Indian Muslims' Continuing Agony

Indian Muslims’ Continuing Agony Mustafa Khan By the same author Aggressive Hindutva terrorism andMalegaon First Hindutva Genocide of Muslims and its Architect Decade of the Demagogue and His Demagoguery Mass-Terror Atrocities on Muslims for a Hindu Rashtra Premeditated Framing of Innocent Muslims in False Terror Charges Ishrat Jahan: Sacrificed at the Altar of Hidnutva Moloch Narendra Modi and his pack: the terror streak Muzaffarnagar, fury and ferocity Polarizing India in attempt tto Hinduize it Even Keel July 12, 2015 9028225763 2554-236370 mustafakhan1948@gmail.com Contents Preface Chapter 1 Lynching in Nagaland, Chapter 2 Target generic Bengali speaking Muslims Chapter 3 “The arc of justice is long” Chapter 4 Muslims as scapegoat Chapter 5 “Hindutva is the identity of India” Chapter 6 Banning beef Chapter 7 Reconversion Chapter 8 Women Chapter 9 Modi as cause of agony, India reformer in chief Chapter 10 Claiming to teach Muslims a lesson Chapter 11 Muslims continue to die in fake encounters Chapter 12 Those who will forever teach Muslims a lesson Chapter 13 Terrorism charges Chapter 14does Modi want another crusade? Chapter 15The system does not change Chapter 16 Taking out thorn with thorn Chapter 17 “Bombs are not for Shab-e-barat” Chapter 18 How planned was suffering Chapter 19 Malegaon a living hell Chapter 20 Cauldron lit from hell Chapter 21 Sowing agony in Atali Chapter 22 What it is to be a riot victim, Atali Chapter 23 Another village falls to the same pattern Chapter 24 Speculators in death, Modi and Ajit Kumar Doval Chapter 25 Can yoga relieve sufferings of Muslims ? Chapter 26 Rohini Salian , the safa of suffering Chapter 27 Torture in Arthur Road jail in Mumbai Chapter 28 Multi headed Hydera monstrosity Chapter 29 Terror and the new line of investigation Chapter 30 Archvillain of Hindutva terror Chapter 31 Shahid Azmi Chapter 32 Mehmood Pracha Chapter 33 Will Sadhvi Prachi oblige PM Modi to bomb Jeddah? Chapter 34 Genocide not irrelevant today Chapter 35 Ending agony through civilizational dialogue Chapter 36 Towns under curfew Chapter 37 Perpetuity of blaming terrorirm on Muslims Chapter 38 Dubious terrorism Chapter 39 Terror and communal violence Chapter 40 Police informers waging war against the nation Chapter 41 Why Maharashtra is embroiled in terrorism Preface Muslims who chose to live in India and share the land with their fellow Hindu brethren threw in their lot with them. They worked whatever their hand could lay on, the plough in the field or basket in the market to carry the load in tandem with the rich shopper in vegetable market in town. There was a much lesser tense atmosphere then as compared to since 1992. The rise of the Hindu party BJP made a chemical change in their lot for it tried to teach them their place, second class citizens at the sufferance of the Hindus. Hence their saga of suffering physical and mental pain accrued over the decades. Theatres of action came up not naturally but manufactured by hate ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It opposed Muslims in every way solely on the basis of their faith, Islam. From such theatres of action as Assam in the east and Gujarat in the west, Kashmir in the north to Kerala in the south there is saga of suffering galore. Hashimpura 1987 massacre is enduring pain. More than forty Muslims were herded together and taken to the river and shot and killed. There were some victims who swam to safety with bullet injury. Of the two or three such there was Mohammad Usman. He was injured in the leg. Police told him that they would let him live on the condition that he would “never mention that the PAC shot at us”…If there is one thing I regret, it is statement I made to the police 20 years ago absolving the PAC. He was clearly told that otherwise he would be killed. His survival is life in death. Another victim also survived by the same technique: Zulfiqar Nasir.I thught if I have to survive, I have to pretend to be dead.” [1] Even 28 years later the measly recognition of rehabilitating the victims of Hashimpura is under hung with a qualifying clause which is like quid pro quo: “Although the accused persons have to be acquitted in this case, this court also feels that requirement for rehabilitation of the victims and affected families,” so ruled his lordship Sanjay Jindal. It is grey region where road rage borders into hate crime against Muslims. In the night of Sunday night of April 5, 2015 when Shahenawaz and histwo sons and wife were returning from marriage dinner in Delhi on their motorbike they had an ‘accident.’ It lightly grazed a car by its silencer. The five men inside the car came out and quarreled and then beat Shahenawaz with iron rods in full view of his two sons and wife and also molested his wife. His 14 year son Fahd saw them beating his father for 15 minutes until he died. There was traffic disturbance at Turkeman gate area. Next day one of the attackers was arrested. [2] Taunting the other is the excruciating and seemingly unending source of agony. After winning election in Pune in 2015 BJP and its associates in Pramod Muthalik’s Shri Ram Sena put a banner that they have captured Babri mosque and hence won Ayodhya. Their next aim is Mecca and the next celebration will be in the holy cities of Saudia Arabia: If this was taunting in the stupor of victory then there is the taunting in attacking the enemy and scoring points over them like it happened in Bombay in 1992-3. This causes acute suffering of body and mind in the minority who do not have the wherewithal to take legal recourse or have an impartial judiciary and police to secure their right in our so called democracy. In the London metro bombing 2007 the judge acquitted a real brother of one of the accused. In India where even innocents are framed and extra judicially executed in prison it is no surprise to know the fate of Yakub Memon. He through his lawyer was negotiating with the Indian government to surrender. He was not involved in the bomb blasts of March 12 1993 nor were all the Memons in the family anti India. But the CBI trapped him in Nepal and brought him to India. He was tried and sentenced to death and the SC has confirmed the sentence. The President of India also showed no leniency and the result is that Yakub would be hanged like others. As Masee Rehman who was Mumbai’s bureau chief of India Today in 1993 wrote that Yakub’s conviction is “not just a travesty of justice but the negation of a family’s extraordinary faith in Indian democracy.” [3] “Our leaders have often said that not a single Indian Muslim joined the al-Qaeda in the past because India is a democracy. An open and fair society with a robust judicial system, they said, does not produce jihadis. So it is all the more ironic that India’s most notorious Muslim family which voluntarily returned to the country to face trial because of its faith in the system today feels it made a big mistake.” [4]There are many others who still believe in the Indian systems and want it to do justice to the grieved who are innocent or may have erred but are within the ambit of nationality. For example Swami Agnivesh of Arya Samaj visited Gujarat 2002 just on the eve of PM Vajpayee’s visit there to show solidarity with the suffering people and for communal harmony. VHP and other extremist groups opposed him and the delegation he led there. On April 23, 2015 VHP and Dharmpal Shivanch of Hindu Mahasabha of Jind in Haryana advertised an award of 5 lakh rupees to anyone who would decapitate his head. According to the ABP News we desk he was a traitor to the nation. The woes of Muslims of India are two fold; one, brought upon them by others like the arrest of Adam Sulaeiman Ajmeri Adambhai was arrested in August 2003 for the September attack on Akshardham temple attack. Losing the job of a rickshaw driver’s steady daily income drove the family to the walls. His wife left her cosy life and took to doing domestic chores in the neighbourhood. Her three daughter took up what she used to do. Their son became a tailor and maintains the family with six siblings. The trial court sentenced Adamji to death in 2006 and Gujarat High Court confirmed death penalty in 2010. He appealed to the Supreme Court which acquitted him of the charges and set him free on the day Modi won and was elected to be the Prime Minister of India, May 15, 2014. Adambhai had completed eleven years in prison of which 8 years went in the death row! The other is where they bring the woes upon themselves like usurpation of wakf property. Dr Maria Montessory says that when the oppressed community members exploit members of their own community, it is worst. Mufti Mukarram Sahib becoming a tenant of a roof of Chandni Chowk wakf property [whose house number was that of Fatehpuri masjid] is an example of it. He moved an application for tenancy in the name of his wife giving the address of hers at her father’s house and got it in April 2003when the only member who could object went away on Haj arrangement tour. Shakir Ansari became a national secretary of the minority cell of BJP in Modi set up and used the means of profit of office. Agony cannot be the monopoly of any one group or community. It befalls to the people who happen to come in a context of place and time not of their own choosing or making. A Hindu family had the experience of it when it was burnt alive within their own one or two room tenement of Jogeshwari, Mumbai in 1993. To map such suffering there is need for a separate book as well. However, Muslims being in minority have perpetuity in agony as a community when a virgin place is violated by communal tension and violence. It persists as the beleaguered minority is subjected to blatant violence with impunity. At Atali, Haryana the recrudescence of ugly violence in July 2015 was regrettable. The Hindus were performing pooja in the adjoining temple using loudspeaker while Muslims were denied even the use of fan in the mosque. In the early morning prayer they were attacked with bricks in the mosque. Again they were subjected to brick pelting when they tried to pray in the afternoon. When the evening came to break fast and pray in the mosque they were over again attacked. They were targeted because the Hindus did not want them to prayer there beside a temple at all. Nizam Ali: “Ever since we have returned, things have been tense. We were told that we could pray peacefully. But the reality is very different. We have given written complaints to the police about the every day social boycott we are facing, but no action has been taken.” On 3rd June they had returned to their homes after having lived in refugee tents at the Ballabhgarh police station. This nagging presence of Muslims as the other in a place where they had till then lived a life of conviviality free from any discrimination till then is how the things become sour with no end in sight. Every passing day brings more fear and more anxiety of eking out existence. In another place, Muzaffarnagar cross firing keeps on recurring as it happned on June 27, 2015 when Wasim was killed in Rampur Maliharan of Saharanpur district. The next day stone pelting injured 18 people when the Hindus used loudspeaker in a temple that the Muslim felt as disturbing and provocative. On June 30 Satveer was killed when he was attacked by riders on a motor cycle. The Hindus said the attackrs had sought refuge in a moque and therefore they encircled the mosque for half a day until police came and broke it up and arrested some. Never before had the village Bhumma such a scene. Until the pogroms of 2013 western UP was halcyon and bucolic in its amity and fertile fields. There are those who have so much humanity that they feel pangs and affliction of others like President KR Narayanan. On October 26,2001 serious communal riot broke out in Malegaon after Friday prayer when a cop tore a handbill with the heading .Be Indian and Buy Indian. Curfew was imposed continuously for seven days; nearly 18 Muslims and a lone Hindu were killed. A Muslim woman was raped. If it had stopped at that it would have been like any other communal riots in the long history of such disturbances in the town. But the most horrific was the first ever migration of citizens from many towns and villages paralleling the partition of the country on a minor scale. Among the first three killed on the first day was a child of three. When the figure rose to 18 there was a woman shot dead. She was in the balcony of her house away from any protest and brawl. The only woman raped was a Muslim farm hand living in a small village around the Girna dam area. It was a case of gang rape and was tried in the court of law; among the rapists one died during the trial period and others were convicted and sentenced. The only case adjudged so far. Florence Sequeira, a journalist working for Asian Age was unable to investigate any other case involving women simply because the police dismissed her saying that there were Hindu women of high birth and did not want their name to appear anywhere! What happened in the darkness and in remote places of Devla where Muslims are a miniscule minority is dreadful to even think. The fact that there was widespread hatred generated against the minority community in towns and villages of not just Nashik district of which Malegaon is a major town but in the other neighbouring districts of Maharashtra. Devla tehsil town saw rioting in which shops and vehicles of minority community were destroyed and curfew was clamped. Soon after Kalwan, Satana, Antapur, Ravalgaon, Andarsool, Yeola, Boris, Vinchur in Niphad taluka of Nasik, Jaikhede and Pimpalner were also seized with communal frenzy where looting and burning was followed by forced migration. In the taluka of Malegaon itself Chichgwan saw a mosque systematically razed to the ground, a work of several days as the structure was reinforced concrete. Zhodge and other towns and villages saw similar destruction. The entire Muslim population in most villages took shelter in farms and bushes and migrated to Malegaon. For the first time high school and primary school buildings housed the internally displaced people, the first refugees of free India as far as the state is concerned. Then followed Gujarat February 27 2002. There is a lurking suspicion that the white powder and gas cylinders used in destroying mosques and houses in Malegaon was a dry run. The pogroms in Gujarat were the ultimate target. Bal Thackeray had often preened that it was he and his party that had taught Modi how to teach lesson and show Muslim their place. During the carnage many sane people felt disturbed and even wrote about it, including the President of India. With this backdrop the President of India K.R. Narayanan said on July 24,2002 that ‘the Hindus, who form the majority (need) to speak out in the traditional spirit of the Hindu religion.’ He also emphasized that India must deal with its Muslim minority ‘in a civilised manner, ensuring them ‘security and the rights of citizens in a democratic state.’…Mr Narayanan quoted from Nehru’s 1947 letter to the chief ministers emphasising that the Muslim community in India was ‘so large in numbers that they cannot, even if they want to, go anywhere else. They have got to live in India. That is a basic fact about which there can be no argument. Whatever the provocation from Pakistan, and whatever the indignities and horrors inflicted on non-Muslims there, we have got to deal with the minority in a civilised manner.’ Most of all the minority people in Malegaon migrated from UP in the aftermath of the repression brought about by the mutiny. Those were different days from what we have today. Though today also there are people like defense minister Manohar Parrikar who advocates taking a thorn out with another, in the days of yore there were the English. “Complex” reality of present India is different from India of 1857 On the day of Bakrid August 1, 1857 the commissioner of Amritsar was in Delhi on a special duty. To suppress the ‘mutiny’ the British waited for the Sikh regiment to arrive before they started slaughtering the Bengali Muslim soldiers who were kept in prison there. They had hanged so many of the rebel soldiers that they were tired of dispatching them quickly. They moved them to the open fields and locked them because of which many died out of fear and asphyxiation. Then the slaughter began and the commissioner boasted as the Muslims were slaughtering animals in the city his men were doing the same to the Muslims. This is also taking out a thorn with another. But in the civilized perspective of today that was as reprehensible any other. But then the leap from then to today covers more civilizing processes the world has gone through and hence no justification for discriminating between the saintly criminal and the other who is deceitful. A criminal is a criminal. Amartya Sen’s new book The Country of First Boys (2015) is about the three features mentioned here but it also shows worsening condition of Muslims in the first year of Narendra Modi’s rule. Modi hasnot done enough to reach out to the Muslims. The three leitmotif s of the book are gender preference for boys, concentration on the more successful and neglect of the rest and success or failure hinges on the social strata, class, caste, religion. It is relevant to recall here Modi’s example of the cycle repairer of his boyhood. Even after two generations the family is in the same business and has not improved their lot at all. Funds for Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and school meals have been cut. He also remarked: in a democracy, “if you are critical of the government, you have to express it.” Modi is intolerant and mute on most of the issues in which Hindutva attempt to corner the Muslim community surface. ” Human progress has always been linked to thinking, and not just doing.” In direct contrast to Modi government’s lopsided view of yoga Sen gives example of judo karate which a Japanese taught to his mother focusing on women, how to fall without hurting. Even when other BJP governments had released scholarship to minority Muslim children in other states Modi adamantly refused to ameliorate the lot of the Muslims. [5] That was because the Gujarat laboratory experiment was meant for that to make the Muslims suffer, to make hell on earth for them. Such is the stuff of conspiracy and high treason. When PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Godhra and asked Maulana Umerjihow did Godhra happen, the Maulana told him in the face of Modi that the Godhra was the karnama or evil deed of Modi. Modi was seething with anger but waited to take revenge against him. He let enough time to pass and then the Maulana was arrested and slammed with accusation that he was behind the burning of the train. This is what Modi did to Ahsan Jafri too who had opposed his election of February 23, 2002 on the ground that it would bring in the rule of RSS ideology in the state. He paid with his life for telling the electorate the truth. Vajpayee did not pay anything for all this. As Dulat clarifies regarding Modi, “Vajpayee ji never gave me that impression that he regretted not sacking him or even wanting to sack him. All he said was, may be, Gujarat may have damaged them in 2004 election.”