Maharashtra and its bomb blasts

Finally the Hindu bomb has surfaced. The real question is when it materialized on the scene and under whose patronage. The answer to the two questions holds the key to a host of bomb blasts which have taken place in the country. There are loose strands that need to be tied together. For example Hindu Janjagaran Samiti is registered in Goa (IE 19-6-8) where one of the accused in Nanded blast of April 2006 spent more than two years of training in arms after his stint with a tall sturdy man named “Mithun Chakravarty” of Poona, an expert in bomb making. A rickshaw driver had appeared on popular television channels claiming to have carried two passengers who had come from Malegaon in the late evening of September 8, 2006. They had remarked that they had done the work much earlier in the day what was scheduled for later in the night of Shabebarat.

To begin at the beginning, the first serial bomb blasts were of March 1993. The demolition of Babri masjid was water shed in the history of the country. Bal Thackeray has often said that he was happy that his Shiv Sainiks were instrumental in the destruction. The massacre of Muslims in December and January 1992-93 is also known for the leading role the Shiv Sena played in it. Going by the record of the serial blasts perpetrators, they have said that they were pushed to the wall and had to retaliate to stem what they believed was their genocide.

Since then Mahrashtra has been the focus of terrorist attacks which has entered in what some have termed as a tit for tat phase. Terror breeds terror. The next major terrorist attack was on the local trains in July 2006 which many feared was a blowback to the pogroms of Muslims in Gujarat of 2002. The targets were the first class compartments which the Gujarati merchants generally travel in. The middle class Gujarati merchants of the cosmopolitan Mumbai form the bulk of support for Narendra Modi government in Gujarat.

The third major attack of terror was on September 8, 2006 in Malegaon. The main cemetery mosque and the neighbouring Mushawarat chowk were targets at the precise time of Friday prayer, quite reminiscent of the Black Friday of Mumbai 1993. Needless to say that the bombers wanted to kill Muslims alone.

In the meantime several mosques at Jalna, Purna, and Parbhani in the Marathwada region were targeted. The alleged perpetrators included extremist Hindus belonging to RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP. There were also various mysterious blasts which need scrutiny.

(1) On April6, 2006 there was a powerful explosion at 1.30 a.m. at the house of the RSS activist Laxman Rajkondawar a retired irrigation engineer. The blast killed his son Naresh Rajkondawar (29) and Himanshu Panse (31). Rahul Pande was injured along with two others. He had run away but was arrested later. At 5.am an FIR was lodged that firecrackers blew up there. Those who were the earliest to visit the injured were BJP MP DB Patil, Shiv Sena’s Prakash Kaudge and Milind Ektate, VHP’s Navin Bhat Thakkar and Bajrangdal’s Sanjay Kodge. House search in the area led to arms cache: One live bomb along with ten live rounds of 7.65 mm, generally used in rifles as well as false beards, skull caps worn by Muslims, Kurta, maps of mosques in Aurangabad. Inspector General Mr Gupta held a press conference on April 7th and revealed that actually bombs were made there at the house of Laxman Rajkondawar and the casualties were caused by bomb explosion. Subsequently a new FIR was registered on April 9 which replaced crackers with bombs as the cause. One of the accused is Sanjay Chaudhari who received phone calls from BD, VHP and RSS activists assuring him of early release. . ACP ATS Anil J Tamaichekar who submitted a report saying that the diary of Maroti Keshav Wagh shows that it was a well organized team and the explosion was an accident. The diary recovered shows how Himanchu had visited Aurangbad in 2004 and surveyed a mosque with a photographer who had taken snaps of the mosque from several angles. There was a map with the mosque clearly marked. Himansu had taken training in Goa for two years.

Maroti Wagh took training at Bhosla Military School at Nagpur then went to Pune and planted a bomb at the Mohammadia mosque in Parbhani. Naresh was pivotal in organizing attacks. He had called Vinod Kamtikar from his mobile, number 9822297494 on April 5 and told him to keep a motor bike ready for Maroti Keshave Wagh, time was l.30 a.m. April 7, 2006.

(2)Pandurang Ameelkanthwar (28) died on the spot as he was carrying biscuit boxes which exploded on February 10, 2007 in Nanded. His cousin Dnaneshwar Manikwar sustained 72 per cent burns and died on February 16 at JJ Hospital, Mumbai.

These blasts were quite weird in nature and give a hint of deep rooted conspiracy. The cause was not any immediate grievance like any pogrom or massacre from which members of their community had suffered in the present.

Then cultural and religious perceived slur transmorphed into grievance that produced terror. Jodha Akbar and Aamhi Pachpute are cultural artifacts of Hindus.

The sevaks of revivalist Sanatan Sanstha Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari (50), Mangesh Nikam (34), Santosh Angre (26), and Vikram Bhave (26) have claimed that theirs was a self start group and self financed attempt to make bombs and explode at Thane, Vashi and Penn theatres and public places. They had bought shrapnel from Panvel eight timers costing Rs 550 from Lhar Chawl and batteries from Grant road and also detonators, gelatin sticks and ammonium nitrate from different parts of Mumbai. This is a do-it-for-yourself work, vintage Maharashtra. Gadkar and Angre were picked up by the police from the Sanatan Ashram at Devat, Panvel, Nikam from Satara, and Bhave from Wadala. Gadkari who has a diploma in electronic engineering made the circuits. Nikam was involved in bomb blast in Ratnagiri in 2006 but was acquitted. Bhave had a record of being involved in a brawl with relatives of a girl who had come to take her from the Sanatan Ashram. Gadkari and Angre had also planted a bomb at a mosque at Pen highway to check the intensity of the device at the time of Diwali to camouflage the sound of explosion. .

There is a clear attempt to modify their statements after arrest according to legal consideration. For example Ramesh Gadkar has first said that his wife Neela, a fellow sevak, had gone to plant the bomb at Gadkary Rangayatan hall in Thane. Afterward he said that it was Vikram Bhave who had accompanied him there.
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Most ominous is Gadkari’s complaint to the judge “The police are putting pressure on my family and not considering my statement. They want a statement according to their will.” (TOI 19-6-8). What is this will? The police have allegedly changed records in Nanded blasts and could do this time too. This could lead ultimately to acquittal and the framing of the regular run of the mill terrorists. There is a good deal of coded words. In his Saamna editorial Thackeray speaks of “mini Pakistan”, where he would admire these latter day terrorists to plant bombs. “Mini Pakistan” not only refers to illegal Bangladeshi bastis which are not Pakistani, but also a Muslim majority area. Most common example is Malegaon or Bhiwandi. Is there anyone who can dare to seek explanation of the code?