New Delhi, July 30 (IANS): Welcoming the life sentence given to Batla House convict Shahzad Ahmed, the BJP Tuesday said the Congress should "apologise" for calling the shootout fake.

"The BJP welcomes the court verdict in the Batla House shootout case. If we have to win the war against terror, then strong punishment will have to be given to terrorists," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said Tuesday.

He slammed Congress leaders, including Digvijaya Singh and Salman Khurshid, who had expressed doubts if the shootout was real or staged.

"Everybody knows that the voice of Digvijays Singh is the voice of (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi and (Congress vice president) Rahul Gandhi. The Congress should apologise to the nation," Javadekar said.

"Digvijaya Singh had visited the homes of the terror suspects. Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid had even said that when he narrated the encounter to Sonia Gandhi, she had cried," Javadekar said.