[6] He chose to toe the line of the hard core Hindutva and kept Modi as the chief minister for political expediency and blamed Muslims for not living with their neighbours in harmony! But being a poet and given to musing, years later Vajpayee mused loudly that the loss of 2004 election was perhaps on account of the Godhra mistake. Muslims of India can never redeem themselves from this ever lasting suffering nor can they forget it. Another that that is of persisting interest is what transpired in Malegaon. Though the Tata Institute of Social Sciences did a commendable work on Malegaon and gave it a title, hell on earth, but there is more. There are more women police informers in the town than men. Reason: their husbands do not work and let the wives work and feed the family. Is it not worse than hell? The more startling discovery is as of now that 25% Muslim prisoners in Maharashtra have no lawyers to represent them in courts across the state! There are lucky informers in the employ of the polie like Sajid Shaikh of Azad Nager slums. He can afford to do his duty not in Malegaon but also in Mumbai. He says he has been used by ATS chief Raghuvanshi as well as the NIA. He can plant bombs and yet not be caught. But he can very well claim that he knew the planters of bombs in graveyard and Mushawarat chowk in 2006 case but the police and investigators did not take it seriously. So worse than hell on earth is this nefarious trade. Another remarkable charcters is the accused in the same case, Abrar Ahmad. Though highest punishment for perjury is death, it was his informer work which led to the arrest of the remaining accused. The ATS could provide his family with monthly pay to run the house in his absence as he was in prison and also take his wife for treatment for being barren. In no other country this happens as in India. So much money changes hands and yet the living condition is worse than hell. What kind of spy network is there you can have glimpse. The last arrested in the 2006 case was Maulana Zahim, the Phoolsanghvi imam five hundred km away from Malegaon. Within a week of the arrest and before even the interrogation could begin, DGP Dr PS Pasricha in his famous press conference claimed that the blasts case was now solved! So even before question Zahid and Ishtiyak it was resolved. It resembles ATS of Gujarat chief DG Vanzara solving Akshardham temple attack, detain Mufti Qayum Mansuri and ask him to elect on which head of crime he would like to be arrested! That is how Vanzara worked so easily, facile ly and glibly. But those innocent people he dumped in the dungeo of Gaikwad Haveli suffered hell on earth. They lived in dolour. After his release on bail his chidlred went to the session court in Ahmadabad and filed a suit against Mufti Qayum. They are an enviable family so full of contentment, joy, peace and succe as if they are on a foreign tour in Europe: In stark contrast is the woe begone family of the Haj House imam Maulana Gulam Yahya Illahi Baksh on the stairs to the office of the metropolitcan magistrate in Mumbai. The imam family is so overwhelmed with affliction that it is a picture in dolour. When the imam was take to Arthur road jail the police colony near Kala ghoda office of ATS was all out on the balcony staring at the so called dreaded imam agog. Do they now know that the imam was a noble soul of simplicity, honesty and communal harmony? When he was released he did not have any money to pay and preferred to remain in jail on account of his penury. How the family must have got their next meal after arrest is beyong the compass of measuring agony. ------- [1] Indian Express March 23, 2015 [2] Inquilab April 7, 2015 [3] Sunday Express August 5, 2007 [4]ibid. [5]http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/the-government-would-have-loved-it-if-i-had-quietly-slunk-away-but-that-i-was-not-willing-to-do-amartya-sen/#sthash.ye53UpKR.dpuf [6] http://www.rediff.com/news/report/a-s-dulat-on-rediff-chat-getting-back-pok-is-not-likely/20150709.htm?pos=2&src=NL20150710&trackid=7MGeiBNRiOgHpjiU22XIw0UhYgsPCBFedrAsNDfdS8Q=&isnlp=0&isnlsp=0 Chapter 1 Lynching in Nagaland, finger of suspicion pointing at Modi Sarkar The juggernaut of the BJP government against Indian Muslims is stepping up. The inhuman dragging of the accused Sharif Khan for more than seven miles, stark naked, pelted with stones and beaten most brutally and then hung on the clock tower in the centre of the Dimapur city of Nagaland is a rare nightmare in India for more than six decades of Independence. For the beleaguered Muslim minority it is continuing agony. The time was well chosen to offset the cultural malaise of the ignominious male psychology of rapists as revealed through the BBC video film India’s Daughter. It was followed by a week in which PM Narendra Modi expressed regret for a 70 year old nun raped in Nadia in West Bengal and a church in Hisar, Haryana vandalized but no regret for Sharif Khan ala no remorse over the contraption used in catching head of dog with which Ahsan Jafri was caught and hacked to pieces or the much nearer in time, the Poona techie’s brutal murder by Hindu Jagran Sameti! The incident of the so called rape in Dimapur on February 23, 2015 was revived to stage manage a protest in which Muslims were again in for identity politics of being meted out jungle law dispensation of justice on March 5th. It surely reminds one of Muzaffarnagar where the incident of teasing a Hindu girl on August 27, 2013 led to the Jat panchayat on September 7 when murder and mayhem was let loose on the Muslims for electoral gains that was to follow. Similar incidents come to mind like Modi taking 10 hours to come up with his manufactured theory that the Godhra train fire was sabotage perpetrated by Pakistan agencies rather than a fire incident that it actually was. “It is the Centre who is responsible for ensuring the security of the inmates [of the central jail in Dimapur],” remarked Tarun Gogoi, chief minister of Assam on March 5th. He also observed that the medical report did not show any trace of rape.[1]The Modi sarkar chose to look the other way as usual when it comes to perpetrating revanchist attacks on Muslims. It was as if the Modi sarkar was seeking to retaliate Muslims of Bengali-Assamese origin to avenge for Muslims not voting for either the Hindu party BJP candidates or its allies with grouse against the minority in the disturbed NE region. The similarity of ten days interregnum in Dimapur matches with Muzaffarnagar scourge of Muslims, instrument of torture and punishment. First three days passed peacefully for the government of Nagaland had refused to allow protest under Section 177. There was no need to sanction the protest on March 5th. They were in touch with the Home Minister of India, Rajnath Singh. Who then finally prevailed upon the state to bring about lapsing and relaxing Section 177 of Criminal Procedure Code. It clearly forbids unlawful assembly. Why did Chief Minister Zeliang admit that it was a mistake? Was he under pressure and from whom? In warrior’s uniform tolling the bell but refusing to wear the white skull cap of peace [Islam] The students wearing school and college uniforms were released from their institutions in a surge of waves upon waves rushing to the central jail where the violence was in full force. This is indication of well prepared plan beforehand and not spontaneous. The central police force could have swung into action and prevented them at the origin, their educational centres. But the students marched like a parade before breaking into running all the way several kilometers to take part in the lynching. This could not be called spontaneous reaction. But Hindutva forces and political parties like BJP and Shiv Sena have never missed any occasion to blame the Muslims. In the Saamna editorial March 9th the party spokesman and editor wrote: "What should have happened in Delhi, has happened in Nagaland. The accused in the December 16 [2012] gang rape case are presently in Tihar jail and international news channels are showing their lives on TV as if they are actors."[2] The descending hordes on the central prison guarded by central government reserve police, resembled the followers of Jack in their hunt of their arch rival Ralph in William Golding‘s novel Lord of the flies. It is a story of how children left to themselves without discipline, morality and religious pieties can lapse into barbarism and acquiring the law of the jungle. Golding was a born protestant but had qualms over the working of the evil in the world hence got converted to Catholicism. The novel illustrates the transformation in the life of the children. As PM Narendra Modi eulogized the Nagas as well educated and young who speak English, like the children in the novel. Left to themselves they live post ‘lapsarian’ life where their leaders exploit them. The teachers in the schools and colleges could have on their own controlled them and prevented rushing out. But they deliberately failed in their duty as did the police. It reflects on India of 1992 when the central government paramilitary forces and army failed to prevent the destruction of the Babri mosque, pulled down in the presence of the religious and spiritual leaders and heads. Gogoi knew the combination of the security forces around the prison in Dimapur and the attitude of BJP government to Muslims. That is why he inferred that the central government was responsible. Only a few months back he had cautioned the new prime minister about the dangers of the infiltrators from Bangladesh. But the murderous mobs knew that their victim was Assamese Muslim and that was enough. He was a Muslim. The manufacturing of a cause to cause a riot was unmistakable. The victim of the so called rape had demand a huge sum of money, two lakh rupees when she visited the hotel. Sharif refused. Therefore, an ingenious excuse, bogus rape report was the instrument of pressure, the despicable jazia. Gogoi had come to know that there was no trace of rape, swab or no swab. Minor injuries to the fingers do not constitute rape. Sending further swabs to the laboratory is eye wash. As a consequence cultural reasons: "The people of Nagaland have long been protesting the illegal migration from Bangladesh. But their protests were ignored. In the middle of this unrest came up this rape incident...This incident made people lose their patience...it is only a result of people's anger against increasing sexual crimes."[Saamna editorial] Bal Thackeray had always called Bengalese speaking Indian Muslims as Bangladeshis. He even advocated attacking them in acts of terror. This discrimination is based not on linguistic factor but religious. The same sophistry is followed in the present situation in Dimapur. Its precursor was the speech of Modi on the eve of 2014 election and the subsequent pogroms in Assam. The event of March 5th bore the hallmark of Talibans, "a Talibani style of functioning," is emulating of the terrorism practiced by fanatic Muslims in order to also stigmatize the community. The PM had praised the Nagas as sport loving people. The children in Lord of Flies had great fun in hunting the pigs as a sport but it transformed into hunting to kill human beings. It is the leader who is the agent of change. As Subhajit Sengupta put it “Farid[Sharif], it appears, has become a victim of the identity mistakenly or conveniently bestowed upon him. The mob targeted him more for his perceived IBI[Illegal Bangladeshi Immigrant] identity and his alleged crime only acted as the spark. However, there doesn't appear to be any direct link between the alleged rape victim and this violent mob.”[3] Rape is used as a strategic dynamic of violence on the “other”. In October 2001 riots in Malegaon whispering campaign was launched that Muslims had raped Hindu women and that resulted in 16 innocent Muslims killed in police firing. Muslims hadn’t raped or molested anyone. The other has no right to touch our women but if he dares to do so we have the right and capability to retaliate. “The ugly premise behind both is the same. Women are regarded as the property of a community and what outrages a community is not rape but the temerity of the “outsider” who lays claim to another’s community’s “property”.[4] The lynching in Nagaland was sown way back during the election campaign 2014. In the fag end of the campaign on May 4, 2014 Modi invoked Mamta Banerji “You are concerned about infiltrators and not your own people ... they must go back, they are robbing the youths of India of their livelihood.”[5] After becoming PM Modi praised the Naga youths while completely ignoring their lifelong insurgency in order to further divide the populace ala ‘your enemy’s enemy is your friend.’ He befriended the Nagas for a cause. Whose enemies’ enemies were the so called Nigerians at the Ravi Metro Station in Delhi on September 28, 2014? They were trying to board the train when they were pushed aside by other passengers. Their taking objection of this kind of unseemly and unfamiliar behavior was misunderstood. Thereupon the locals started thrashing them. For a long time they were beaten blue. Then the Central Industrial Security Force arrived there, however the beating went on. The CISF took custody of them and as they were taking them to their office the crowds again snatched them from the security personnels and again set upon them. As the crowd raised ‘Bharat mata ki jai’, long live mother India, the victims gave call of ‘Allah is great’. This attempted lynching was caught on camera and played again and again and again. The Modi sarkar took no notice. Given the kind of milieu created by the Hindutva extremists and their sympathizers there is eerie silence that this might lead to a reign of lynching or a reign of terror! That is what had happened in May campaign. The recriminating campaigning of Narendra Modi against the Muslim minority everywhere including West Bengal and Assam is responsible for the plight of the Muslims. A common thread runs through the pogroms of Narayanguri, Dimapur and Ravi Metro Station: religious identity. Not the extermination of rhinoceros to make place for illegal immigrants but extermination of Muslims themselves! The way Sharif Khan was taken out and lynched leaves no doubt that it was a conspiracy. He had “consensual sex” with her. She was a neighbor from the village of his wife and there was no reason why he should do anything. But the go between the two was well acquainted with the woman and Sharif. He had arranged a deal whereby Sharif had paid her 5000 for having sex with her twice. From the interrogation it was clear that this was not rape and yet the central police did not act firmly. The woman should also have been arrested for the false FIR she had lodged. There was enough time for it. Several days had passed. Furthermore, the hordes which had broken the jail did not touch the middle man who was also lodged in the jail. He was known to the attackers as he was from their Naga community. The first day Sharif spent was in the police custody, it was on the second day that he was transferred to the central jail. The first report of the state government said that it was not clear that he had raped her. In the second report it said “Khan did not rape the woman.” [6]So the question arises who in the meanwhile arranged the mammoth crowd to descend on the jail and break it even when it was heavily guarded not by state force but central government force, CISF that is under Ministry for Home Affairs, under Raj Singh? The agony of Indian Muslims is graphically caught in the photo of the victim of the lynching. Even after his death it is extended to those Muslims who have survived him in the rest of the country. For them to see and remember their fate in the country! ------ [1]http://www.mid-day.com/articles/protests-erupt-in-assam-cm-gogoi-blames-csf-for-attack/16043163#sthash.uvN4wlHy.dpuf [2] http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/lynching-of-rape-accused-reflects-peoples-anger-shiv-sena/articleshow/46500427.cms [3] http://ibnlive.in.com/news/dimapur-lynching-an-identity-lynched/532888-3-226.html [4] http://www.firstpost.com/india/dont-touch-our-women-the-dimapur-lynching-was-never-about-justice-2143305.html [5] http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/05/04/modi-assam-muslims-immigrant-congress-idINKBN0DK0FQ20140504 Modi rails against illegal immigrants after Muslim killings [6] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/dimapur-mob-lynching-victim-was-never-raped-nagaland-govt-tells-mha/ Chapter 2 Target generic Bengali speaking Muslims designated as IBI The lynching in Nagaland was a conspiracy to force the Bengali Muslims of Assam settled in Nagaland pack and leave. It was a spectacular display of terrorism. After a similar spectacular success in sugar bowl of Muzaffarnagar another group, the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce this time, inducted terrorism in yet another halcyon land. The back ground was prepared in the ten days preceding the lynching. Sharif Khan was no stranger in Dimapur. He was a dealer of car parts in the commercial hub of Nagaland. People also knew that the rape victim was his neighbor who knew her fellow Naga woman, wife of Sharif Khan. The pimp who arranged the consensual sex was also arrested and was in the central prison. The marauding jail breakers left him untouched. As the rape was foisted on what was consensual sex the girl students of the women’s college began protesting at the gate of the college at 10 am on March 4, 2015. In a systematic preparation the Naga youths secured the high way first to prevent National Security Guards and other paramilitary units from entering environs of the central jail and the imitation Eiffel tower in the town square. The commercial hub behind the square was mostly run by Assamese and Biharis, etc. The site of extra judicially executing Sharif was carefully chosen to make the migrant traders read the handwriting on the wall. As one of the targeted victims remarked to Indian Express “There was nothing subtle about it, it was for all of us to see.” The Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce communalized the situation in Dimapur like what Suresh Rana and Hukum Singh had done in Muzaffarnagar. They inflamed the public against the Muslims. Their leaders had already prepared the rationale of lynching. The editorial of a daily put it succinctly: “the problem lies in the fact that though all Bangladeshis may be Muslims (at least in as far as the issue is involved); yet all Muslims are not Bangladeshis.” What Nagaland Post has construed is the Hindutva ideology. First, all Bangladeshis are Muslims and, second, that there were other immigrants who are also Muslims. For Hindus immigrants from the neighbouring country are eligible for citizenship and settlement. But not Muslims. That is how the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce liaised with Nagaland Confederation of Chamber of Commerce of which Khukeugha Tuccu is chairman. His remark that “There is absolute frustration at jobs going to migrants” is indicative of the source of sowing violence. Even the late night meeting on March 4th resembles Modi’s late night meeting of February 27, 2002. The National Security Forces were brought in. They must have known how the government had let the people protest the following day. But the students, mostly young girls and women prevented the forces from reaching the scene of action. And those who were already deployed there simply stood and watched the unfolding drama of lynching. By midday March 4 the shopkeepers were filled with premonition that Sharif Khan was doomed to die as the Nagas went around the main market threatening shopkeepers: ‘Sab Miyakani yatepora jaba lagibo (All Muslim illegal migrants get out)’.” As in the case of Muzaffarpur where Narendra Modi Sena appeared on the scene just before the pogroms so did Survival Nagaland five months ago. Khukeugha Tuccu, chairman of the Confederation of Nagaland Chamber of Commerce and Industry The Nagaland Post justified the killing in its editorial: the problem lies in the fact that though all Bangladeshis may be Muslims (at least in as far as the issue is involved); yet all Muslims are not Bangladeshis.” Muslims in Assam are of different origin, for example the Goria, the Moria and Desin. The Muslim attacks in Assam began in the 13th century and in 16th when the Muslims were defeated by the Ahom dynasty such divisions appeared as Goria, Moria and Desi. Further accentuation in the divisions took place with the rise of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) BJP. There was also Sufi Azan Fakir’s influence in the mid 17 century. The emigration of Bengali Muslims started in 1826 and continued till India became independent in 1947.