HITTING out at the Centre and the CBI, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (July 31) said the agency’s plea to the Supreme Court to shift the Sohrabuddin case outside Gujarat was an insult to the judicial system of the state.

He also asked the Centre whether it considered Gujarat as a part of “enemy country.”

“Do you not consider the state as a part of India?” Modi asked.

Accusing Congress of playing vote bank politics on the fake encounter case,  Modi lambasted the ruling party at the Centre and also the CBI, which is probing the 2005 killing.

“There is an attempt to pollute the environment of Gujarat. This is an insult of the judicial system of Gujarat, its judges, its lawyers,” Modi said at a function in Ahmedabad. 

“They are trying to malign my name for the last eight years. But now they have started maligning the judicial system of the state. I will not tolerate this. They can attack me but why the judicial system?” the chief minister asked.

“Am I doing anything wrong by fighting terrorism? Have I done anything wrong by arresting the accused of Ahmadabad blasts. Why I am being stopped from fighting terrorism?” he asked.

The Central probe agency, which submitted a status report in the Supreme Court on Friday (July 30) and placed records before it, has sought shifting of the case outside Gujarat for a “fair trial.”

Amit Shah, former minister and a key Modi aide, has been arrested in the case.

“Why is Gujarat being treated as if it was part of an enemy State? Are judges of Gujarat useless? Other courts of the country are good, but courts in Gujarat are bad,” Modi remarked.

“Gujarat’s peace, brotherhood, development and progress is not liked by some people. They are working towards maligning it. There have been serious efforts to maintain peace in the state. But they do not want peace in Gujarat.

They want to demean it,” he alleged.

Citing the example of the Best Bakery case, in which the trial was held in a Mumbai court, Modi said even though the case was transferred to Mumbai, the investigation was done by Gujarat police, and the case papers and charge sheet was prepared by them.

“Only the courtroom and judge was from Mumbai, rest including the investigation was by Gujarat police, based on which the accused were convicted,” he said.

Similarly, he said in the Bilkis Bano case, which was first, transferred outside Gujarat, and then handed over to CBI; all persons except one, named in the chargesheet filed by Gujarat police were convicted.

“This shows that Gujarat police was correct and CBI wrong,” the chief minister claimed.

VIOLENCE gripped parts of Kashmir Valley on Saturday (July 31) as protestors attacked a CRPF patrol party, tried to set a railway station on fire and clashed with security forces who fired to quell the mob, leaving a teenager dead and over 10 others injured.

With the death of the teenager, a total of five persons have been killed since the fresh outbreak of violence on Friday (July 30).

In the wake of the protests, authorities imposed indefinite curfew in major towns of the Kashmir Valley.

A 17-year old girl was killed when security forces fired at protestors, who went on a rampage and attacked a CRPF patrol which was enforcing curfew in Kreeri in Pattan, police said.

The security forces made several attempts to disperse the crowd but it turned more violent and tried to snatch the rifles of the CRPF jawans, they said.

Security forces then opened fire in which four persons were injured.

Five more persons were injured when protestors tried to set a railway station on fire at Amargarh in Sopore, 55 km from Srinagar. 

Violence also broke out in Pampore, 16 km from Srinagar, where locals attacked policemen. There was no report of any casualty in the incident.

A police spokesman said this morning that two of the 70 people, who were injured during protests on Friday succumbed to injuries at a hospital. The deceased have been identified as Mohammed Rafiq and 30-year-old Mohammed Siddiqui of Baramulla district.

Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in all sensitive areas and the residents have been asked not to step out.

Security forces on Friday opened fire to quell stone-pelting protesters who clashed with them at several places.

The clashes come nearly 10 days after a person was killed and another injured in police firing in self-defence on a mob which turned violent during funeral of youth who had drowned in Jhelum river in Baramulla district.

PAKISTAN”S intelligence agency has scrapped a planned visit to Britain in protest at Prime Minister David Cameron’s comments on the export of terror, The Times newspaper reported on Saturday (July 31). The daily also said Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was considering pulling out of next week’s three-day trip to Britain over Cameron’s remarks.

“The visit has been cancelled in reaction to the comments made by the British prime minister against Pakistan,” a spokesman for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) told The Times.

“Such irresponsible statements could affect our co-operation with Britain.”

Cameron’s comments, during his visit to India this week, sparked fury in Islamabad, considered a crucial strategic ally in the West’s “war on terror”.

“We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country (Pakistan) is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror, whether to India or whether to Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world,” he said Wednesday (July 21).

A senior Pakistani official told The Times: “It is a clear swipe at Pakistani security agencies, which have lost thousands of soldiers and officers in fighting terrorism,” adding that the decision to cancel the ISI trip was taken by the “top military leadership”.

Pakistan has been under intense scrutiny this week after leaked secret US military documents detailed alleged links between the ISI and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

The Times said senior ISI officers had been due to discuss counter-terrorism co-operation with British security services in London.

The cancellation will raise “grave concerns” that Cameron may have jeopardised crucial military and intelligence co-operation with Pakistan in his bid to boost commercial ties with India, it added.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown said up to three-quarters of the terror plots under investigation in Britain were linked to Pakistan.

Neither the PM’s Downing Street office nor the Foreign Office would comment on the reported move from the ISI.