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Katiyar, Verma booked for Kashmir speech

      Jammu: Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Vinay Katiyar and Sahib Singh Verma were charged on Saturday with provoking people against the rule of law after the duo announced a hefty reward to any civilian who killed a militant in strife- torn Kashmir. Katiyar and Verma had offered over 2000 dollars booty for each slain rebel to hundreds of Kashmiris who had gathered for a rally in Jammu on Friday.

     In an aggressive speech, they slammed the federal ruling Congress party for going soft on terror and alleged the Islamic militants had spread to the rest of India and were targeting Hindu holy sites and organizations. "If a civilian kills one or many militants, we are not taking about the forces...and if the police certifies that the killed person is a militant, the Bharatiya Janata Party will reward that civilian with 100,000 rupees (2222 dollars))," Katiyar told reporters here The remarks come in the wake of a failed rebel attack on the RSS headquarters in Nagpur and two strikes at Hindu temples in Ayodhya and Varanasi. But terming the remarks as provocative and inciting communal passion, the police have filed a case against the leaders. "The speeches that were made in public against the government and incited the people against the government, the two people who made them we have registered a case against them," Mukesh Singh, Jammu's senior superintendent of police, said.

    The BJP, meanwhile, has distanced itself from the statements saying it does not standby any move that incites people against the law. "The controversy that has been created, let me make it clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party does not believe in any move, which is against the law. The BJP does not believe in taking the law in its hand. The party will look into the statements by Vinay Katiyar and Sahib Singh Verma ...but we are very clear that the BJP will never incite any person to take up arms," Prakash Javadekar, BJP spokesman, said on Saturday. The BJP had even taken out two chariot rides in April across the country, accusing the Congress-led federal government of overlooking internal security concerns.