Malegaon blasts of 2006 in retrospect

The sitting MLA of Malegaon Mufti Ismail said that hamara ek naujawan tha jo ATS ka mukhbir bun kar police ka dalal ban kar lakhun rupya le kar us ne hamare Muslim nawjawanon ke namon ki nishan dhahi ki aur un ko griftar karwaya. Jab lakhon rupya le kar ghar ata tha tub ghar walon ko nazar nahin aya tha ke yeh kutch kam nahn kar ta. Aaj lakho rupya leker ghar kahan se aaraha hai (There was one of our youth who was informer of the ATS and worked as an agent of the police. He took lakhs of rupees home and identified names of Muslim youths and got them arrested. When he was bringing lakhs of rupees home then why did not the folk at home see where he was bringing the money from. That he was not doing any work and yet he was bringing home lakhs of rupees!) (Discipline. October 3, 2010)

This piece of information in the local Urdu daily of Malegaon town needs vetting. Though a politician makes the allegation he is also a mufti leading prayer at the central mosque of the town and also at the Id gah. It is like the certain knowledge of an insider. It is an insider’s job. Could Mufti Ismail have grapevines within the police force? In this respect he parallels the veteran MLA Nihal Ahmed who had informed the home minister of the terrorist attacks even before they took place. Between them they owe to their people explanation of how far were both (mufti and former MLA) in the know of the matter. Why did they not prevent the disaster?

There are enough people in Malegaon who would like to quiz not just these two leaders but also the police and the government how come the innocents are still languishing in jail. Those arrested were all Muslims. So far nothing has been proved against them.

One explanation of all this is that if not the government itself, the police have taken Muslims for granted. They believe Muslims to be too backward to do anything. The investigations in the bomb explosions of September 8, 2006 have strangely ended up in the desert of unreason. The Police under the then SP of Malegaon Rajwardhan made the world know that the Muslims themselves conspired to kill themselves to create tension in the country. But this illogicality is throwing up strange facts that have successfully resisted all attempts to cover them.

1. Among the dead bodies was one of a man with fake beard. 2. The police sketches of the two suspects who bought new bicycles do not match with the bearded Muslims who are languishing in jail. The bombs were fitted into the cycles. 3. Accused number one Noorulhoda was already under close watch of the police. 4 Another accused Shabbir Masiullah was in police custody since many days before the explosions. 5. At first the police called twenty Hindus for interrogation, and then left the trail there. 6. The imam of Phoosangvi village of Yawatmal, Zahid, performed the Friday prayer there. How could he be planting bomb at the same time in Malegaon more than five hundred miles away. 7. Some of the accused like Abrar Ahmed about whom the Mufti speaks eloquently were police informers. Abrar claims that he was introduced to Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thaku, Lt Col Purohit, Dayanand Pandey and others involved in 2008 blasts. Why should the police chief of Malegaon let Abrar travel to Indore and other places at the cost of the Anti Terrorist Squad and meet them and be photographed and video made of his visit? Why have the agencies not taken his affidavit submitted to special court judge YD Shinde into consideration so far? 8. Why was Rajwardhan taken aback when Abrar told him that he had heard Hindus saying that Dr Rajendra Amin, Dr Bipin Parekh, Someshwar Shanker and others caused the blasts? 9. Why did the police make doctored tape of conversation among the accused? 10. What had Purohit to do with the fake recording and make Abrar hear it? 11. The source of money paid to Abrar’s father in law and wife and also his brother in law is the Gordon’s knot. 12. There are discrepancies in the application form of Abrar for getting a phone connection. He claims that it was the police who supplied it. He also heard people talking in strange languages. The identity of the speakers has never been bothered about in investigation. 13.The man who called local Marathi paper Dinkar and threatened more such attacks in future has never come within the radar of the police and investigative agencies. 14. The police have also failed to trace the caller to the chief of Jamiatul Ulemae Hind in connection with the explosions. 15. If Indresh Kumar had accepted crores of rupees from the ISI to cause the blasts, did this include Malegaon blasts of 2006? 16. Purohit has asserted that he had given the Israelis two examples of Abhinav Bharat’s action of causing disruption within the country to exterminate the Muslims. Were the terrorist attacks of 2006 one of them? He has confessed that he had given RDX for the 2007 Samjhauta express attack. He has also remarked that in the past Abhinav Bharat has used Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activists to cause blasts. How far is it true? Why have the police not probed this so far? 17. The two incidents of bomb blasts of Nanded need more probing. In the case of April 2006 several Bajrang Dal extremists died when they were assembling bombs at the house of a retired engineer and RSS activist. The police covered it up saying that it was a fire accident caused by crackers. In the second incident of February 9, 2007 at Amol Bakery two were killed while assembling bombs. One of them was the chief of Shiv Sena, Pandurang Bhagwan Amritkanthwar, whose identity the police had tried to hide. They also tried to cover it up by saying that biscuit cartons had caught fire. Who was the police officer that gave them this kind of fake explanation for police recording? Some of those involved in Nanded blasts had received training in bomb making from Mithun Chkerborty who is now believed to be no other than Purohit. Were those who succeeded in causing bomb explosions in Malegaon in 2006 and 2008 a part of the batch that was trained in bomb making by Purohit, etc.? 18. 2006 was crucial. On February 11 to 13 there was a meeting in Dangs, Gujarat attended by Swami Asimanand and his followers. A road directly links Dangs and Malegaon. Then two follow up meetings were held at the house of Ramji Kalsangra in Indore in March and April 2006. In the light of these stepped up activities it is but natural the first terrorist attack in Malegaon took place on September 2006. It falls in line of the logical sequence of events.(Probe links Swami to Samjhauta bast. Hindustan Times November 21, 2010.) 19. If Swami Asimanand is the mastermind of 2008 blast, he was also responsible for 2006 blast in Malegaon. The Secret meeting at Gujarat Samaj Guest House, Jaipur in 2005 was attended by Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur, Asimanand, Indresh Kumar, etc. It was an important meeting because Indresh Kumar was there and mass killing of Muslim in retaliation was his brainchild. More than thirty Muslims lost their lives and many more lost their limbs in the 2006 blasts. (Ajmer blast accused spent night at BJP MP house. Express New Service November 18, 2010.) Etc.

