NEW DELHI, June 2: A leading Hindu extremist group that has shored up Indian opposition leader Lal Krishan Advani’s political career for years accused him on Thursday of betraying the country’s Hindus because he said sorry in Islamabad for the 1992 demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.

“He (Advani) should publicly apologise. He has betrayed the Hindus of our country. Regretting now, particularly from Pakistani soil, is an insult to 90 crore Hindus,” Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) president Ashok Singhal said in Chennai.

The VHP and the Bharatiya Janata Party are offshoots of the Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) which usually sees close ties with Pakistan as encouragement to terrorism.

Alleging that Pakistan was behind the jehadi movements in various parts of the country and for the Kargil war, Mr Singhal said Mr Advani’s statement, “that too from Pakistani soil when he had himself accused Pakistan of waging a proxy war in India, is most shameful,” the Press Trust of India said in a report from Chennai.

On Mr Advani’s newfound support for friendship with Pakistan, Mr Singhal countered: “Friendship for what? To enhance jehadi movements?”

Mr Singhal said 43 per cent of districts in India were facing the problem of terrorism. “Who is teaching them, who is providing training to them?”

Referring to his own remarks on the issue during his ongoing tour of Pakistan, Mr Advani has said it was not the first time he had expressed regret for the demolition of the mosque by Hindu zealots.