Preface
Continuing my study of Hindutva aggressive terrorism
in this eight book the focus is reviving terrorism for election once again as
well as for the ideology. The latter cannot be fulfilled without political power.
November 1, 2013
Chapter one
Hindutva Terrorist Organizations
1. Hindu
Rakshak Samiti of Dhulia (an outfit of Shiv Sena)
Before calling any organization as terrorist it is
necessary to take a working definition of what terrorism is. The Federal Bureau
of Investigation is the leading investigator into matters of terrorism for a
long time. The Americans have had their fair share of terrorist attacks and
know what terrorism is. “The unlawful use of force or violence against person
or property to intimidate or coerce a Government, or the civilian population,
or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
(1)This
broad definition of terrorism by the FBI includes the parameters of the range
of activities that constitute terrorism. A girl on September 8, 2013 was heard
talking to a boy called Anaoj that she “had talked to her uncle and persuaded
the Provincial Armed Constabulary to be deployed late in the village.” She told
her friend further: force kutch nahin
karey gi chahe jitnon to maro. “Kill as many as you can the force would not
take any action.” (2)This
is not Maya Kodnani of Gujarat in 2002, but a Jat girl from Muzaffarnagar area
that was rocked by the pogroms of Muslims. Her uncle is no other than Krish Pal
Raghuvanshi who hails from that region and was ATS chief in Maharashtra and now
the police commissioner of Thane. Unlawful activities include delaying the
deployment of the PAC so that more hapless Muslims stranded or besieged in the
villages and farms could be killed. One has only to imagine how terrified the
victims would have been running for life in the farms or holding their breath
out of fear of being chopped up by the machetes. She also speaks of importing into the district
of Muzaffarnagar arms and distributing them among the Jats. Thus the girl and
the marauding crowds fit in the qualifying attributes of terrorism. Here
communal terrorism and state sponsored terrorism coalesce into one another. The
victims have neither patronage of the police nor of the state of UP. Even so
the right wing according to their wont would dub appeasement if anyone shows
some concern for the murder and arson that the Jats let loose upon the Muslims.
Another recent act is what happened in Sansod in
Bharuch district of Gujarat during the Muslim festival of Eidul Adha or
sacrifice of animals observed on October 16, 2013. The police entered the
village and encircled the Muslims on the pretext of cow slaughter. There was no
such incident but they brutally attacked the Muslims and cut off all outside
contact. The beating continued for hours. No outsider was allowed into the
village nor were the native Muslims permitted to go outside. (3) The unlawful use of
‘force and violence’ would mean not only the police force or the armed constabulary
(in Muzaffarnagar)but brutal force of body and weapons (as in Sansod) and
number.
In neither of the two incidents of UP or Gujarat
there is mention of any recognized organization of terrorists involved. But
their objective is calculated for a particular result: votes in the coming
election of 2014 and the overall purpose of making vegetarianism thrust on the
people. The Hindu party BJP stands to gain from both. The means serve the political aim of the
right wing BJP.
The saffron family is made up of the family head
which is Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the numerous outfits it has spawned
over the years to carry out its aim of turning India into a Hindu country. As
the American think tank has dubbed RSS as a terrorist organization therefore naturally
all the other groups that have come into existence carry out its policy of
intolerance towards the minority to the extent of exterminating them wherever
and whenever it is convenient. Exterminating through the means of batons has
slowly transformed into other means like swords, guns, bombs and now perfecting
bombs of greater destructive power. The most prominent groups like VHP, BD, AB,
etc are clearly involved in acts of terrorism throughout the length and breadth
of India. But there are innumerable other organizations of extremists among the
Hindus like Hindu Rakshak Samiti, or Sanatan Sansthan, etc which are also
engaged in acts of terrorism.