[1] ------ . [1]Nazrul Haque and Malini Bhattacharjee, from Bangalore’s Azim Premji University, presented a paper — Identities in Quandary: The Complex Narrative of ‘Assamese Muslims’ — at “Reimagining the North East: Narratives, Networks and Negotiations”, hosted by Jamia Millia Islamia’s Centre for the North East. . Chapter 3 ‘The arc of justice is long’ Gujarat leads the list not because of the pogroms but also the suffering that Muslims go through even after the events of 2002 and the fake encounters. Sadiq Jamal Mahtar was killed in a fake encounter in 2003 on the bogus charge that he was on his way to kill CM Narendra Modi. He was small time criminal who acquired enough money to buy a house in a decent locality of Bhavnagar, Ahmadabad. He approached a famous encounter specialist, Daya Naik, of Mumbai police. Naik instead of helping him arrested him and held him in detention in a private place. He negotiated with the Gujarat police. Inspector Barot went to Borivali in Mumbai and took charge of Sadiq. Inspector GH Gohill of Gujarat police brought Sadiq from Detection of Crime Branch office at Dafnala in Shahibaug to the place of encounter where the Gujarat police killed him in cold blood. Gohil was charge sheeted in 2012 by the CBI court because a witness Ahmedmiyan Malik gave evidence. But strangely he was given bail on March 3, 2015. The court gave him bail on the principle of parity as four other accused policemen—RI Mavani, Km Vaghela, CM Chaudasma and Ajaypal Yadav—were given relief. The two disturbing points are not just that an innocent Muslim youth was killed but was held in illegal detention in a private house in Mumbai kept by Mumbai police but also in illegal detention by the Gujarat police. Neither the Mumbai angle has been investigated nor the Gujarat DCB office detention. Muslims with no crime record of terror were traded in extraordinary rendition and then killed. --- Indian Express March 4, 2015. Narendra Modi as chief minister of the state has so far maneuvered successfully to avoid arrest for the crimes against humanity committed during 2002 pogroms and also the fake encounters staged in the name of his security but also on his instruction. He was the white bearded that consented to liquidate Ishrat Jahan and many others because the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau under its special deputy director Rajendra Kumar created false input against her and also against others like Sadiq. There has been no investigation against the role of SIB or Mumbai police as if they had no involvement. A clean chit by SIT has given enough reprieves to Modi until another election four years later in 2019 while the brother of Sadiq, Sabbir, is waiting for further investigation which he requested for in May 2013. This filibustering has not only wasted time but also given the pliant officials enough time to destroy vital proof and scuttle the cases. One such instance is from the Gulberg society case. Police Inspector KG Erda was posted around Ahsan Jafri house in Gulbarg society. At 14 [2 in the afternoon] he sent a message on phone that the Hindu crowd of 10,000 was about set fire to the society. He repeated it at 14.45. Modi was also the Home Minister and should have known it. Even Sanjiv Bhatt, security in charge of Modi, personally told the chief minister about the attack in progress. Modi like modern day Nero turned deaf ear to it. The SIT under RK Raghvan is on record that the telephone records were destroyed by the government. So another grieved Zakia has to wait indefinitely for the truth to come out. Thus the agony continues. First the police would not allow an FIR by her and then courts in Gujarat refused to entertain her appeal. Bhatt deputy DGP in charge of internal security including that of the chief minister attended the meeting at the official residence of Modi. The CM denied that he had attended the meeting. Bhatt wanted an FIR filed against the chief minister in a criminal case but as it was impossible under the rule of Modi he submitted details of the meeting off the record to AK Malhotra of SIT. He repeated exactly what the CM had instructed on February 27 2002 meeting: “There is a lot of anger in the people. This time a balanced approach against Hindus and Muslims will not work. It is necessary that the anger of the people is allowed to be vented.” [Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 7, February 19, 2011] Bhatt wanted a case of crime be registered against Modi, an FIR, so that he could depose it officially. This was not to be. So he went on telling the truth nevertheless. It is just because it is off record Indian courts have simply not bothered about it. The courts have not even taken suo motto notice of it. Even the inquiry officer of SIT AK Malhotra did not make note of what Bhatt had said. Bhatt had also remarked that the 27th meeting was held in the basement of the official residence of Modi and he was very much there. Romila Thapar in “India: Memorial to a Genocide- Insist on Justice” says that there was a carefully crafted design to “destroy skilled Muslim artisans” in the genocide. The political and economic motives must not be ignored. [Hard News. November 2012] Modi’s subsequent attempt to brush the genocide under the carpet of development will make the suffering of Muslims continue. The compensation was never sufficient to any Muslim’s loss of life and property. He was also paid half of what any Hindu got, to begin with. The vice president of United States Commission on International Religious Freedom wants to visit India for the purpose of getting justice to the victims of the genocide. Dr Katrina Lantos Swett says “Success has a way of shifting the gaze and re-focusing people’s attention elsewhere… [but] the arc of justice is long,” and that the right of victims to compensation as well as the assigning of responsibility for violence will not “evaporate simply as a result of Mr. Modi’s election.” India is under the watch of the panel as “Tier II” or “watch-list.” “We believe, and many other continue to believe, that not all the questions have been fully answered about the tragic events that happened in Gujarat. There are people in India who continue to believe that there remain unanswered questions. There may also be some process.” “Hindu nationalists forced some Christians and Muslims to convert.”[1] Much larger issues that have sprung up since Modi assumed office of the PM of India. The vibe of making India a vegetarian country is the brain child of Modi and his ilks. Maharashtra banned beef and slaughter of bulls and bullocks as well. In Haryana also beef is prohibited and significantly what used to happen in Gujarat has spread out to Haryana. In Gujarat under Modi’s stewardship the Hindu extremists would stop trucks carrying meat and beat up Muslim drivers or butchers. The modus operandi was thrashing the driver or meat seller and then dragging him to a police station. A trail of hooligans taking the law in their hands and beating the victims sans mercy was a familiar spectacle. In Maharashtra this caught up with Gujarat and Haryana when trucks carrying meat were overturned and burnt as in Chandwad-Lasalgaon. In Haryana on March 24, 2015 Hindu extremists caught a Muslim Tahseen (43) as he was tending some bulls to a farm. They started beating him. His brother in law Mubin Khan and two others were also with him. They escaped with minor injuries. The marauders carried away Tahseen into the darkness of the night. Mubin went to the police station and wanted to lodge a complaint. The police drove him away. Next day Tahseen’s dead body was found in a farm canal. There was sign of torture on his body. His assailants had accused him of slaughtering a cow. Mubin and others denied it and accused the police of their complicity in the murder. [Inquilab March 26, 2015] This would be the earliest of brutal attack on Muslims since the heightened tension over the ban of beef became a raging passion of the supporters of Modi. As usual Modi did not say a single word over the worsening situation after his becoming PM. So his moving to Delhi is extending of his regimen of Gujarat chief minister ship. Rashid alias Pandya[a Brahmin], Hamid alias Lendi [dry pellet refuge of goats]and Asif Talathi[the lowest land revenue collector] are, patently in their aliases at least, natives of Malegaon who have been booked for killing two calves on March 25, 2015 in Bajrang wadi area of Malegaon. Once very sensitive area and prone to communal violence till a score years earlier, but now overcrowded with power looms and ancillary shops. Once famous for cowsheds housing hundreds of buffaloes however now overtaken by powerloom sheds and living quarters. It is cheek by jowl to the Azad police station and the old police check post at Naka Belbag. Famous for teeming population of police informers a larger number of women overrunning males, Malegaon south matches Malegaon north of Central talkies Idgah area notorious for not only police informers but also its bygone past of brothels. So additional superintendant of police Sunil Kudasne’s getting tip off of the slaughter need not surprise anyone. He directed his deputy Mahes Swai to take action Swai ordered Azan Nagar police inspector Masud Khan to arrest the three. By the time the communication was delivered the three decamped. Thus the new Maharashtra Animal (Amended)act banning the slaughter of bulls and bullocks surfaced in action as it was the first case namely 3004/2015. Around the same time a meeting at 9 pm on March 25, 2015 was held at the gate of old Gulshan school Jaffarnagar SR No 90. Mufti Ismail Qasmi addressed he butchers in distress and empathize with them for their continuing striking against the ban on beef. He reminded the audience that it was the protest of Malegaon citizens in the wake of the bomb blasts on September 29, 2008 that led to the discovery of Hindutva terrorism. Likewise Malegaon would very soon let the world know that they would organize protest against the ban on beef and would successfully get the ban abrogated. The Malegaon Municipal Corporation Mayor Haji Ibrahim Md Yasin remarked that 313 companions had started a move for Islam and they showed how they succeeded. In the same way there are few as in Malegaon who have started the move to get the ban on beef abrogated and they would succeed. The need to empathize with the butchers’ community was the need of the hour for thousands of the butchers had struck work and was facing starvation. There was no progeny of a cow to be seen with a butcher going to the chopping block anywhere in the town. Their travails to survive these difficult times was crystallized in the words of one Naeem Qureshi from Malegaon: “We feel disappointed and cheated by the government. They are spending around Rs 1,000 crore to protect cows, bullocks and buffalos, but what about us> we are human beings. We have been left jobless.” [Indian Express, March 27, 2015] Another culinary habit of the Muslims is biryani most popularly rice cooked with beef with generous use of condiments and spices. It is the most celebrated cuisine of south east Asia. Biryani is also a tell-tale item of the complex relationship. Modi at one time had said he would not serve biryani to Pakistani. The chief public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam revealed on March 20, 2015 about the Pakistan born Ajma Kasab. “Kasab never demanded biryani and was never served it by the government. I concocted it just to break an emotional atmosphere which was taking shape in favour of Kasab during the trial of the case.” [ Asian Age March 21, 2015]Nikam was speaking at Jaipur in an international conference on counter terrorism. Kasab also had broken down in the court. “It was a Raksha Bandhan that day[ when Hindu women tie a trinket on the wrist of their brothers and pledge to always help and maintain them]. “Some speculated that Kasab had become emotional in memory of his sister and some even went on to question whether he was terrorist or not. This kind of emotional wave and atmosphere needed to be stopped. So after that I gave a statement to the media sing Kasab has demanded mutton biryani in jai.” Nikam could also create other false excuses for the accused ones. Kasab was after all a Pakistani but he should have been probed more rigorously for there are attenuating circumstances. Even the ex-jail chief of Arthur road jail Rajendra Dhamne denied that Kasab ever ate beef biryani. “He [Kasab] never asked for non-vegetarian food. He didn’t like non-vegetarian food it seemed and for the record we never offered him vegetarian food. He used to get the same food, rice, dal and chapattis as other prisoners.”[ Asian Age March 22, 2015] This surely is an eample of telling lies to frame a Muslim. It is a tip of the ice berg. The fisherwoman Anita Udaiyya had seen the six terrorists who had climbed out of the dinghy at Cuffe Parade. She had spoken to them and knew them. Her statement jolted the US and it had her transported by an emergency flight to record her statement in the US court. She also averred she had not met Kasab. She had seen him only in the hospital. He was not one of them that landed at Cuffe Parade. Justice Tahiliyani had conducted the trial of 26/11 at Mumbai. He was also disturbed to know that one of the accued Fahim Ansari had never met Kasab and did not know him. It was music to his ears so he cleared all the people from the court and questioned about it to Fahim. Lawyer Sahahid Azmi was killed for he had proved that the map the public prosecutor referred as drawn by Fhaim to guide Kasab and others in the metropolis was planted by the police. The framing of Fahim and Sabauddin Ansari in 26/11 shows the travail of how the Muslim community is passing through trauma of suffering. Dr. Lantos-Swett added, “Success has a way of shifting the gaze and re-focusing people’s attention elsewhere… [but] the arc of justice is long,” and that the right of victims to compensation as well as the assigning of responsibility for violence will not “evaporate simply as a result of Mr. Modi’s election.” ---- [1]http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/allow-us-to-visit-india-us-panel-on-religious-freedom/article6991274.ece March 14, 2015 Tehelka Magazine, vol 8, issue 7 February 19 2011 Contains details of Bharwad, Sanjive Bhatt attending meeting Pandya in another room. Chapter 4 Muslims as scapegoat A nun in West Bengal’s Ranaghat was raped. She was 71 years old. In the days that followed and the days that preceded there were other such incident of targeting Christians, vandalizing their churches and stealing things. Julio Ribeiro a former police commissioner of Mumbai and super cop on assignment to fight Sikh extremists in Punjab and advise Modi government in the 2002 pogroms of Muslims felt for the first time that Christians were no more safe in India. Nitin Gadkari a senior minister in the Narendra Modi government at centre since May 2014 felt it very sad that Ribeiroji should express such regrets in public. In 2002 pogroms many Muslim girls and women met more horrible fate of being raped and burnt alive or had their fetuses destroyed at the point of swords and then made bonfire. The then defense minister George Fernandes observed that these were nothing new to India. Raping an old nun is as condemnable as raping and killing and burning the victims of gang rapes as in Gujarat. However the fate of the Muslims shows a new watershed. Narendra Modi as chief minister of Gujarat played politics over the horrendous mass murders, mayhem and then the fake encounters. As in Sharif Khan case of Dimapur lynching, there is attempt to blame illegal Bangladeshi immigrants for the rape. Gadkari felt ‘very sad’ he said and had conveyed his feeling to the PM. Modi according to him remarked “we will not protect anyone damaging a minority institution, church or mosque” as “law and order is our responsibility, we will protect minorities.” But how the duo chose to do it is patently what they have imbibed from the RSS. Gadkari: “Everyday in Parliament, there is a new issue to stall business the Left, Congress and anti-BJP have been out to prove that we are against minorities ever since we were elected. Their biggest capital is fear…minorities have nothing to fear from the government, least of all Ribeiroji. He is our icon.” “…incidents happen , now take this nun incident in West Bengal, two Muslim youths were involved in it, one should not look at these things through the prism of caste, sect or religion.” The report of the arrest mentions one Shaikh Salim arrested from Habra WB. Although the FIR mentions that there was only one rapist, but the WB police have also arrested Sikandar Shaikh alias Salim from Nagpada in Mumbai. His face resembles one of the four shown on CCTV grab. The third man arrested was Gopal Sarkar from Bangladesh border. If these were robbers albeit illegal immigrants it is still not clear why they would rape the nurse, a septuagenarian? In yet another case the antecedents of Gopal and Salim are not clear. DNA test could help. The three arrested are of different religions. If robbery was the motive then the religious angle is irrelevant. Even so from the viewpoint of the illegal immigrants it is relevant although one of them is a Hindu. Playing identity politics pays rich dividends to BJP. But it also helped chief minister Mamata Banerjee of WB. She won the election by defeating the CPIM when it was found that Rizwanur Rehman was killed and the involvement of police was widely suspected. The police commissioner of Kolkata Prasun Mukherjee had defiantly remarked: "If the police does not interfere in these (family) matters, who will do it? PWD (Public Works Department)?"CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya lost the election because of the proximity of Mukherjee to him. Even a leftist government can play with a minority. Rehman had married Priyanka Todi, daughter of Ashok Todi of Lux Cosi. He had offered to convert to Hindu religion even that did not save his marriage and ultimately his life. Rehman’s last call on phone to his lawyer proved that Ashok Todi did not like his daughter to marry a Muslim. Rehman had married Priyanka on August 18, 2007 under Special Marriage ACT. Both of them lived together and then he brought her to his house on August 31. Subsequently both of them complained to the commissioner of police that Ashok was threatening them. Rehman was killed on September 21. The sad parting of her son was in itself overwhelming to Rizwanur Rehman’s mother Kishwar. But when she received a lawyer representing Priyanka asking her to return what the daughter in law had given to her and her son it was unbearable wrench: “You should have come to meet a mother who lost her son because of the conspiracy hatched by influential police officers and your father. It is a matter of deep regret that you have sent the letter through your advocate...” “I am hoping that you will come yourself and take these things. It will be very unfortunate if I have to hand them over to an advocate’s peon or clerk instead of my daughter-in-law with whom I have no judicial dispute.”