Congress holds protests, Jammu and Kashmir BJP to probe captured militant’s link

In Jammu, meanwhile, Congress workers held a protest demanding a “high-level enquiry” into Shah’s “BJP connections”. The protesters carried placards with purported photographs of Shah with BJP leaders and alleged that he had “even gained entry” along with senior leaders to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah in J&K.

“This is a serious security breach and Intelligence failure, which needs enquiry… The BJP cannot absolve itself of responsibility by denying his position in the party,” Congress spokesman Ravinder Sharma said.

The allegations levelled by Sharma and Congress working president in J&K Raman Bhalla were based on purported photographs found on the militant’s Facebook page “Talib Shah Bjp Bjp’’. J&K BJP spokesman Abhinav Sharma said his party had “no links with Talib Hussain who had visited the BJP headquarters projecting himself as a reporter to conduct a recce of BJP J&K chief Ravinder Raina and other leaders”.

He said the party would probe an appointment order issued on its letterhead showing Talib Shah’s post in the Minority Morcha. “The party will thoroughly investigate the matter with utmost seriousness under a team led by senior party leaders,’’ he said.

On Sunday, the BJP’s J&K Minority Morcha chief Sheikh Bashir had told The Indian Express that Talib Shah “had been working with the party for quite some time” and was made in charge of the IT and Social Media Cell of the Minority Morcha on May 9. Bashir had said that Talib Shah “did not attend any of the Morcha meetings” and quit on May 27.

“After gaining entry into the party headquarters by projecting himself a journalist, he visited later to interview senior functionaries,” BJP’s Sharma said Monday. He described Talib Shah’s activities “as a conspiracy of Pakistan to target BJP leaders”.