Government has taken cognizance of spying report: BJP

New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) The government has taken cognizance of the reports of the US spying over the BJP and it should not happen again, the party said Wednesday.

"The government has taken cognizance of the reports, and it is unfortunate. It should not happen again," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said.

He added the former UPA government also spied on the BJP.

"We knew that the previous government maintained surveillance on BJP, but we did not know the US was doing that as well," he said.

According to a report in the Washington Post, the US allegedly allowed the country's National Security Agency to spy on six non-US political parties.

Besides the BJP, the others were Lebanon's Amal, Venezuela's Bolivarian Continental Coordinator, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and National Salvation Front, and the Pakistan Peoples Party.

The document was released by former NSA contractor-turned whistleblower Edward Snowden.