In Dhulia town of Maharashtra Hindu Rakshak Samiti
called a public meeting on Sunday October 5, 2008 that is five days after bomb
attack in the neighbouring town of Malegaon and fifteen days after the sacking
of Muslim neighbourhood in Nardana. The proposed meeting of October 5 was a
ruse to protect Hindus but actually it was to extend the sacking of Nardarna in
another form. In Nardana on September 21, 2008 a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl
had eloped. All the houses of the Muslims were burnt down including the house
of the relatives of the Muslim youth. The parents of the boy and the girl had
reconciled their family members and amicably solved the problem of elopement.
Even the district collector of Dhulia Prajakta
Lavangare stated that it was a private matter and should not enter the public
domain but the extremists appropriated the right to themselves to blame the entire Muslim community of the village
and attacked them and burnt the houses of more than thirty families. This sack
was an act of terror, qua terror. It was the kristallnacht or the worst pogrom that visited the halcyon village
Nardana on the night of September 21, 2008 and reminds one of the 9-10 November
1938 pogroms of the Jews. In a single night they lost everything and what is
worst they were reduced to paupers and internally displaced people.
Even more was waiting for the Muslims. In the
aftermath of this a pamphlet was distributed in Dhulia and boards and posters appeared
with the contents of it in public places. The leaders whose names were on the
first page of the pamphlet issued by Hindu Raksha Samiti are Maheshbhau Mistry (president, Hindu
Rakshak Samiti) and also a Shiv Sena corporator; Hiraman Appa Gavali (working
president, Hindu Rakshak Samiti); Atulbhau Sonavane (district chief, Shiv
Sena); Adv Sambhaji Pagare (district president, BJP); Nanabhau Joshi (regional
secretary, RSS); Gopal Bapu Kele (reception committee chairman, Hindu Rakshak
Samiti).
The
pamphlet openly called Hindus to commit mass killing of the Muslims. Tumchasamor mansacha raktala chtaoleley hinstr
dharmvidey landge aahet ..jangalat histrpushishii saamna zhalas tyala prvachan
kadeyachey nasty, astr khupsoon teyacha mudda padawa lagto. “Before you
(Hindus) are the people sucked on the human blood fanatic wolf (Muslims). If
there is confrontation between the violence prone and you there is no place for
discourse but to stab them to death.” “In all the aggression on our land were
the same people: aggressive, extremists and terrorists.” “Let us protect the
country and religion by preparing suicide squads.” “No supplication now but
war. The end of the Jihadists would be horrendous.” This is reminiscent of how
frequently Bal Thackeray exhorted Hindus to form suicide squads.
Like the
meeting in Muzaffarnager known as grand panchayat of the Jats, the meeting in
Dhulia also led to worst violence seen in its history. Nine people lost their
life scores of houses were burnt to ashes and many were injured. The pamphlet
had called the meeting on October 5, and the violence began according to plan.
The Hindu Raksha Samiti claimed that its board was vandalized and that sparked
off the violence. What had happened in Nardana fifteen days ago was reenacted
as can be seen in a senior police officer’s remark.
Sabir
Sheikh Bhangarwala was welcomed on his return from Mecca and the Samiti blamed
that the people who welcomed him were behind the vandalism. Many Muslims were
arrested including Sabir. The police in its one sidedness show its
characteristic attitude: “Muslims mastermind all acts of
terror, Hindu action a mere retaliation.” (4)That
is what the officer said in his remand application of the Muslim accused. This
was in conformity with the general right wing perception and conspiracy that
all acts of terror must be ascribed to Muslims and only they should be blamed
because Hindus cannot be terrorists as it is in their genes. They can only
react. This illustrates the new conspiracy that ‘all Muslims are not terrorists
but all terrorists arrested are Muslims.” Hemant Karkare by then had not made
his finding public. This equally verifies the emerging fact that Hindutva
terrorists were emulating the terrorist organization of Muslims but blaming the
Muslims for their [Hindutva
terrorists’] act of terror.
