Never invited Pak journo: Hamid Ansari repeats amid BJP attacks

New Delhi: After facing a severe attack from BJP, former Indian president Hamid Ansari said on Friday he is standing firm on his earlier statement that he never invited Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza to any conference. BJP unleashed an attack on Ansari after Mirza claimed that he visited India five times during the UPA government's rule, passed on sensitive information collected from India to Pakistan spy agency ISI and visited India on Ansari's invitations, PTI reported.

Ansari rebuffed the claims stating that it was a "litany of falsehood".

On Friday, the BJP shot up its attack on Congress and brought up a photo of Ansari and Mirza sharing a stage in 2009, a conference in India on terrorism.

Ansari's office released a statement, "The former Vice President of India stands by his earlier statement that he never knew or invited Pakistan journalist Nusrat Mirza to any conference, including the 2010 conference mentioned by Nusrat Mirza or 2009 conference on terrorism or on any other occasion."

Days ago, Ansari, reacting against the BJP claims of inviting Nusrat Mirza, said that it is known that invitations to foreign dignitaries by the Vice-President of India are on the advice of the government generally through the Ministry of External Affairs.

Clips of Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza's interview in Pakistan have been doing the rounds on social media for the last few days, in which he stated that he attended a seminar on terrorism in India in which Ansari spoke.

Nusrat Mirza also claimed to have given secret and classified information to the Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).