Though Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is facing flak for his statement that Pakistani secret agency ISI was in touch with victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots, he has received support from unexpected quarters — the Shiv Sena.

On Monday, Sena mouthpiece Saamna, which is edited by party president Uddhav Thackeray, said Rahul, whose statements were mostly “laughable”, had “unknowingly spoken the truth”.

“There is no need to be shocked about the truth the Yuvaraj has spoken about the fundamentalist Muslims in the country,” said an editorial in the newspaper, adding that, earlier, Hindutva leaders like the late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had also pointed to ISI activities in India.

The editorial said that the ISI’s involvement was seen in every communal riot and terrorist activity in India and that it was also involved in turning Muslim youth into fundamentalists and using them for anti-national activities.

It pointed to examples such as the Memon brothers and their involvement in the Mumbai bomb blasts and added that terrorists Abdul Karim Tunda and Yasin Bhatkal were ISI affiliates.

“The ISI’s agents here undertake more machinations than fake secularists like the Congress and the SP (Samajwadi Party) to ensure that Muslims do not join the mainstream in the country,” the editorial said, adding that the ISI wanted another partition of India on religious grounds.

It rued that political strategies hinged on ensuring that Muslims became more fundamentalist and insecure.