Allahabad, May 16: Senior Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi today condemned the covert US operation to liquidate Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden saying this was yet another instance of high-handedness on part of America.
 Fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, should also not be branded as a terrorist until this was proved in a court of law, he told reporters here.
 "No person, who is amenable to reason, will condone the manner in which an unarmed Laden was attacked, killed and denied decent burial by the US," Azmi said.
 "This is yet another act of high-handedness on part of the US which a few years ago had executed former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein," the SP MLA from Maharasthra said.
 On Dawood Ibrahim, Azmi said he should not be called a terrorist till this was proved in a court of law.
 "I cannot call Dawood a terrorist simply because the government believes that he is one," the former Rajya Sabha MP said.
 "At one stage, even I was accused of having links with terrorists."
 Azmi, who was assaulted in 2009 by MNS legislators when he took oath in the assembly in Hindi instead of Marathi, said "I feel Dawood should surrender in connection with the case in India."
 The SP leader also took a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for staging a sit-in in support of farmers in Greater Noida.
 "Ever since he has entered politics, the young Congress leader has been enacting one drama after another," he said.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 16 May 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 16 May 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 May 2011 00:00:00 IST