Srinagar, Nov 23(DC): BJP general secretary Ram Madhav on Thursday withdrew his words after a furious former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah dared him to prove his allegations or “be man enough to apologise” for his comment that there is Pakistani hand in alliance between his party and Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples’ Democratic Party.

Ms Mufti also hit out at the BJP leader for questioning the credentials of former allies of the saffron party.

Mr Abdullah said, “It’s unfortunate that a senior BJP leader has said we have got instructions from Pakistan. I challenge Ram Madhav sahib and his associates to prove this with evidence. You are disrespecting sacrifices of my more than 3,000 party colleagues who refused to dance at Pakistan’s instructions and were killed.”

“If you have courage Ram Madhav, bring the proof of your accusation to the people’s court. Let us see where you stand. Stop this politics of cowardice. We have seen a lot of people like you who indulge in shoot-and-scoot politics. You level baseless allegations and then lie low. You should either give proof of allegations or apologise,” said Mr Abdullah.

Mr Abdullah also took to micro-blogging site and said, “I dare you @rammadhavbjp ji to prove your allegation. You have RAW, NIA & IB at your command (CBI too is your parrot) so have the guts to place evidence in the public domain. Either prove this or be man enough to apologise. Don’t practice shoot & scoot politics.” Former chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti also hit out at the BJP for alleging that regional parties were working at Pakistan’s behest, saying credentials of the NC and the PDP were not questioned when they were in alliance with the saffron party.

“Both PDP and NC have been allies of BJP at some point. Strange that our credentials weren’t questioned then. But just because our MLAs had enough integrity to stand up to your (BJP’s) failed attempts of defection, they are now anti nationalistic?” she tweeted.