The 2006 attacks are similar to the attack in 2008. More casualties were in the minds of the terrorists. There was no question of schism within the right wing Hindu extremists. Indresh Kumar wanted more casualties and so that happened. Sadhvi Pragyasingh wondering at low casualty in 2008 blast reveals the common agenda of the sangh parivar which of course includes Abhinav Bharat. Indresh Kumar of RSS as well as Parveen Togadia of VHP has important bearing on Malegaon blasts of 2006 and 2008. Togadia had donated money to Abhinav Bharat and Indresh Kumar had attended a meeting in which Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Purohit were present prior to Malegaon terrorist attacks of 2006.

As of now the entire investigation of Malegaon 2006 and prosecution in the court is based on the premise that the Muslims are prone to rioting and they used the bomb attacks of 2006 to cause a riot. This is the chink in the armor of the police and the prosecution. The Muslims became irate and attacked the police vehicle. The police opened fire at them at Azad nager police station as they did in front of Mecca Mosque of Hyerabad. Therefore the faulty assumption flies in the face of logic. It is important to note that the Muslims also rioted against the police in 2008 because the police tried to cover up the Bhiku chowk explosion as a cooking gas cylinder burst. Now the world knows how the police have become the laughing stock of the world.

And why should not the world laugh at it? The police and prosecution also believe that the bombs were planted on a height, on a wall, to cause fewer casualties among the fellow Muslims. This is simply absurd. The bombs were fitted in bicycles of which the upper parts remained attached to the pole while the lower parts blew away. The bombs could not have been any higher than a foot from the ground. Any way the bombs did kill more than 30 people and injured hundreds. Moreover Hindus and Muslims alike helped in carrying the dead and the injured to hospitals and donated blood. There was absolutely no communal riot. It is also the height of absurdity that the police have reasoned in their charge sheet that the Muslims exploded bombs to take revenge of the communal riots of 2001. Why should the Muslims in the town blow bombs to kill more Muslims five years later to take revenge of the 2001 riot in which more than a dozen Muslims were killed by the police?