Bhopal, Apr 28( Agencies): Weeks after the furore settled over Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur‘s remarks that former Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who was martyred in the Mumbai 2008 attacks, died due to her ‘curse’- Congress’ Digvijaya Singh has taken a swipe at her.

Jaish-e Mohammad had claimed responsibility for the Feb 14 suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama, in which 40 soldiers died.

The Indian Air Force had conducted air strikes on the Jaish terror camp at Balakot on a later day , both of which have been invoked multiple times by various BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Digvijaya Singh at an election rally today said that there wouldnt have needed surgical strikes if Pragya Takur had cursed Masood Azhar.

"I had told him (Hemant Karkare) you will be finished, and he was killed by terrorists in less than two months," Pragya Thakur had bragged at a press conference.

But following a huge backlash, she had backtracked, admitting that Hemant Karkare was a "martyr". Her party distanced itself from the comment, saying it was "personal" and might have been influenced by the torture she faced in jail after her arrest in the Malegaon blasts. The 48-year-old had claimed that Hemant Karkare had been one of the officers responsible for the torture.

Many central BJP leaders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended the fielding of Pragya Thakur as the BJP candidate from Bhopal. The Prime Minister said it was a symbolic answer to all those who "falsely labelled" the rich Hindu civilization as terrorist and asserted that "this symbol will prove costly for the Congress."

Taking on the Prime Minister, Digvijaya Singh said: "PM Modi had said that terrorists were hunted even when they were hiding in hell. But I want to ask him where was he when Pulwama, Pathankot and Uri terror attacks happened in the country. Why we were not able to get rid of such attacks?"

The Congress veteran further said that Hindus, Muslims, Sikh, Christians are brothers. "These people say Hindus should get united as they are in danger. I want to tell them that this country was ruled by Muslims for 500 years. No harm was done to any religion. Be careful of those people who sell religion," he said.

Targeting former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, he said "Mama got scared when my candidature from Bhopal was announced. Uma Bharti refused to contest, Gaur said he is not well. However, just a day before the last date of filing nominations, they (BJP) announced the candidature of Pragya Thakur from Bhopal."

Bhopal votes on May 12 in penultimate phase. The counting of votes will be held on May 23.