[ Priyanka’s letter hurts, says Kishwar Jahan Hindustan Times ] Sheikh Salim and Sikandar are termed decoits but what about Rizwanur Rehman? He was an Indian like Sharif Khan. The police and the right wing groups conveniently deal with Muslims in grossly inhuman way. Even the railway police officer making inquiry into the mysterious death of Rehman was killed within a year to destroy evidence. The police commissioner Mukherjee and his men had destroyed the cell phone cards of Rehman as well as that the railway officer Arindam Manna on February 11, 2009 who was making investigation into the murder. Chapter 5 “Hindutva is the identity of India” The celebration of the birth of Ram on March 29 2015was made the pretext by Hindu Rashtra Sena in Ahmadnagar to manufacture a riot. They took out procession through areas with several mosques. Whichever mosque came in the way was targeted. Stones thrown at them or their cement grills or iron grills were broken. They had come with a prepared agenda of shouting anti Muslim slogans and provoking the minority community. It is important to note that in the aftermath of the murderous attack on techie sheikh Mohsin in Pune last year the Hindu Rashtra Sena was banned. So the HRS took out procession with permission and staged attacks on mosques on the route. The police did nothing to prevent. The police arrested 35 people of both the communities. [1] The episode demonstrates what the right wing groups want the world to know by shouting from their roof top that India is a Hindu country; the minorities either merge or perish. The riot underscores that they are celebrating not just Ram’s birth day but more. On 50th Anniversary of foundation of its religious wing, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, RSS boss Mr. Mohan Bhagwat, obderved “Hindutva is the identity of India and it has the capacity to swallow other identities. We just need to restore those capacities.” [2]2015 is the fiftieth anniversary of VHP. Last year in November 2014 450 Muslim families of Kakyannagar and Makatipura had their houses demolished and were to be housed in new colonies. New the colonies have been built but in March 2015 the Muslims were denied new Manjalpur complex because the Hindu neighbours object the Muslims as “problmen elements.” [3] Dattatreya Hosabale Joint General Secretary of RSS said on Marh 13, 2015 “There are no minorities in India where all people are "culturally, nationally and DNA-wise Hindus" Thus the task of the right wing groups is to deny separate housing for Muslims. They have to either leave India or become Hindus and then live where they want. This generates intense torment to the mind and puts them in danger of life. Every life is marred by anxiety of present and for the future of their children. ------ [1] Inquilab March 30, 2015 [2]http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/no-minorities-in-india-all-culturally-dna-wise-hindus-rss/articleshow/46553317.cms [3] Indian Express April 2, 2015 Chapter 6 Banning beef Eating beef was a practice of Hindus down the ages. Historical records show how thousands of cows were slaughtered at the feast when Ram returned to Ayodhya. Brahmins were served cow meat as a preference. However, banning beef has been turned into a right wing Hindutva strategy to engage especially the Muslim minority in a saber rattling situation where their cheap source of protein would be at risk. Muslims generally sacrifice bulls and bullocks at the time of Idulazha or the festival of sacrifice. This year Idulazha falls on September 25, 2015 and it may not become an Armageddon but would usher in how the Muslims would be forced to forego beef. It would certainly be the first festival in living memory where even the sacrifice of bulls and bullocks would be legally punishable for a long term in prison. This deprivation of their healthy food would mark the interference of Hindutva ideology into the practice of Muslims and hence a breach of their personal law and right to eat healthy meat sanctioned by their religion. What distressful thought that would haunt them that the cow was not allowed for sacrifice and now even the bulls and bullocks have been snatched from their reach. In the scorching heat of May 2015 the bullocks that cost 1 lakh per head are being sold at 50, 000 only because the resale value is now zero. A member of panchayat samiti of Pendgaon village of Beed says that migrant labourers are paid less than their wage. Instead they are given one head of bull or bullock to take home. [1] Their six month long stint of cutting sugarcane ends with saddling them with animals which they would not like. They cannot afford to feed them when there is so little to go around for their own survival. That Hindutva has hijacked the issue to its ulterior reason is evident in Sakshi Maharaj’s observation that the Nepal earthquake was caused by Rahul Gandhi visiting Kedanath mandir. He is beef eating and so impure. The Maharaj said that Gandhi should have purified himself of the sin of eating beef. This view of his is clearly interference in the historical chronology to make India into a Hindu country where beef would not be permitted. The Maharaj held a darbar of his own in Hardwar on April 28, 2015 and made the media take in his fatwa. [2] When the Constitution was drafted there were people who wanted to make it rights’ issue, a fundamental right of the bovine species. A member of the constituent assembly remarked “(The) cow is the mother of the individual, she is the mother of the nation.”[3]It was Dr B Ambedkar who put it in the directive principles of state policy, instead. Having missed that opportunity, the Hindutva government of Modi revived the same with greater gusto as the chairman of his manifesto committee of election campaign Ganesh Lal asserted: “The slaughter of cow would be considered equal to murder of a person.” In contrast to this is the celebration of the Andhra Pardesh dalit students of the Osmania University who organized a dinner where their favourite delicacy beef biryani was served. Pertinent to this is the mind set of Modi who had often mentioned that he would not serve biryani to the Pakistan president/prime minister. His taunt is coming home to roost. As a show of solidarity with their Hindu compatriots again, the Deoband seminary has issued fatwa against slaughtering cows. During the days of slavery the Muslims wound slaughter about 20, 000 annually as compare to the British who would kill 3000 a day. Now that India is independent, the BJP and its patrons RSS and VHP, tried to bring back bondage of their own kind. They want to enslave the minority Muslims in particular by banning beef. They want to hunt with the hounds but in their wild abandon they also refused to play with the hares thanks to the absolute majority in parliament and in their own government in Maharashtra they passed banning of beef through the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act by the ordinance of the President of India in February 2015. The Congress had pioneered the bill 15 years ago but played politics over it instead of seeing through the fundamental needs of the people and the correct interpretation of what is fundamental rights and directives principles of state policy. This gave leverage to BJP to play its communal politics and keep the minority in thralldom. The Congress realized the game and came out with Beef Satyagarah and Beef Festive in May 2015. Sanjay Nirupam Congress leader in Mumbai: “Like Gandhiji's satyagrahas, it will be a peaceful protest in which farmers, people rendered jobless in the leather and tannery industries and others affected by the ban will participate. Let cops arrest them all. The constitution allows me to eat whatever I want to. I don't eat beef, but that doesn't mean I should stop others from eating it. Who is the state to peep into people's kitchens? BJP wanted to polarize people on the beef issue and trap Congress in it. We refused to be entrapped."[4] ------ [1] Asian Age May 4, 2015 [2]Inquilab April 29, 2015 [3]India - Maharashtra: The beef ban leaves a bad taste in the mouth Daily News and Analysis, March 12, 2015 [4] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Congress-satyagraha-to-protest-beef-ban-law-in-Mumbai/articleshow/47303519.cms Chapter 7 Reconversion What created ripples purportedly was Julio Ribeiro a famed cop saying that he felt that he was different from the Hindus, a Christian, for the first time in his 86 years of life in India as a native. This happened not during the Kandhmal massacres of Christians in 2008 but when Modi was well advanced into his reign in Delhi More than 20 years ago Muslims and Hindus alike lived in villages with an obvious indifference to their religious identity thanks to the skimpy support to Hindu party and RSS having only city base. When the tentacles of these two spread out to the rural area they changed everything. It was not only ghar wapsi or the rape of senior nurse in Ranghat or reconversion of Christians and Muslims but also pooh poohing Mother Teressa by RSS boss Mohan Bhagwat for ulterior motive of conversion and not altruistic utterly. [1] The canonization of Mother Teressa was internal matter of the Catholic Church. There was no need to blame her for being made a saint for any ulterior motive because she had devoted her entire life in a noble cause. But the shame that Ribeiro felt was because of the overwhelming atmosphere created in the country where the Hindutva forces could not counteanance anyone or anything that even remotely was anathema to them. Ribeiro was a police commissioner and knew what judiciary is and the prosecution fight cases in court. He was again outraged when Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian was unceremoniously removed from the job. She was very impartial and forceful in her work but the Hindutva forces were against her because they wanted terror cases to be resolved according to their ideology. This was detrimental to minorities for they would be deprived of justice. So the cop expressed her opposition. Behind all this is the reconversion issue of the Hindu right. They are following their juggernaut of reconverting with renewd energy now. ------ [1]http://www.rediff.com/news/interview/ghar-wapsi-was-motive-behind-ranaghat-attack/20150319.htm?pos=7&src=NL20150320&trackid=7MGeiBNRiOgHpjiU22XIw0UhYgsPCBFedrAsNDfdS8Q=&isnlp=0&isnlsp=0 Chapter 8 Women Women have one of the best traditions of safeguarding their interest by way of feminist organizations that have come across the world for their common concerns. Mass gang rapes during the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat naturally attracted attention of women of the world. For the sheer scale of barbarity perpetrated on them was unparalleled in Indian history. Even the partition riots fade into insignificance. One such was a woman making feature films. She met one such victimBilkis Bano shortly after the 2002 riots. “She was one of the many Muslim women who were raped during the riots. Six months pregnant with her second child, she, along with her mother and sister, was stripped in public and gang-raped. Fourteen of her family members were killed, including her 3-year-old daughter, whose head was smashed in with a stone. Bano was one of the few women brave enough to file a complaint with the police, but she saw justice only several years later, when the Supreme Court ordered the case to be moved out of Gujarat, where evidence had been suppressd.”[1] India’s defense minister of that time George Fernandes, a Christian, dismissed all such reports as usual every day stuff thereby meaning that it was not specific to Gujarat. Modi and Fernandes were queer bedfellows. Such hiatus shows how Gujarat is divided. Sheena Sumaria went to the full extent to draw a more accurate picture in 2014 documentary “Even the Crows: A Divided Gujarat.” As Bilkis Bano is still alive her trauma is soul wrenching as was the rape and murder wrecking bones and flesh. The women’s NGO the International Initiative for Justice summed up the barbarity practiced on woman, planning and political calculation behind the genocide. “The violence that was unleashed against Muslim communities and on women from the Muslim communities in particular, in the state of Gujarat, India, from February 27, 2002 onwards was beyond description in its horror. In efficacy in showing the worst effects of communalism combined with a thirst for political power is unmatched in the post independence Indian history…What happened on February 2002 was but a pretext to carry out the carnage that was long plannned, a flashpoint that facilitated it and gave it a rationale.” The report notes the features of agony: “Death, harm and loss suffered by victims; measure to address the continuing sense of fear and anxiety victims experience; the trauma and psychological damage, the loss of citizenship rights and the sense of betrayal.” Even communal riots like the one in Malegaon 2001 are typical of how women have been used to justify violence. Medha Patkar: “I always remember, when the riots broke out in Maharashtra’s Nasik district in Malegaon, we reached on the next day. Both the religious groups claimed that their women had been violated and that was the reason why they participated in the riots. But this was far away from the truth. We went around the villages and spoke to people from both the communities. We spoke to Nial Ahmed from Malegaon and the leaders from Bhavsar colony. There was vast difference between what the men and women had to say on the issue. The Hindu women from Bhavsar colony said that although men bearing weapons had come after them, they were given protection by the Muslim women living in the neighborhoods. And in Nihalnagar, the Muslim women said that they were given protection by the Bhavsar colony consisting of Hindu women. This is a reality that happens every time. The weak is targeted by the fundamentalists who use religion for their expression of power and violence spreads further. `Why should we keep quiet when our women are under attack and when our religion is under attack’, they asked. But the reality was different.[2] ------- [1]http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/modi-is-no-ally-for-indias-women.html http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/modi-is-no-ally-for-indias-women.htmlhttp://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/modi-is-no-ally-for-indias-women.html [2]http://www.countercurrents.org/patkar130315.htm Unite! Let's Make Sure That Kandhamals Are Not Repeated By Medha Patkar 13 March, 2015 Countercurrents.org Chapter 9 Modi as a cause of agony “India’s reformer-in-chief”, indeed! There are two different and parallel themes in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s utterances. One he views development as necessary and emphasizes it often. But he has always been making it clear that the Muslims are a hurdle to achieve it because of their population. He called the relief camps of 2002 as child producing factories. Much of his pronouncements about the minority are bipartisan. He blames the Muslims as terrorists and their religion as sources of terror despite good principles in it. even more canny is his studied silence and refusal to comment on matters of minority Muslims when his fellow hardliners make acerbic comments. Participating in the debate two days after 9/11 he spoke fiercely about it. John Elliott, a British journalist who also was present in the debate wrote a more considered recall of what Modi had said. In his book Implosion, India’s tryst with reality (2014) Elliott says that Modi put his finger at the juggad or casual or quick fix attitude of chalta hai as failure of India’s performance. This is a castigation against all and not specifically Muslim minority. However, when he turns to the minority Modi castigates them as obstacles to India’s struggle to achieve development. But he misses the point when he looks at the greasy attire of the Muslim road side repairers of vehicles. Muslims of that profession may not be able to wear the kinds of stylish dress the prime minister wears, changing many times a day. The unseemly dirty appearance of the minority in no way is a failure. This also cannot be underperformance of the minority. To blame them for under performance of India to achieve development is also incorrect. He has blamed Islam for terrorism ‘when one says your religion is hopeless and mine is better, then hatred starts, and later when that hatred gets linked into society, terror starts’. It is unthinkable that Muslim utter such sentiments. So it is inconceivable why he did persist in this: he wanted ‘Muslim friends’ ‘to ‘understand that terrorism has damaged Islam like anything,’ and, that they needed to ‘come out against the terrorist’. It is also incorrect to say that Islam ‘put its flag in the whole world and the situation today is the result of that’. So he seems to subscribe to the topic of discussion ‘Is Islam now the driving force of terrorism’.