'Congratulated 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed yet?': BJP hits back at Rahul after 'hugplomacy' jibe

NEW DELHI: On Saturday, minutes after Rahul Gandhi termed the release of

Jamaat-ud-Dawa

chief Hafiz Saeed a failure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "hugplomacy," the BJP hit back, asking the Congress vice president if he had "congratulated" the Mumbai attack mastermind yet.

"Rahul baba, आदतें नहीं बदली हैं. For once,stand with the country & not with Terrorists as is your habit. You are a known sympathiser of LeT. WikiLeaks & Ishtar Jahan case cover-up exposed your links. BTW, have you congratulated your "Hafeez Saheb's" on his release yet? @officeofrg," tweeted

GVL Narasimha Rao

, the party's national spokesperson.

In a tweet early Saturday morning, Rahul targeted PM Modi's brand of diplomacy.

"Narendrabhai, बात नहीं बनी. Terror mastermind is free. President Trump just delinked Pak military funding from LeT. Hugplomacy fail. More hugs urgently needed," he wrote.

READ ALSO: Saeed's release a 'hugplomacy failure', says Rahul Gandhi

Saeed was on Thursday released from house arrest, after a judicial body in Pakistan decided against detaining him further, citing "insufficient evidence."

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides - Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain - were detained by Pakistan's Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

The 26/11 mastermind carries a $10 million bounty on his head, announced by the US for his alleged role in the Mumbai terror attack.