SP, BSP MPs support Antulay

Union minister A R Antulay, facing flak from various quarters over his remarks on the killing of ATS chief Hemant Karkare, found support in two MPs from Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.

Union minister A R Antulay, facing flak from various quarters over his remarks on the killing of ATS chief Hemant Karkare, on Saturday found support in two MPs from Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.

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Rashid Masood of SP, UPA's key ally, referred to the November 25 interview of Karkare in which he had reportedly said that a few Hindu organisations and Muslim extremist groups were working together and they would be exposed soon.

"If he is shot under such circumstances and one demands a probe...Which even I demanded, I don't understand what is the need for an exaggerated reaction," he told a news channel in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.

BSP MP Ilyas Azmi, while talking to the same news channel, here said, "people at Cama Hospital, where Karkare and other senior Mumbai Police officials were shot, had claimed that people sitting in the van were conversing in Marathi... Local newspapers had carried this story. Only Sonia Gandhi and L K Advani seem to be ignorant about it".