[1] But the truth that is coming out of Gujarat he ruled for more than twelve years show that he was in fact responsible for the blames he cooked up against the Muslims. There are three most puzzling cases in a host of others regarding Gujarat which President Barack Obama must learn because “India’s reformer-in-chief” is squarely responsible for what EM Forster long back called muddle; the Godhra fire accident, the assassination of Haren Pandya and the attack on Akshardham temple close to the official resident of Modi in 2002. Mufti Qayyum Mansuri was one of the accused arrested. He was given the option to choose in which of the three he would like to be framed. He was innocent and had no involvement in any of the three. Therefore he wanted to tell the world that he had spent more than eleven year in Gujarat prison and was acquitted on the day Modi won election on May 16, 2014 but had to wear the badge of shame of "a life branded as a terrorist without evidence." [2] The mufti wrote a book “Gyarah Saal Salakhon Ke Peeche” [Eleven years behind the bars] in which he has narrated much more than this. He says that the police of Gujarat under Modi had planted evidence to falsely implicate him and others. So far in two cases of assassination of Pandya and attack on Akshardham all the accused have been acquitted. All were Muslims. In the case of Godhra fire incident Muslim accused were similarly framed in bogus charges and have been in jail. But the most crucial point is that every accused was offered to opt in which of the three he would like to be framed! The logical inference is that even in the Godhra case the accused are innocent. How could then Obama call Modi India’s reformer-in-chief? What Obama does not know is that Modi might have been born poor but he was born as blue boy with silver spoon of RSS. The killers of Gandhi Nathuram and Gopal Godse were also like him. It is Indian malaise that innocent Muslims are blamed terrorists and rot in prisons across the country. Instead of Obama and other leaders of the world asking India to introspect over it they only sing the development mantra of Modi. They also conveniently over look that if Godhra like the other two cases was also bogus it was this that led to the genocide of Muslims in 2002. Muslims in India like the Armenians in Turkey and the Jews would require half a century to have Gujarat 2002 pogroms recognized as genocide. It was this wrong policy of the US administration of ignoring the genocide when it was overwhelmed by 911 that forced Samantha Power leave Obama election campaign team in which she was talked of as the next secretary of state. Obama’s own secretary of state John Kerry has been asked by a court in America to reply why RSS be not name as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Innocent Muslims have suffered for the terrorism that was the handiwork of extremist Hindus. Among the Indian diaspora there are many in America like Sonal Shah and her father who had funded hate campaign against Muslims and collected huge funds for Vishwa Hindu Parishad America. The fund was sent to the Delhi address of VHP which used it for the genocide. The killers of Muslims had readily available food packets and drinks as they were butchering Muslims. When this matter was raised Obama quietly left Sonal Shah out of the campaign which saw him becoming the first black president of the US. Whatever development in India under Modi in Gujarat and now in India is achieved is thus tainted. It is smeared with the blood of the victims of genocide. Development is a ruse to hide the grave charges of genocide. As Pope Francis observed on April 12, 2015 that honouring the memory of genocide in Armenia April 24, 1915 is needed : “honour their memory, for when memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester.” That is what is happening in Gujarat too. [4] Further details of the prevention of the publication of the book by Mufti Mohammad Qayum Mansuri show that the police of Gujarat have not changed under a new chief minister. Thus the wounds are festering. The genocide in Gujarat was very carefully planned. Modi had called the fire incident at Godhra a terrorist attack mounted by LeT and Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan. Till today he has not substantiated on what ground did he say this in the evening of February 27, 2002. Obama’s write up in Time of April 16, 2015 is about the most influential people in the world, yes Modi is very influential. [4]But a part of his influence is in reforming not the economy but India as a Hindu nation. Rewriting history has been a part of it but he is now reforming the judiciary and the legislature. We had collegiums system of appointment of judges but now Modi wants to reform it and hence he is introducing National Judicial Appointment Commission. The purpose behind is alarming. The executive will control NJAC. In the meeting of the chief justice of India and other judges as well as the chief minister of all the states on April 5, 2015 Modi said that the judges must introspect whether they are driven by “five star activists.” He is insinuating them that they have to guard from human rights activists like Teesta Setalvad or those who were against Narmada dam. Such people according to him are not working in the interest of India. Another insidious remark is that “perception” matters a lot. He had always perceived that those killed in the fake encounters were anti national and deserved extrajudicial killing. He is far from obscure as he is preparing his own defense against the cases slapped against his police like DG Vanzara and GL Singhal. These two of nearly scores of police men were very close to him. They are involved in killing people like Sohrabuddin, Tulsiram Prajapati, Ishrat Jahan. Modi and Shah were the ultimate bosses whose orders the cops carried out. The police justified as did Modi that they were doing patriotic duty. This kind of perception Modi wants the judiciary and the legislature to adopt. PM Modi remarked “It is never too difficult to do justice within the boundaries of law and Constitution. But it is very difficult to find the truth between perception and reality. It must be pondered over whether five-star activists are driving the judiciary today…if havoc is created to drive the judiciary. It has become difficult to deliver justice in an atmosphere of perception. A judge is not completely insular today. A judge is worried over what is happening outside and thinks if a judgment should be delivered one way or the other. It is imperative to strengthen the hands of the judiciary. Be if people in the government or in the media or the issue of bail of five-star activists, we will cause trouble to ourselves, if we don’t help strengthen the judiciary.” His perception of strengthening the judiciary is with a price that the outside world influences a judge. Modi clearly justifies it. He even illustrates with an example that a high court had severe problem because a five star activist had brought an injunction against setting up an electric pole.[5] Most of the people still do not know that it was not communal violence resulting in riots in 2002. It was genocide. The case of Sardarpura attack on March 1, 2002 illustrates the point. The following description is from what people’s tribunal of eminent jurists and human rights activists. “Muslims constituted about 10 per cent of the total population of Sardarpura, in Mehsana district, which included about 25 families of Pathans, 20 of Sheikhs (Ghanchis) and about 20 families of Mansuri Muslims. On February 28, 2002, at about 9 p.m., several kiosks owned by Muslims, Harijans and Rawals were burnt in Sardarpura by a mob of local Hindus. The police were called but the attack continued even in their presence and even after they had left. Fearing further attack, the Muslims again called the police the following day. Led by two sub-inspectors the police arrived in two jeeps. The idea of forming a peace committee was mooted and names of people from various communities were short-listed. A meeting was fixed for 4 p.m. Apart from the sarpanch and an ex-sarpanch (both Patels), representatives from Harijans, Rawals, Prajapatis and Muslims reached the venue but the Patels stayed away. The sarpanch, too, left the venue shortly saying he would try to get the Patels. He did not return. “An electrician promptly repaired the streetlights of the village, which were not working for about a month prior to the incident, that evening. A halogen light was installed near the colony of the Sheikhs and a long wire was attached to the same point. By 9.30 p.m., a Hindu mob from 8-10 villages started collecting in Sardarpura. All the three Muslim localities (of Pathans, Sheikhs and Memons) were simultaneously attacked. While shops were being burnt in the localities of the Memons and the Sheikhs, houses of the Pathans were stoned. “The two sub-inspectors were still in the village when the attack started. Making excuses about going to the other end of the village to stop the attack on the Memon shops, they disappeared and gave inaccurate feedback to the SP that everything was all right in the village. In the Sheikh locality, a two-year-old girl child was flung and killed by the mob. Some of the Muslims ran to the Rawals’ houses for shelter; together with the Rawals then ran away through the fields. One person saved himself by hiding in a grave. Thirty-one people, mostly women and children, had taken shelter in a house in the Sheikh locality. The mob surrounded the house, locked them all in a room, and threw acid at them from outside. An iron rod, attached to the loose end of the live wire was then shoved inside the room packed with Muslims. This instantly electrocuted 29 persons to death. Two children who fell beneath the pile of bodies somehow survived the attack. Finally, after receiving desperate pleas from trapped Muslims on phone, the SP, A Gehlot, reached the village with two vehicles at about 2.30 a.m. The Sardarpura survivors were rescued and taken to Sawala village. The police found that the roads out of Sardarpura were blocked at frequent intervals up to Ladol, 9 km away, to prevent the Muslims from escaping. An FIR was lodged and 28 persons named by survivors. One of the chief accused, Chandra Kant is a Bajrang Dal activist. As of early May, he had still not been arrested.” The gravamen of the crime against humanity was that the Hindu extremists wanted to attack only Muslims. They had blocked the escape routes to Muslims but not the Hindu Rawals, Prajapatis or the Harijans. They killed only the Muslims in a systematic planned manner. The Patels (Hindus) betrayed the Muslims. The brutal killing of the two year old Muslim girl was a shock and stun strategy of heralding the genocide, that it would run its fixed course. Every Muslim was targeted, children, women and men, old and young. This meets the defining features of what genocide is according to the UNO. In another village called Ode the Muslims were exterminated lock stock and barrel. No one from the minority lives there. The Non Resident Indians (Hindu Patels) behind the genocide there fled to the US. In his first visit to the US, PM Modi saw to it that the Indians like the Patels have their papers of immigration regularized and saved from harassment. This would benefit those who were from Ode and are now hiding in the US. When journalists were covering 2002 pogroms Modi as chief minister had gagged them by threatening them with the fate of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist executed by the Talibans in Pakistan. The gagging of Mufti Qayum contrasts sharply with Vikram Bhave. The accused member of terrorist outfit Sanatan Sansthan was sentenced to prison for ten years was given bail for two months in which he wrote a book on terrorism and it was published. Even DG Vanzara was allowed to write books and book were released in official function where he occupied seat on the dias. So gagging was used most discriminating way. Bhave’s book has such disturbing details that it matches with what Mufti Qayum would expose and goes beyond and calls for all the judges entrusted with terrorism cases to introspect as Modi has exhorted: There are such details in two recordings of Captain Nitin Joshi, one of 14-1(1)-2008 and another of 18-11-2008 as submitted to Deputy Commissioner of Police: 1. A certain Dr Dav had given affidavit to the Deputy Commissioner of Police against a man called Bhagwan who had been given RDX for attack on Samjhauta Express in February 2007. It was from the consignment that Purohit had stolen from the army when he was on duty in the Kashmir valley. Captain Nitin Joshi had seen the RDX in a room of Purohit’s bungalow in Pune. 2. Indresh Kumar had advised Hindutva terrorists to target Muslims and kill them in larger number and hide in temples. Kumar and Mohan Bhagwat had received 21 crore rupees from the Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan. Joshi had heard a man say this when he was with Purohit in Purohit’s bungalow. Joshi is witness no. 55 in Malegaon 2008 attack case. Bhagwat now chief of RSS, Kumar and Ramji Kalsangra and many others are members of RSS. Their involvement in terrorism is direct. Witness no. 61 is Sham Apte in 2008 Malegaon attack case. He says that he had seen a secret dossier mentioning that ISI had given 21 crore to Kumar as head of the Muslim National Front, a sub group of RSS. “I consider this treachery to the nation,” asserts RSS leader Sham Apte. “I was so overwhelmed by shock that I said that we must arrange to kill Bhagwat and Kumar.” [6]However he also claimed in self defense that he did not really intend to kill them. This so upset Samir Kulkarni another accused in 2008 case that he appealed to the high court that there should be a case filed against Nitin Joshi for taking part in conspiracy to kill. It is clearly an attempt by an accused in support of another. There are other accused inside and outside jail or on parole that are doing the same work. In this Vikram Bhave figures prominently as does Amit Shah. Bhave was accused in the bomb blast on February 20, 2008, in Cineraj cinema in Panvel, Vashi theatre Vishnudas Bhave on May 31, 2008 and in the same week another attack in Gadkari Rangayatan theatre. He was arrested on June 16, 2008 and sentenced to ten years in prison. He wrote his book Malegaon bomb explosion, the invisible hand behind it. He has reproduced certain documents verbatim of which Sham Apte’s needs serious attention to know the shades of Hindutva terror. Purohit was a more diehard terrorist than is known and yet the army Court of Inquiry supported him. Sham Apte noted ambiguity as hall mark of his character. He had introduced himself as a major when he was just Lieutenant Colonel. When he went to meet Apte he did not make it clear as to who had recommended him to meet Apte. He introduced Apte to Swami Amrutanand Deoteerth, aka Shankaracharya whose real name is Dyanand Pandey. In July 2008 Shankaracharya of Peeth came to Pune and Apte arranged for his stay in Sarda’s house where industrialist Jindal donated ten lakh rupees of which 5 lakh went to the treasury of Abhinav Bharat and the remaining to the Shankaracharya. When the Shankaracharya visited Indore on August 1, 2008 Purohit arranged for travel of Apte and Ajay Rahirkar to fly in to visit the Shankaracharya. In the hotel Apte overheard Purohit asking for one lakh rupees from the holy man. There were greater frequency of meeting of Abhinav Bharat and RSS functionaries in August and September 2008 and so was more funding of money to AB and Purohit. Parallel to this was the growing and to an extent worked up concern for the displaced Pandit community. All this led to the blast of 2008 in Malegaon. Some of these details are in chapter 13 of Bhave’s book. His titling the chapter “RSS and Bomb Blast” confirms the South Virginia US think tank Terrorism Research Centre naming RSS as a terrorist organization. It is still a persisted belief in the establishment that neither the RSS nor Narendra Modi can be called terrorist. Even Bhave is ambiguous as is Apte. Apte has been an adherent of RSS. Apte had spent a long time in the US and when he returned India he found that RSS chey purvee vichar aani aata chey vichar yaant barchshi farkat aahe. “There is a sea of change in the mindset of RSS of yore and of today”.[7] It was a reference to how the so called patriotic organization had accepted money from Pakistan’s ISI to fund RSS run Rashtriya Muslim Manch. This he had read in the dossier that Purohit had handed him when the army man visited Apte at his house. He was shocked by the acceptance of huge amount by Sangh which in its inception was devoted to the moral development of the Hindus for the nation and its culture, he had believed till then. In one stroke the bribery had brought the RSS to the level of ISI. ISI kadun ghetlele paise munzhe deshase gaddari aahe. “Taking money from the ISI is a high treason against the country.” Next great shock for Apte was when he mentioned this moral turpitude to Mohan Bhagwat, he turned a deaf ear to it! Interestingly the chief of RSS at that time was K Sudarshan a staunch believer in the right wing ideology who of course ignored it. From the afore mentioned episode Bhave concludes that as the 9 accused in Malegaon 2006blasts were innocent though some were members of Students Islamic Movement of India. In the same way those accused in 2008 were Hindus though some were members of RSS and the law of parity should apply in the latter case, also. There is a world of difference between Mufti Qayum writing a book because he is the agonized and Modi is the one who is the cause of his agony and also that of the community of Muslims. Modi was not just the chief minister but also the home minister. No case could have been filed without his knowing and approving. The mufti was told to copy a letter in the handwriting of some other person who was also framed. Moreover it was all centered on Gujarat. Therefore Modi has to come clean on it. Is it not agonizing that the mufti was eight years in death row, waiting for the hangman’s noose! How could Modi sleepover the eight years cozily and still pretend that he ruled well. Bhave’s case is altogether different. He did commit the crime for which he went to jail for ten years. He is not just a member of Sanatan Sansthan, a terrorist outfit, but he is also a member of the RSS. He comments on the schism in the RSS, another terrorist organization. Neither Modi as Chief Minister nor Modi as PM bothered or bothers about this. But to a free judiciary this is a serious matter. Obama doesn’t know that Modi did not come from extreme poverty and did anything “to reduce extreme poverty” of especially the Muslims who had lost everything in the genocide, their family members, houses and shops. He did nothing to stop the boycott of Muslims. He even did not release the scholarships and stipends the central government had sanctioned for poor school going Muslim boys and girls. Who’s “improving education” Obama speaks of? Obama should know what the Canadian writer Michael Ignatieff says of democracy as a system in which the minority feels safe and secure. Muslims do not feel safe today, neither in Gujarat nor in the rest of India. It is significant that a Canadian court for the first time on April 15, 2015 accepted a prima facie case that Modi “committed or counselled torture,” during the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat. The moving force behind it was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor to SFJ. Singh remarked that “April 15 will go down in the history as ‘victims of torture day.’ He went on to claim victory for his effort: Modi “escaped trial on the charges of torture under Canadian law only because of the Attorney General's last-minute intervention.” The case was registered under Section 269.1 of the Canadian Criminal Code, and refer to the allegations brought by victim “Asifbhai V.” on two counts. The two counts are that Mr. Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat “did inflict torture” upon the victim and his family by engaging in acts of omission and commission “that intentionally caused severe pain and suffering, including death, for reasons based on religious discrimination.” ----- [1]http://scroll.in/article/713145/When-Narendra-Modi-spoke-his-mind-on-Islam [2] http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/gujarat-police-stop-publication-of-book-by-man-acquitted-in-akshardham-attack-case-755651 [3] Asian Age April 13, 2015. [4]http://time.com/3823152/jorge-ramos-2015-time-100/ [5] Asian Age April 6, 2015 [6]Vikram Vinay Bhave. Malegaon bombsphotmageel adrushy haat. Mumbai: Grukurpa Paristhan (2013) p. 92 [7] ibid p.88. see also p 56 and 85; chapter 8 Chapter 10 Claiming to teach Muslims a lesson In independent India Bal Thackeray and his Shiv Sena attempted to teach Muslims a lesson in the first week of January 1993, from the 6th of the month, to be precise. Till then the anger of Muslims protesting the demolition of the Babri mosque was spontaneously turned against the police and when riots started, against the Hindus in confrontation. The Sainiks began Maha arti pooja as a strategy to take on the Muslims in the matter of their perseverance in praying on road during mid Friday prayer. This naturally led to tension and attacks on Muslims in the aftermath of the murder of the mathadi workers in Dognri and the burning of a family in Jogeshwari. The driver of The Times of India told its editor Dileep Padgaonkar: “If you know Bombay as well as I do you too would not have been surprised. I have long suspected that the city would be up in flames one day. You know why? The Marathis have for many years resented us outsiders [the driver was a Hindu from Saharanpur, UP]. They have envied our success. They have been brainwashed into believing that the outsiders—the Madrasis, the Muslims, the UP bhayyas—have deprived the locals of their livelihood. So as soon as they got a chance they set out to teach the ‘outsiders’ a lesson. The thousands of people who fled Bombay after the riots were both Muslims and Hindus. But obviously the Muslims suffered the most. The Marati police really went berserk against them, especially in December riots. And in the January riots they left other Marathis—the Shiv Sainiks—do the job because their hands were tied.” [1] This was borne out by the daily reports coming out from the action scene and the Times of India being a leading newspaper had enough material on it. But other newspapers too were reporting it overwhelmingly. Thackeray was very powerful and had powerful friends in the ruling party like the defense minister Sharad Pawar. On January 11 Shiv Sena MLA Madhukar Saroptdar and nine others were supplying arms to the Sainiks. The army men arrested them but Pawar saw to it that they were not only released but Saroptdar was allowed to meet the PM Narsimha Rao two days later on January 15. Afterward, on February 6 Saroptdar was formally arrested by the police. A report in the Times of India dated February 4, 1993 says that the chief minister Sudhakar Naik and other Maharashtrian leaders had prevailed upon the police not to fire on rioters in Bo mbay after January 8th. This time is crucial and important because it was on that day and thereafter the Shiv Sainiks had started massacring Muslims with the help of the police. The hardcore Hindutva groups have penchant for teaching Muslims a lesson by all diverse means including subjecting them to compulsory vasectomy. They believe that numerically being in majority they have it as their right ordained. The anguish must be felt by Muslims who would wonder as if they are the chattel of the extremists who have franchise over their right to reproduction. Or else why their adrenalin is so high in making the utterances after assuming office in central government. On April 12, 2015 the state president Anil Singh of Shiv Sena in Kanpur, UP, had this to say, “Welfare of Muslims cannot be achieved through special schemes. They will get empowered automatically once they agree to undergo vasectomy.” [2] Muzaffarnagar August-September 2013 saw what was according to the police FIR a road accident as cause of a brawl snowballing into a genocidal attack that left 62 Muslims dead and 50,000 made homeless. The traffic incident of August 27 and the subsequent doctored video of beheading by Taliban made to appear as if Muslims in western UP were doing it. Showing the video and the mahapanchayat of Jats were the strategies. Sangeet Some, Sanjiv Balyan, Suresh Rana and others were behind it. Their exhortation included call for revenge against Muslim perceived as threat to their daughters and daughters in law! Amit Shah also exhorted them to take revenge for their honour. Muslims felt that they had it coming! Their intuition was: “Who toh dange karvayenge, UP ko Gujarat banayenge!” (They would manufacture riots in UP like they did in Gujarat.) To cover their design Amit Shah used the standard RSS fallacious reasoning: “Dange humne nahin karvayen. Dang ek choti si ghatna se shuru huye.” (We did not cause the riot. It began with a minor incident.) The intent behind turning UP, essentially western region of it, into the pattern of Gujarat 2002 was to drive a wedge in the mutual relationship of the two communities and destroy the bonhomie between the Jats and Muslims who had had such rapport that they lived peacefully and had not riots before. This was another feather in the caps of the duo, Modi and Shah, they successfully won the election by the brutal suffering inflicted on Muslims of western UP. It was nothing less than genocide. They chose to teach Muslims a lesson and they succeeded. The lesson that the Muslims learnt is that even a niece of a Jat police chief in Maharashtra, KP Raghuvanshi, can have her uncle delay the dispatch of the central reserve police or army from Delhi to Muzaffarnagar so that more and more Muslims can be conveniently butchered before the army arrives. In contrast to the niece the Muslims in such large number in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli were denied right to life. As RSS had roped in the Dalits like the Charrah community in massacring Muslims in Gujarat 2002 so they did they in western UP. In fact Suresh Rana was given Z security as enjoyed by the prime minister. Why were his life so vital and the lives of Muslims so trifling? The Hindutva groups also underline that the BJP is fake in its commitment to Hindutva issue. Anil Singh reiterated that it was Shive Sena of UP that had demolished Babri mosque. They would also rebuild the Ram temple there when they come to power in UP 2017 election. They never take the Muslims off the hook so that they continue to feel excruciating pain and are always hunted and hounded. “Ham jo kehte hain, wahi karte hain, nakli Rambhacton se savdhan.” [We carry out what we promise so be warned of the fake devotees of Ram] So this makes sure that there is no end in sight to the anxiety that the beleaguered Muslims ever feel. The screw keeps on turning on them. The vise narrows. The man who was inveterate to teach Muslim a lesson even before he assumed any government office was Narendra Modi. Four weeks before he became chief minister of Gujarat he invented the phrase ‘Islamic terrorism’ in a television debate. He sourced it in the ideology of RSS. Therefore the question that he was a new entrant in politics and had no experience cuts no ice for what he said proved the point beyond doubt. “It has taken an attack like 9/11 for India’s pseudo-secular media to finally use a world like Islamic terrorism and wake up to the reality of how some groups are misusing religion to promote terror.” [3] The attack on America was the result of the US policy. The US had created Osama bin Laden in its fight against the communist Russia’s occupation of Afghanistan. The Americans had used Laden invoking jihad and when the al Qaeda turned against the Americans it became Islamic terrorism. So, was the first phase of the fight not terrorism? It was as much terrorism as the anchor of the television debate, Sardesai, found. “We had filmed a family charred to death inside a Tata Safari, but never showed the images. We did exercise self-restrain but clearly the government wanted a total blackout.” The government here is PM Vajpayee’s government which viewed 2002 burning the train as an act of terrorism but not the post Godhra genocide of Muslims. After gagging the independent media Pramod Mahajan told Sardesai “Are you trying to spark off another riot? This is a clear instance of cover up of the genocide unleashed upon the Muslims of Gujarat in which the central government was involved. The other person who was present in the television debate of September 2001 was the British journalist John Elliott whom I have quoted elsewhere in this book to the same effect. The right wing government of Modi in Gujarat during 2002-2014 and now the central government under him is raising all kinds of issues which help it in hunting and hounding the Muslims. It allows Hidnus to travel to Gujarat and elsewhere for religious purposes like attending Navratri or the Kumbh melas but the Muslims from other countries now will be deported if they participate in any Islamic rites and religious gatherings. In the third week of April 2015 the central government issued an advisory to all the states and central territories to hunt out and deport all the foreign Muslims on tourists visa engaged in Tabligi Jamat work. Tabligi Jamat mainly focuses on exhorting Muslims to pray namaz and keep fast in Ramzan and awakens them to the teaching of Islam. Even this according to the central government is perceived as a threat to India. In fact Modi began his rule in Gujarat by arresting Indian Muslims who were returning from Tabligi Jamaat Ijetema or gathering in London. Those arrested included 44 from Maharashtra, 25 from Gujarat, 13 from MP, 11 from Karnataka, 10 from UP, 9 from Rajasthan, 4 from West Bengal, 4 from Tamil Nadu, 2 from Bihar, and 1 from Chattisgarh. The central government had banned SIMI on the heels of 9/11 despite the fact that no Indian was involved in 9/11 attack on the US, a fact that even President George Bush averred. This confirms the suspicion that the government headed by the Prime Minister and deputy PM from Hindutva group used the anti-Muslim weltanschauung to piggy ride the US in victimizing the Muslims. India had suffered a terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001. A report in the Times of India dated December 30 2001 said that there was no involvement of SIMI in the attack. Even so Modi got 123 arrested after their arrival from London and accused them of being members of the banned organization. A notable role in this was that of the joint director of IB Rajendra Kumar who was a pal of Modi and a pracharak like him. Later in the decade Kumar would generate more such bogus reports like the one that led to the abduction and murder in fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others. Kumar was the one who fed wrong information to Modi that Inter Services Intelligence and Lashkar-e-Toiba were behind Godhra fire incident. He was the one again who fed false information to Commissioner of Police Ahmadabad KR Kaushik on Ishrat Jahan and hence complicit in genocide and fake encounters. But before the month was over the police struck again and arrested 8 suspected members of SIMI from Olpad area in Vadodra where SIMI documents were recovered from a canal (nullah) on January 29, 2002. Since then the situation has deteriorated especially since BJP came to power in Delhi. In the blistering heat in Menth near Aligarh seven Muslims were travelling when they became very thirsty and begged a native Surajpal for water. He showed great humanity in not only giving water but also allowed themt o pray mid day prayer as it was due. Someone saw them praying and spread rumour that they were converting Surajpal. Eve the Mayor of Aligarh Shakuntla Bharti fell victim of the false rumour as did the village head SateeshSingh. They prevailed upon the police to register a case against them and make arrest. They were released in the evning as people intervened made the matter plain. [4] Operation Targeting Hyderabad There has been a concerted effort by Hindutva groups including VHP under Pravin Togadia to teach Muslims his revanchist theory that they are at the mercy of the police who are Hindu in majority. His remark illustrates his point that Bhagalpur was an instance of how because of the police alone the massacre of Muslim took place. This he had reiterated during his visit to the city as a retort to AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Oweisi’s defiant posture that if the police are removed for a quarter of an hour people would see who is braver. The murder of Vaqaruddin and four others in April 2015, according to Latif Mohammad Khan, General Secretary Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, Amberpet Hyderabad, AP, was solely aimed at convey the message to the Muslims that their live at the sufferance of the police and that the Telanga police mindset is against Muslims. Obviously teaching such lesson through violent acts is terrorism which underlines the impunity with which the police can operate and exposes how impotent the government is. It raises the question as to who really rules India, then. Earlier in 2015 it was the same situation in Nagaland in lynching in Dimapur. Modi maintained his silence because RSS views Rani Gaidinliu (1915-1993)as true Nagaland heroine. She fought the British and the Americans because they were imperialists and conducted proselytization. So lynching a Muslim emigrant from Assam to Nagaland has its own justification. Nagaland has 90% Christians and they either subscribe to RSS ideology and merge or swing to extremism, session. http://www.thehinducentre.com/the-arena/current-issues/article6916230.ece ----- [1] When Bombay Burned, ed Dileep Padgaonkar. UBSPD Delhi 1993.p5 [2] Indian Express April 13, 2015 [3]Rajdeep Sardesai, 2014: The Election that Changed India. Penguin, 2014, p 10 [4] Inquilab April 23, 2015 Chapter 11 Muslims continue to die again in fake encounters for planning to kill Modi Gujarat still continues to haunt Muslims when their community members die in suspected fake encounters. In 2002 Samir Khan Pathan was killed by the Gujarat police under DG Vanzara, Modi’s confidant. He too was accused of killing a Gujarat police man like Vaqaruddin Ahmad of Hyderabad who was killed on April 7, 2015. The police had brought Samir to the park when he was alleged to have killed a cop. He was made to act how he did it and just then he was also finished. Vaqaruddin Ahmed and four of his associates were taken in a police van from Warangal central prison to Hyderabad. One of them tried to flee according to police version. In retaliation the cops killed all the five inside the van with their hands shackled and feet attached to chains including the would be attacker. The substance in the statement of Vaqar’s father that the police planned and bumped off his son and others will come out by and by. However the circumstances give lie to the police version that one of them had struggled to flee. Another lie is that the police had stopped the van after the five repeated their requested to stop so they could relieve themselves. The five did not do anything when they were taken out to ease themselves. How come they were brought back and were sitting in their seats when they were fired at and killed. It appears that the five were not taken out at all. Their bus unusually left Warangal at 8. This would mean that the cops had a brief to finish the encounter conveniently much before the court hearing. Usually the Tilangana police take undertrials to Hyderbad by 11. The police and higher echellon had been in unseemly hurry. Modi has gone silent over many murky deeds. This baleful influence of the prime minister has seeped down to others like the chief minister K Chandershekha Rao. It is not mere coincidence that Rao is eager to have his daughter inducted into the central government ministry led by Modi. Therefore Vaqaruddin and his associates were blamed for preparing to kill Modi who was at the time of their arrest the chief minister of the state. Vaqar is shown in the photo dead in sitting posture with iron shackles trailing to his seat. He was secured to the hand rest. If all the five were killed while sitting in their allotted seats then how could they had fired at the rear of the bus as shown in the picture? There is also the question mark on what the police have found or failed to find against them. Continuing agony of the falsely accused is a stigma of which the guilty find ways to eclipse the real crime. CBI found that police officer Dr Narendra Amin had played a greater role in the murder of Ishrat Jahan and others. He was the one who injected her sleep inducing drug before killing and another cop GL Singhal had refused to kill her. But the higher authorities including Vanzara and the black bearded and white bearded cleared their order and then she and the other three were killed. The last two whose orders outweighed were the Minister of State for Home and the Chief Minister! There is hardly any chance that justice would be done either in the Samir Khan Patahn case or the latest one from Hyderabad involving Vaqaruddin! For this a better way to get the truth is entrust the cases to International Criminal Court or to the UNO Security Council through Optional Protocol number 2. This is absolutely necessary because PM Narendra Modi wants harmony between the legislature and the judiciary. The writing on the wall is clear enough for anyone to decipher. In the conference of Chief Justices of India and Chief Ministers in Delhi on April 5, 2015 Modi had no time to introspect because if he had done so Justice Akshay Mehta would not have given bail to Babu Bajrangi nor would have Tushar Mehta the Advocate General of Gujarat instead of defending the victims of the pogroms been torpedoing the cases from within lassoing in such RSS ideologues as S Gurumurthy. Why should the PM blame the five star activists and their perception? The desi handpicked are worse like the modern day Neros! The death of Viqaruddin Ahmed and other four Suleman, Zakir, Azad and Asif must not go in vain. Nor should justice delayed lead to justice denied as the history of Modi’s rule in Gujarat is a witness to it. The Gujarat angle is sinister. There have been cases of terror suspects arrested in the length and breadth of India had themselves framed against cases in Gujarat. Asghar Ali was from Hyderabad and framed in the bogus case of the murder of Haren Pandya. Years on end he was in Gujarat prison and then it was found that he was not involved in the Pandya case. There is need to have a commission which can go into the Gujarat involvement. Modi is morally and legally answerable to what happened in his state under his watch. Neither his ideology nor his being RSS pracharak must come in the way because even as PM of the country it would be foolish to think that he has been absolved all the crimes. That the Gujarat diaspora is funding hate is well known and it should be brought under the purview of further inquiry and judicial process. The fact finding team report shows that the police in Telangana followed Gujarat pattern of bumping off Muslims falsely accused of planning to kill Modi and other Hindutva leaders. They left so many loopholes that they were reckless and deliberatedly wanted it to dawn on the public that it was fake encounter and such people arrested under section 307 deserved to be liquidated. In contrast the police have not registered the killing of the five under section 302 by the security forces! [1] There were 17 police man escorting the five under-trials from Warangal to Hyderabad. It is illogical to premise even that anyone one of the five could have dared to think of snatching weapons while sitting in their assigned seat and hands and feet shackled. Their death coming at the end of the trial raises more doubts. As the Imam Maulana Mohammad Moazam of Fatehpuri mosque question: “Was the crime committed by Vaqar proved in the court of law? If yes, then did the court give order to the police to execute the encounter? If not, then who gave order to the police? The police will have to give explanation. Who is the police to give its judgment before the court has give its own?” [2] This is not the whole of the moral outrage. The president of Human Rights Forum Jeevan Kumar bemoaned the loss of innocent lives and remarked that it was blot on humanity. Such Machiavellian act is unparalleled by the police anywhere else in the history of the country. He demanded suspension of the policemen involved until the matter is fully investigated. The Congress party leader Digvijay Singh said that it was a fake encounter. It was staged to bring Vaqar to his end as the police wanted it. All India Muslim Personal Law Board spokes person Abdul Rahim Qureshi said that it was day light murder of the five innocent Muslims whose legal case was drawing to a close. Probably they would have been acquitted of all the allegations. All the witnesses had given their statements and the witnesses had gone against the police so according to a conspiracy they were killed. The case against Vaqar and others range from allegations of dacoity, jail break, illegal arms dealing, etc. there was no enough evidence against them. They were accused of escaping from Khandawa jail Madhya Pradesh