Arresting Muslim youths is much easier be it in
Hyderabad or Dhulia, for they lack organizational support, monetary resources,
their strength in the police is negligible; there are too few judges from their
community. On October 18, 2013 there was stone pelting in the Kumar Nagar of
Dhulia city over the allegation that Muslim youths had teased a Hindu girl and
as a result there was confrontation between the two communities. The police
arrested three persons from Hindu community. Then the Hindus complained to the
police and gave names of 42 Muslims. The police swung into action. Most of those
named were so scared that they went absconding. On the other hand Arish Deepak
Ajora, a Sindhi Hindu, complained to the police that three Muslims had teased a
girl from his family. That led to quarrel and stone throwing. Muslims countered
it saying that the police and the Hindus were framing Muslims on false charges.
In contrast the Muslims have not complained to the police although one of them
has been seriously injured in the stone throwing.
The police chief DR Koli said that there was attempt
to vitiate the atmosphere in the city in the wake of Ashish Deepak Aroja’s
complain. However the police had arrested Shaikh Umar Shaikh Riyaz, Najib Nasir
Khan and Bablu Shaikh. One of them is a minor and he has been sent to the
remand home. (5)This by no means is what it looks
at the surface.
Dhulia was already stirred by a pamphlet and banner
of “love jihad” in early October 2013. The Hindu Rakshak Samiti issued a poster
with a photo warning Hindus to protect their women from ‘love jihad.’ This
This time again the HRS went on offensive by this
kind of provocative scene of elopement emanating from a temple! This is another
dimension of the conspiracy that the Hindutva terrorists invented “love jihad”
to carry out their attack on Muslims. So what happened on October 18, 2013 in
Dhulia was another attempt to cause terror as the Jats did on 27 August 2013 in
a village of Muzaffarnagar. That the
police in Dhulia is in cohort with the HRS vigilantes is clear by what one of
the activists asserts; “We have two RTO agents as volunteers. They can easily
detect if a bike belongs to a Hindu or a Muslim and then we can act.”(6)They
chase such couples and threaten or thrash them and warn of serious
consequences. This is again the same kind of terrorizing that rocked
Muzaffarnagar.
The above
definition alone is not enough to comprehend the terrorism practiced in India.
It is enough to remember that it speaks of a segment of population which is
terrorized. How it is terrorized is not of the American variety, it is quite
Indian. The above poster has the phrase ‘saving Hindu girls from extremists and
hence terrorists’ clearly refers to Muslims. Most probably in no country will be
a girl will killed by her religious group for having fallen in love with a
Muslim boy. In India also it is selectively applied. A granddaughter of Bal
Thackeray married a Muslim as a niece of LK Advani also married a Muslim.
Strangely there was no furor over the two marriages. There was no such violent
scene as the following.
A fact
finding team comprising Suryavanshi,
Medha Patkar, M.B. Shah, J.G. Khairnar, Gopinath Landge, Shyam Patil,
Avinash Patil, Vinod, Sandeep Barve draws this conclusion after visiting Dhulia
on October 9, 2008: “From the kind of cases of police
violence we heard, one of the conclusions we could draw was that the police had
entered the first few houses in every row and tried to terrorize and intimidate the people( italics added for emphasis
and contrast). There are glaring
incidents of people being shot, beaten up, dragged on the road, pulled out from
their homes, workplace, acid thrown upon them etc. We were also told that in
quite a few cases the police merely witnesses as mobs ransacked the houses and
beat people.” In one rarest of rare
cases a police man caught a twenty six year youth Saleem Mutuza Ansari by his hands and then shot him by putting his
gun at his forehead. What else is this but qua terror. (7)
Another victim called
Saleem was attacked in the emergency cell of the civil hospital by goondas
brought in a car by Mahesh Mistry, the president of Hindu Rakshak Samity and a
corporator whose name heads the list of those who issued the pamphlet. Qua
terror.
