Bengaluru, Apr 19 (IANS): Accusing the Congress party of indulging in vote bank politics, BJP national President Amit Shah on Wednesday asked Rahul Gandhi to apologise to Hindus for labelling them 'terrorists'.

"In pursuit of vote bank politics, the Congress popularised 'Hindu Terror' and tried to implicate some Hindu activists in the Meccas Masjid blast case in Hyderabad over a decade ago, though a NIA court acquitted them," said Shah at an event here.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Hyderabad on Monday acquitted all the five Hindu activists, including Swamy Aseemanand who were accused of triggering a bomb blast in the mosque that killed nine worshippers near the iconic Charminar on May 18, 2007.

"The Congress also tried to substantiate its charge by foisting false cases against Hindus and pressurising investigating agencies to implicate them in the blast case.

"Congress leaders, including P. Chidambaram, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Digvijay Singh carried out 'Hindu Terror' campaign and tried to defame Hindus within and outside the country to appease a section of society," recalled Shah.

With the court verdict exposing the Congress leaders by the acquittals, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief said if they don't apologies even now, the people would punish them.

"The people of Karnataka are waiting to punish the Congress in the May 12 state assembly elections," thundered Shah.

In the blast context, Shah recalled a conversation in which Gandhi told the US envoy Timothy Roemer that 'Hindu Terror' was a more worrying factor than Laskar-e-Taiba of Pakistan.

Roemer mentioned Gandhi's remark in his report to the US State Department on August 3, 2009.

"Anti-national criminals had free run in Karnataka as the ruling Congress regime was soft on them. As many as 24 Hindu activists were allegedly killed in the state over the last two years, but none had been brought to book," lamented Shah.

Admitting that it was important for the BJP to win in the state polls to keep the momentum in the run-up to the 2019 general elections, Shah said the party was in power at the Centre and 21 states across the country.

"I am sure of our party winning in the upcoming elections as the people across the state were fed up of corruption and crime in the Congress reign," asserted Shah, who is on a two-day visit to the city to campaign for the party.