in 2013. They were also accused of a train blast in Chennai 2014. [3] Early in April 2015 the CBI did not appeal to the court in the case of Amit Shah granted discharge in the case of Sohrabuddin. One officer of CBI had furnished this explanation: "There are many instances where in one case, there is strong evidence against an accused while there is weak evidence against another. It doesn't mean our investigation was not credible. Many police officers are on trial in the case and there is reliable evidence against them. It is not necessary that CBI should go in appeal against the discharge of a particular person on the basis of same evidence and statements.” [4]If this kind of syllogism is applied in the case of Vaqar and the four you would be surprised that there was little evidence against the five except that they were petty criminals, some habitually. Shah and others enjoyed full police and paramilitary protection. The five Muslims had no such privilege. Vaqar’s father Mohammad Ahmad made his stand clear: “Whatever the court decides, even if it is a death sentence, we will accept, but not killings by the police." [5] His lawyer Mohammad Azim remarked"It is murder intentionally carried out by the police." Many Muslims were falsely accused of planning to kill Modi and other extremist Hindu leaders like Pravin Togadia, etc. In almost all cases there was no iota of evidence that they were on the way to kill Modi and therefore they were encountered. So far no court in India has found any such Muslim. And yet scores of them have been killed by the police. This extrajudicial killing is in clear violation of human rights of the unfortunate Muslims. Whether he was Mufti Qayum, Ishrat Jahan or Vaqaruddin. Qayum survived because the Supreme Court intervened. It found no evidence whatsoever and further it also asked for further information on DGVanzara and GL Singhal. These two police officers have played havoc with the law of the land and are involved in scores of other offenses including more than a dozen fake encounters they carried out in order to protect CM Modi. Even so the government in Gujarat did not allow the publication of Qayum’s book on April 16, 2015. Therefore the gravaman of the matter is that there is something of evidentiary value of which the state government is terribly afraid of. If it is not possible to unearth that then the International Criminal Court can lend help in this. This is very cogent because Vaqarudding was killed with four others in which the nefarious connection between Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat police figure. In Sohrabuddin case police officers of these two states as well as others from Rajasthan were involved in his kidnap and murder as well as his wife Kauser. Asghar Ali was accused of killing Haren Pandya. He too was acquitted. Haren’s father blamed Modi for his murder. In all these cases Modi kept silent. But in the case of Sohrabuddin he even dared the central government of Sonia Gandhi’s to prosecute him. She did not rise to the bait because of fear of Hindu backlash. Therefore to circumvent this political imbroglio that has paralysed the judicial system the need of the hour is ICC. Vaqaruddin and his relatives had orally and in writing to court and police expressed fear of danger to his life from the police. Shakeel Ahmad spent 14 years in jail and would have been acquitted. He too expressed fear to his life from the police and jail authorities. Qateel Siddiquy also went through the same. They could never return to their home. Khalid Mujahid also died in the same way. Now there is need for a firm stand on Vaqaruddin and the others killed for conspiring to kill Modi. It enjoins the prime minister of India and the people to come clean on the matter. The PM, for why so many innocents were killed in fake encounters; and, the people for having quietly acquiesced in the media trial where Muslims were declared as terrorists out to kill Modi even before the tiral had started. The people also must come clearn because do they also feel that Vaqaruddin was capable of committing treachery against the nation. If not then why this silence over their death! ------- [1]Inquilab April 28, 2015 [2]Inquilab April 7,2015 http://www.ndtv.com/telangana-news/5-suspected-terrorists-killed-in-encounter-in-telangana-752853 [3]http://www.siasat.com/english/news/5-persons-including-simi-activist-vikaruddin-ahmed-killed-encounter [4] Sohrab case: No CBI appeal against Shah’s discharge Neeraj Chauhan,TNN | Apr 9, 2015 [5] http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/viqaruddin-s-father-cries-foul-over-son-s-encounter-killing-115040701395_1.html Note. Inquilab dated 28, 2015 has summary of the fact finding committee’s finding in Vaqaruddin case: 1. Those who hatched the conspiracy to kill the five chose the place of encounter to underline the fact that despite fake encounter the police are safe and nothing would happen to them. 2. There was clear deep planning behind the encounter. 3. The high police officials seem to be not only aware of the conspiracy but had sought nod from government authorities. 4. The travel arrangement was brought up early at 8 am instead of usual start of journey from Warangal to Hyderbad at 11 in order to get over what was a foregone conclusion. 5. There are errors in Inspector Uday Bhaskar’s statement. 6. The victim and his family had expressed orally and in writing their apprehension that there was danger to Vaqar’s life. 7. He was accused of firing on police in order to revenge the police firing at Mecca mosque in 2007 and then he was accused of planning to kill Modi and hence treason against the country, instead. 8. Torture in jail and during transit. 9. Post mortem in violation of Human Rights’ norms. Torture scars on the body. 10. Different departments of government collusion. 11. The juggernaut against Muslims started in 2007 is still on. 12. Political parties are hesitating to raise finger at the fake encounter. 13. Questionable role of the SHO’s registering the crime under 307 before ascertaining facts. This led to media trial. 14. It is usual with theAndhra Pardesh police to accuse Muslims as terrorists and involve them in crimes. 15. Muslim leadership is shirking responsibility by saying that all these are natural consequences of the creation of Telangana. 16. Chief Minister K Chandershekhar is eyeing his daughter’s inclusion in Modi cabinet and hence his silence. 17. The collusion and bias of the state government is clear as the chief secretary considered the five as terrorists. 18. The media is in the control of the rich who are devoid of moral values. 19. The judciary failed to give security to the five despite the five writing to the judges and the chief justice for security of life. 20. The police registered section 307 against the five but applied section 302 against the police! Chapter 12 Those who will forever teach Muslims/minorities a lesson Among the worthies who have eternal itch to teach Muslims a lesson, RSS leads the list with its multi headed hydra of evils. In the aftermath PM AB Vajpayee learnt from Samuel Huntington his thesis that Islam’s innards are bloody on account of their neighbours. Instead of removing Modi after the genocide of 2002 he turned against Muslims that they do not live well with their neighbours. The cussed among the saffron groups do not even bother to hide their hate through euphemism. They are so literal that their words are naked knives and strike the minorities direct. What else was Indresh Kumar doing that giving punch dozes to muslims by delivering it without wearing gloves, albeit with pointed barbs of iron rings on all the five fingers of both the hands. When he said: “Hum ney satan sey dosti aur bahagwan sey duri kar li hai. Padosiyn ko sataney aur un ka dil dukhaney sey tamam ibadat kharij iar mi jati hay. Aur janat janey key liye kutch nahin bachta.” [We have cultivated friendship with Satan and have distanced ourselves from god. Hating and harassing neighbours and breaking their heart empty all the religious prayers from ourselves.] There is thus nothing left in our record of good deeds by which we can claim to go to paradise. And this rhetorical question: “kya koi sachcha musalman aisa karey ga?” [Will a true Muslim do this?] (1) There are other tenets of RSS through which Kumar would teach Muslims: one, that Muslims must call themselves Hindu as even in Saudi Arabia a Muslim would be recognize according to his nationality. If he is from India he would be called Hindu. This is an instance of the sangh parivar sophistry while the fact is different. Indian Muslims are called al hindi or biladul al hind. (2) In what appears an illustration of the devil quoting the Bible, Kumar also wants Muslims to learn blasphemy. The prophet of Islam nowhere said that the milk of cow is more useful than the beef. Will the prophet of Islam who says the meat of cow is harmful prescribe it to the Muslims. Tongue in cheek he asked “Will the prophet ask his followers to eat beef that is contaminated according to him?” He even went to the extent of the unimaginable absurdity that in Saudi Arabia sacrifice of cow is forbidden? (3) Why should the Muslims hesitate to sing Vande Matrum after all it is a salute to the mother! (4) Why should Muslims excoriate BJP or Jan sangh if it is not in their Hadish and the Quran? (5) Islam does not recognize castes so Muslims can avail only the benefits as minorities! Without castes system they cannot avail reservation which is meant for Hindu caste system. The present MLA Shaikh Asif of Malegaon’s attempts illustrate a Hobbson’s choice as he tried to march to Mumbai to demand reservation just before the election of 2014. When the BJP came in power it denied reservation to Muslims. Then he tried to block Agra high way on May 2, 2015 to demand that Muslims be allowed to slaughter jersey bulls as they are not included in the beef category. The government ordered his arrest. So Muslims are back to square one with the Hindutva party coming in power. They seem to have learnt the lesson well. But Indresh Kumar taught a different lesson to his fellow extremist Hindus. He exhorted them to target Muslims with bombs and hide in Hindu temples. They complied by his instructions. Swami Asimanand hid in a temple of Hardwar for several years before arrest. Rajendra Chaudhary who bought a cycle from Satish cycle chop and fitted bomb, Manohar Kumar who bought another cycle from Santosh and fitted it with bombs but it was abandoned at the graveyard in Malegaon on September 8, 2006, hid in temples from where they were arrested in 2012. Amit Hakla and Dhan Singh also absconded but arrested later. Amit had accompanied Rajendra Chaudhary. So what Indresh Kumar had told others in the Gujarat Bhavan guest house at Jaipur regarding hiding in temples the terrorists carried it out in principle and practice. ----- [1] Inquilab April 30, 2015 Chapter 13 Terrorism charges: not “imaginary apprehensions’ of Muslims Muzammil is third from left, can such a youth educated in such open and educated background think of bombs against fellow The saga of intense physical and mental suffering and deepening despair suffered by the family of Abdul Rahim Kathewale of Malegaon will match the hardship and pain of the concentration camp of Auschwitz of the Nazis. His son was picked up from his Agog Pharma office in Vasai new Mumbai on May 7, 2003. He was put behind bars in Crawford Market police station from where he was sent to Thane central jail. For more than twelve years his case remained in a limbo. The police accused him in the Mulund railway station bomb blast of 2003. He was nowhere near there and yet the police blamed him for boarding train at VT in which the bomb exploded as it reached Mulund. Eleven people were killed including several police women. At the Crawford Market the police disrobed his father and showed him to the son and told him that his mother would be brought there next for the same punishment. Muzammil Akhtar was so overwhelmed that he signed whatever paper they gave him. Thereafter Muzammil remained in the dungeon and only very recently in 2015 the hearing in the case started. The suffering of the family was unimaginable and continues with the same intensity. He lived in Kurla where in another adjoining room his sister lived. She was a teacher and he a computer expert. They would wait until others had eaten and gone. Then they would sit and eat together. On the day of his arrest she waited and waited and missed her meal. Afterward she was told that her brother was admitted in a hospital. The torture of mind and soul was too much for her that he was sick but she was not allowed to go and see him. It was too much. In that turmoil she was attacked by tuberculosis and was bedridden. She lost her teaching job in grief. Finally she lost her life in sorrow of her brother. The police gave phone record that does not prove that he was at the site of the bomb blast. Even so they got promotion and had their service book over written with citation of a grave crime solved by them. This is one of the cases of innocent Muslim educated youths being framed in false cases of terror where they did not play any role and yet languished in prisons for decades. They were the bread winners of their family as was Muzammil and his sister Shahenaz Akhtar. His father Abdul Rahim had to sell his house in the heart of the city of Malegaon and move to the outlying powerloom concentration parts where the noise of the looms makes life what Tata Institute of Social Sciences Prof Subhan calls in his book as “living hell.” [1]Earlier he had powerlooms away from his house but since the loss of jobs of his children Muzammil and Shahenaz the family has to eke out existence at the most primary level. In his old age Abdul Rahim minds his trashan machine or winding cotton yarn on spindles for the powerlooms which occupy most of the space of their house In TIME magazine interview of May 2015 PM Narendra Modi speaks of imaginary apprehensions of Muslims and other minorities and asks them to dispel them. However, Muslims’ apprehensions have stood the test of time and are proven by real facts. But only after decades, in some cases of innocents framed in premeditated bogus charges of terrorism against them, spent in prison. One source of this is found in the thesis of Professor Dr Subhan. He discovered that the police “depict and create conflict like situation and then manage that in order to prove that they are better administrators and so they deserve promotion.” Rajvardhan Sinha was for years Additional Superintendant of police in Malegaon. He was brought back to Malegaon to handle October 25, 2001 riots. Then in September 8, 2006 bomb blasts he was again in Malegaon. Then he was with Viswas Patil at the Taj Hotel in the 26/11 attacks. It was not his duty there but he managed somehow. How? He has risen in position steeply and is now with IB. In most of his career innocent Muslims suffered enormously. In 2006 blasts in Malegaon all the nine Muslims were accused and detained for more than five years because of his machination including his giving two mobile phones to Abrar and his wife Jannatunisha. Sinha was in charge of foreigners when the American evangelist Kenneth Haywood was allowed to leave the country though the email was sent from his email account claiming that Indian Mujahideen was behind Ahmadabad and Delhi blasts. For this Mansoor Peerbhoy was arrested and imprisoned. No proof has so far surfaced against Mansoor. It is strange that all these happened when the Congress was in power both at the centre and in Maharashtra. The Congress party was timid and feared Hindu backlash and had such notorious leaders like Shivraj Patil and RR Patil who had taken it upon themselves to chase the Muslims rather than the real culprits behind bomb blasts. Then followed the “black Fridays”, when the Muslims were chosen as targets of bombing. The bombers wanted maximum casualties and hence the common mid day prayer on Friday. The exceptional explosion in the night of Wednesday April 5, 2006 gave away the secret of Fridays. It was an accidental explosion of bombs meant to explode at Aurangabad railway station mosque on Friday April 7, 2006. The Wednesday night explosion at the house of the RSS activist involved the professed armed wing of the RSS, Bajrang Dal. The police wanted to cover it as a fire ignited by the storing of firecrackers. But the group of Muslim advocates was adamant that it was a sabotage and forced investigation to be more focused and professional and hence the truth that it was bomb that blew up. Three months later on July 11, 2006 a series of bombs exploded in local trains in Mumbai killing more than 186 people. These attacks according to Kuldip Nayyar may have been mounted for the reason that “there is greater danger from Hindutva extremism/ terrorism because they ignite the majority. We can deal with the communalism of the minority but the communalism of the majority Hindus would change into riots.” [2] Indeed, Dr Pascricha DGP Maharashtra expressed his view candidly on September 9, 2006 that the blasts in Malegaon on September 8, 2006 were the handiwork of Bajrang Dal and behind the July 11, 2006 serial attacks on local trains were two Maharashtrian leaders. [3] The other Friday attacks are also from Marathwada regions: the Mohammadiya Masjid in Parbhani (November 2003), at the Quadriya Masjid in Jalna (August 2004) and at the Meraj-ul-Uloom Madrassa/Masjid in Purna in Parbhani district (August 2004). Abdul Rahim’s remaining life is a shuttle of movement from Malegaon to courts and prison outside for more than 13 years and there is no end in sight. In vain he has trailed after the leaders and now hopes time has come for change, after all his son is innocent. But that is the depth of anguish of aging parents, his and his wife’s and Muzammil’s siblings. It is also a grueling fact that Abdul Rahim knows that a Shiv Sena leader and also a labourer union leader had eyed the job that Muzammil was doing. He had him arrested. In the turn of events the police officer who arrested Muzammil got his nephew appointed in the post instead. In this dog eat dog competition the Muslims stand no chance. This is the travail. ------ [1]http://www.indianexpress.com/news/60-per-cent-malegaon -residents-below-poverty-line.tiss-report192776210 [2] “The Threat of Communalism”, Jagran, January 31, 2013. [3] Punnynagri, September 11, 2006. Chapter 14 Does Modi want another crusade: Islam versus the rest? When the TIME editor Nancy Gibbs, Asia editor Zoher Abdoolcarim and South Asia bureau chief Nikhil Kumar interviewed PM Narendra Modi on May 2, 2015 many things crystallized and others showed up the true picture in a twist of diaoramic reflection. One, that Modi is a Hindu nationalist in the political register of India which the interviewers could not grasp or prod. They only referred to his colleagues like Sakshi Maharaj, Giriraj Singh, and slew of sadhvis for their intemperate outburst. Perhaps many of them bachelors. The intemperate outbursts match the cold logic of Subramanium Swami, Arun Shouri and others who also are in the fraternity of the right wing ideology of RSS and members of BJP. Despite their obvious differences they are Hindu nationalists. He who worship mother India and prefers her over his biological mother is a different aspect. Abandons his wife or remains celibate is also another dimension. In the end of the interview Modi says that he had vowed to serve mother India at age 15-16 because of the poverty of the people he was renouncing the world and later his his marriage to live in celibacy like AB