Another team [which included member of Parliament
Sitaram Yechury] had visited a locality called Vitabhatti where the cops
arrogantly told the visitors why they did not save the Muslims because “they were Hindus first and
policemen later”! (8)
In the above definition of terrorism there is the
qualifying attribute of a whole community being targeted for a social or
political aim :the whole police force vis-à-vis Muslims: “It also appears to us
that the Muslim community was threatened by the police on the 2nd and the 3rd
day, which can be a communal reaction within the police force. It is
significant to note that there were no complaints from the Hindu community of
any atrocities or excesses by the police, where as we happened to listen to
umpteen number of grievances against the police from the Muslim community.”
In a significant parallel
the police and administration did not heed to the imminent danger to the
distribution of the venomous pamphlet. This was very provoking. The police did
not care for the security of the Muslims which the pamphlet put in risk by its
explosive content. It runs in a scheme of things arranged by the Hindutva where
the police play proactive role. Five days before this is how the police played
a cussed role in Bhiku chowk of Malegaon where the bomb exploded on September
29, 2008 in front of Abdu Chacha’s office and he recalls it : “On that day in
the evening at about 4 pm, I noticed this unknown two-wheeler parked outside my
shop. When it remained there for some time, I went to the local police station
which is literally one minute away to complain. Nobody heeded me. After an hour
I went to the police station to make another complaint. But they did nothing.
In the night I went for my namaaz and was returning when the blast occurred
with all its fury. Had I been in the shop when the blast occurred, you would
not have met me today! But five other innocents died, including a small girl,
and over a hundred were seriously injured.”
In Dhulia
concerned citizens had drawn the attention of the superintendent of police
Sunil Kolhe to the venomous pamphlet much before October5. He promised to
remove ‘just one sentence.’ That he failed to do since then. Here is a fuller
passage from the pamphlet with virulent language: “The jihadis have
threatened the whole world: either you accept our religion or be prepared to
face death…Oh animals, who are you to teach us worship, prayer and religion? In
this respect, we are your great-grandfathers…Hindus, if you do not wake up now,
it will be too late! Our family members are being killed every day, how much
are we going to bear it?...We will make untiring efforts to save our country
and our religion. We will also have to set up suicide squads!”(9) The passage clearly illustrates that the Hindutva groups
were trying to emulate the Jihadi groups but with a pert reminder that the
Hindus have much longer history and hence in a position to teach others.
The
coalescence of state terrorism and communal terrorism can have disproportionate
role by the constituent elements. In the case of Dhulia violence and terror of January
6, 2013 the police overwhelmingly played a dominant role. A youth of 17 Raees
Patel was shot and killed by the police. His uncle Dr Arif Patel says “People
have understood the value of restraint [since what happened in 2008]. But have
the police changed? Innocent people were attacked brutally.”(10)
The incidents of 2013 show that the terrific situation developed all too
suddenly. A rickshaw driver stopped and ate at an eatery owned by Hindu and an
altercation over a bill of thirty rupees led to a brawl. The owner beat up the
driver. Both the sides went to the police who advised them to settle the matter
by mutual talk. But it at once turned into stone pelting and clash with the
police. But what made it terrorism was how the police shot Rizwan Shah (21)
through his anus and thighs, and another youth through his chest and a third
through his back twice. These events of 2013 are as gory as those of 2008. Khairunisha Bando: “My old mother, who is
bed ridden, was sleeping, when the police entered our house and fired teargas
shells.” A survivor Shaikh Aakbar Sultan(23): “The police have failed us. We
have nothing against Hindus, but we do not trust the police.” (11)
Furthermore, the police personnel actively took part in looting and arson. Six
of them were arrested on February 9, 2013.
-------
(1) Kushner,Harvey W. Encopedia of terrorismycl Sage Publication New Delhi 2003 The quote is
from Foreword.
(2) Inquilab
October 14, 2013
3 Urdu
Times October 23, 2013
(5)Inquilab
October 21, 2013
Propaganda about ‘love jihad’ spreads to Maharashtra’s Dhule district
(9)ibid.
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