death.” “Sonia Behn, if you cannot hang Afzal, hand him over to Gujarat. We will hang him,” he said.

While in Godhra, Modi, for the first time in his election speeches, made a reference, though indirectly, to the 2002 riots. Responding to suggestions that he should be tried in an international court for his role in the riots, he said, “Why not a court in Pakistan?” (PTI adds: “The Centre talks of imposing Article 356 in Gujarat but the Gujaratis will give me an AK-56 to fight it,” he said.)

As the road show took him to the tribal town of Dahod, Modi demanded votes for his government’s achievements. “I have not taken even one hour’s vacation in five years.” In the 15 minutes that he was there, he devoted just three minutes to development issues, concentrating instead on “pseudo-secularism”, the Congress and the Centre.

The central theme of his speech revolved around terrorism which he projected as a manifestation of minority fundamentalism, and the fact that his government had made Gujarat “terror free”.

“Under the Congress regime, Godhra was reeling under curfew for 110 days, for 110 days. And in the last five years, it did not face curfew even for an hour,” he said.