Vajpayee. His wearing the ten lakh rupees pinstripe monogrammed dress to appear with President Barak Obama and the auctioning of it for 4.31 crore to Lalbhai Patel is ostentation of plutocracy rather than democracy. The fanfare of wearing another such gaudy dress for TIME cover took four hours of dress rehearsal which would make the Lal Bahadur Shastri and other previous Prime Ministers turn in their graves. What he spoke in the interview is the accumulative effect of being doctrined in right wing ideology tempered with sophistry.He also quoted Swami Vivekanand in the same vein. TIME: “As we are heading to the US political campaign, a lot of America’s political leaders are talking about the role that their faith plays and their views of themselves as leaders. Could you talk a little about what your faith of Hinduism means to you as India’s leader? Modi: “Religion and faith are very personal matters. So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the Constitution of India. “In fact, if I look at the definition of Hinduism, the Supreme Court of India has given a beautiful definition; it says that Hinduism is not a religion, it is actually a way of life. “If one looks at my own belief, I think I have grown up with these values which I mentioned earlier, that religion is a way of life. We also say ‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam’ – the entire world is one family, and respect for all religions. Those are the values I have grown up with. “Essentially the crux of Indian philosophy, the Hindu philosophy, is that all should be happy, all should be healthy, all should live life to the fullest. It is not something that is specific to a particular religion, or to a particular sect. It’s a[sic] philosophy, it’s a way of life which encompasses all societies.” In organizing the rath yatra in the first stage of Gujarat in 1990 it was Modi whose efforts mainly rolled the chariot with LK Advani and Pramod Mahajan on it from the Somnath temple . It led to one of the bloodiest trail of bloodbaths in India which finally culminated in the demoliton of the Babri mosque and its consequences. This gives away the lie that religion and faith are very personal matter. Modil and his party and patron organization thrive on mobilization Hindus against Muslims and other minorities. The 2002 election was won because of the pogroms of Muslims in Gujarat. Later Modi justified the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and others for his political calculation. Another is the view that Modi expressed in the September 2001 debate that Islam as a religion was behind 9/11 attack. This is also continued in the May 2, 2015 interview of TIME. “Till 1993, for example, there were several countries that did not fully understand the full force of this evil. They used to see it and they used to appreciate it purely as a law and order situation of individual countries rather than as an evil force internationally.” He seems to have induced himself to a Rip Van Winkle sleep over chunks of history. What the Nazis did to the Jews and Jews did to the Palestinians by driving them out of the land was also terrorism and qua international terrorism. So terrorism has been used by other communities and not just Muslims alone.   However, Modi went further and considered terrorism as a thought process: “I think terrorism is a thought process. It is a thought process that is a great threat to the international community.” When Bal Thackeray said that Shiva’s third eye was opening around the January 6, 1993 his Shiv Sainiks were allowed to massacre Muslims in Bombay. The police stood as spectators. In his Saamna he openly exhorted to his musclemen to teach the circumcised (Muslims) a lesson. During Modi’s Sadhbhauvna or harmony programme in 2012, Thackeray reminded Modi that it was he who had taught the Muslim a lesson and showed the way to Modi; he was the first that had shown Muslims their place. Modi’s teaching Muslims a lesson on February 27, 2002 and thereafter was a replica of his. Modi’s view that the world till 1993 was different then; what changed it was the serial bomb blasts in Bombay on March 12, 1993. Here he misses his own Newtonian theory of every action leading to equal and opposite reaction. He opens a Pandora’s Box when he divides the world between the countries who believe in humanity and those who do not (and support terrorism, like Pakistan): “the countries that believe in human values need to come together and fight this evil force as an ideological force.” Note that “this evil force” is “ideological force.” It would imply that if Islamic terrorism (his phrase from 2001 debate) is the driving force of modern terrorism then the Islamic world is devoid of humanity. To be more overt Jihad is opposed to humanity. This leads to further difficulties, the US aided the Talibans to fight a jihad against the Russian troops! The US led war on terror in Iraq in which hundreds of thousands perished was according to Harold Pinter terrorism and the greatest terrorist was the American president, George W Bush. If Modi’s acts of commission and omission in 2002 led to the genocide of Muslims then the Marathi writer Vijay Tendulkar was right in telling school children in Mumbai then that if he had a gun he would have killed Modi. The chief minister of Gujarat had the temerity to provide him one! If terrorism is an ideology then RSS also has an ideology of dealing with the minorities. There are numerous cases where its pracharaks directly hatched conspiracy and planted bombs to kill Muslims or to cause a riot between Muslims and Hindus in which it is but natural that Muslims suffer more. This has always happened and there is no sign of let up. Gujarat is an example and Modi too was a pracharak of RSS. On July 26, 2008 at least 16 small bombs explode in Ahmadabad, Gujarat, killing 45 people and wounding 161. A little-known group called the “Indian Mujahideen” claimed responsibility for the attack and the May 13 attack in Jaipur. The email was sent from the wi-fi connection of the evangelist Keneth Haywood in Mumbai for which Mansoor Peerbhoy was arrested. He did not travel to Mumbai on either July 26 or around nor was his family car (in which he was alleged by the police to have travelled) in the city at that time. In 2008 Modi was the chief minister. In the same year there was bomb blast on September 29 in Modasa. On the same occasion there was bomb blast in Malegaon where Hemant Karkare discovered how the Hindutva group Abhinav Bharat was behind the blasts. The cause of concern was that Modi slept over these issues. If he sleeps over such matters and keeps his mouth shut when he should be communicating then why does he “choke and tear up” when he speaks about his poverty in his boyhood and youth? The boy who died in Modasa was also very poor so were the victims in Malegaon. One of them was a school going girl named Farheen. She had the ambition to take further education and become a doctor so that she could improve the lot of her indigent family. Karkare found out in his investigation that Lt Col Prasad Purohit had promised two such incidents to convince the Israelis in return for diplomatic recognition of India as a Hindu Country and asylum in Tel Aviv and steady supply of weapons. In fact Modi acted very abrasively when spoke of Muslims in general. He scorned at the roadside greasers and mechanics of vehicles and cycle repairers in their shabby dresses. He looked down upon them as an eye sore and hurdle to progress and development. It is also remarkable that in the genocide of Muslims the rich Gujaratis came in their expensive cars to loot the luxury consumer items from the shops owned by Muslims but they burnt the shops of the mechanics and greasers. Modi speaks of humanity versus terrorism. Why did he not then concern with the humanitarian disaster that the genocide was. Those who brought about the sudden change of fortune to Muslims practiced terrorism. Indeed it was international terrorism as the fund to conduct the genocide was collected by Sonal Shah and others of Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America. Those Patels who killed Muslims for their rich land fled to America to hide from the law. Why is Modi so much in agony over his poor past but indifferent to the lot of the poor Muslims in Gujarat? Modi does not want to remember that like the Jews the Hindu Patels wanted the fertile land of their neighbouring Muslims of Ode village. A large number of Muslims were killed. The poor Muslims who worked for the Patels could not even imagine that they would be herded together and killed. This establishes the fact that the terrorists had chosen their geographical location of the victims. So what is the purport of Modi’s assertion? “We should not look at terrorism from the nameplates – which group they belong to, what are their names, what is their geographical location, who are the victims of terrorism…I think we should not see them in individual pieces. We should rather have a comprehensive look at the ideology of terrorism, see it as something that is a fight for human values, as terrorists are fighting against humanity.”The killers behind the Muslim farmers and farm hands were nonresident Patels who fled to the US. During his visit to the US Modi also legalized the citizenship of some of them. Even more pointed target of what in Indian jargon of the bill that the Hindu party shot down in parliament was Ahsan Jafri’s house in Gulberg society. More than 70 Muslims had sought refuge from the fury of the extremist Hindus who wanted to destroy it along with the people within. Only three of them were Parsis. The violence was orchestrated from early morning of February 28, 2002. The former Member of Parliament was the bête noir of Modi and opposed him in election of that month on the issue of communalism of Modi. He appealed for help to one and all and made 200 phone calls. Finally at 2 pm he appealed to Modi for mercy. The chief minister cursed him and wondered that he still was alive. A strike force of police was in the area but did nothing. The Parsi housewife Rupa Mody contacted some influential man to save. He asked her how many of them, she said she and her two children. Then she grew conscious that the other hapless were watching her. She added, many. She and her daughter were rescued. Most probably her son Azhar was killed in the continuous attacks mounted earlier for more than five hours. In the meantime the senior police officer in charge of the security of even Modi, Sanjiv Bhatt, conveyed the details of the siege and asked the Commissioner of Police and even Modi to intervene. But to no avail. Can the PM Modi have the cheeks to say TIME that the geographical location of the victim is unessential? That the nameplate of MP Ahsan Jafri is of no use? How could he forget of that entire nameplate, names, group identity and locations, in that specific case should not matter as humanity? Where was his humanity? Gujarat was very much under his watch and he had visited Naroda Patia in the evening of February 28, 2002… Even the President of India KR Narayanan spoke to PM AB Vajpayee for the security of the Muslims and then even wrote a letter reprimanding the PM. But to no avail. The three viz. nameplates, religion of the victims and the geographical location were important. Even before February 2002 surveys were conducted of Muslim commercial establishments and houses and printouts were with the marauding mobs. What was the scene in the streets? Hundreds of Muslim girls and women were raped. Many of them had their fetuses yanked out and killed and burnt. But those who survived had iron rods and wooden sticks thrust into their vagina. They walked to the refugee camps naked. As they passed through the Hindu areas no one dared throw a piece of cloth to them to cover their nudity nor did give water to drink. Their thirst was unbearable. Even Modi dehyderated by Karan Thapar several years later when the anchor asked him about his image of a mass murderer! Do not TIME’s Nancy Gibbs, Zoher Abdoolcarim and Nikhil Kumar know this? Did not Peter Hapak who spent 4 hours with Modi catch a glimpse of it in his famed portraiture which appeared on the cover of Asia and US editions dodging the “devil’s horns”? II There are people who feel that TIME interview of Modi is paid journalism. Before we agree or disagree with it, the moot question is whether Modi is trying to raise his stature from a demagogue that I have called him in one of my books, Decade of the Demagogue and his Demagoguery, to a statesman or there is hype in the media over the same. The Americans have serious reservations about Modi despite his warm welcome by President Obama. Katrina Lantros Swett of USCIFR has famously said that the arc of justice is long and winning election cannot dodge dispensing of justice and punishing the guilty and rehabilitating the victims. His leaving the name of Pakistan had been offset by former PM Manmohan Singh admitting India’s role in Baluchistan in the conference at Sharm-el Sheikh, Egypt. To begin at the beginning Godhra is still a conundrum. On April 4, 2002 PM Vajpayee visited Godhra and asked Maulana Umerji about what had happened. Umerji raised his finger to Gujarat Chief Minister and remarked, 'Inhi se puchiye, inke karname (Ask him about his evil deeds).' This transpired nearly a year before Umerji was arrested. He spoke freely without inhibition. His arrest was due to a bogus confession of an 18 year old. Modi brought about all this to a man who sat with Sardar Patel in meetings held in his house for the country’s freedom. . "We belong to a family that has fought for India's freedom. (India's first home minister) Sardar (Vallabhbhai) Patel sat where you are sitting now. Meetings used to happen in this house at the time of the freedom struggle.” On February 22, 2011 63 persons accused of burning the Sabamati Express at Godhra were acquitted after having spent 9 years in prison. They rued that the 31 who were still in prison and were convicted were also innocent. This would make it clear that fire on the train at Godhra was an accident or caused by other than those who were framed falsely. One of the accused was Sadiq who remarked: "The other 31 are also innocent. They should be released. Catch those who did the crime. Not these people."[2] http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-godhra-what-happened-to-the-accused-is-a-crime/20110225.htm Even Saeed Umerji, son of Maulana Syed Umerji says that a lot of the convicted are innocent. The statements of those who saw the truth behind the fire incident and knew that it was not a conspiracy of Muslims lifts the veil of secrecy in framing the innocent Muslims who had nothing to do with any arson let alone the Sabarmati Express fire. “What happened to my father is a crime,” said Saeed Umerji. Framing the maulana in charges of inciting the mob and taking part in the conspiracy was a crime. Those officers who did it must have done it at the behest of someone. Who is that person? Geographical location is important because Modi called the residents of Signal Falia as habitual criminals and therefore he was giving group identity to them, the residents of which including Maulana Umerji who had fought for the independence of India. The Gujarat police followed suit and arrested those who were from Signal Falia. This flies in the face of reason because the people of Signal Falia were the ones who volunteered to fight the fire from with water from their private taps. The arrest of the innocent left their families in a terrible plight. The husband of Shameem Banu was working in the house when the police came and slapped the charges of theft and subsequently changed it into conspiracy to burn the train. If the first shocked them the subsequent change demolished the family life. In the initial half a year the family did not know where he was and didn’t have the courage or resources to inquire the police. So petrified they were. Another family had the same experience. Three sons of Bibi Khatoon Sultan Khan were simply taken away in a melodrama. The cops had covered their faces but thundered at the three to show their faces at the police station. In the long years of incarceration the prison authorities did not let anyone meet them or give them parole to attend the funeral of their father. The wives of the three depended upon what meager wage the 69 Bibi Khatoon brought from the factory eking out existence by the sweat of her brows. All these sufferings were on account of the remote controlling of the pogroms by the RSS, Bajrang Dal, VHP, etc. Modi was in the forefront of them repeating ad absurdum action and reaction theory and the PM Vajpayee saying who lit the fire in the first place and who spread it. If another Godhra was to take place it would follow the same consequences. This is the ideology of RSS. It is ironic that the people have chosen BJP to rule India when what Shoba De says that the majority do not want RSS to remote control India. 31 percent vote for BJP has catapulted it in the seat of power. It is not friendly to the women and its definition of rape by one’s own husband is also arcane. In this Hindu and Muslim women suffer agonizing moments in their private life. But the continuing agony of those bread winners who were falsely blamed and had to languish in jail for the same of Modi-engineered pogroms was too much for the hum drum existence of the poorest among the population of India, the Muslims. Bibi Khatoon :"I have fed leftovers to my grandchildren. We have begged for food. We have gone hungry for days on end. A roti with my morning tea used to be my only meal. Nine years who is responsible?" However most grueling has been the injustice they suffered during imprisonment as one of the accused in Godhra, Shabbir put it: “I spent nine years in jail. I will start my life afresh. I have no bitterness against anything or anybody. But the system must be changed. Just to prove that one is innocent should not take nine years." ------- [1]http://time.com/3849492/narendra-modi-interview/ [2] http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-godhra-what-happened-to-the-accused-is-a-crime/20110225.htm Chapter 15 The system does not change Whether nine years or seven years in prison, there is no hope that the system would end soon easing the agony of the targeted community. Nor is there any sign of succor from Amnesty International or any Indian group capable of wiping out the rot in the system. Framing the innocents in bogus terror charges or making conspiracy to target minorities in pogroms cannot be expected to make India shine in the world. A Kerala family with father worker who educated his son by the sweat of his brows and the grand children who lived through dolour in family house and jail Most recurring pattern of arresting innocent Muslims was to frame them in charges of being members of Students Islamic Movement of India. SIMI was an obscure body whom the police and investigation made famous by creating hype over it in the aftermath of 9/11. The Americans must have been amused by how our agencies had been pandering the case of SIMI involvement. In the case of the attack on the American consulate library in Kolkata they called it simply a revenge of a man who had lost so much in Gujarat. Grotesque but grueling is to note that Modi on his tour of China remarked in Shanghai on May 16, 2015 that once it was felt shameful for an Indian to profess that he was an Indian. Modi’s minister’s outburst is off the mark to NDTV on The TownHall, May 20, 2015 Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had a question for the Congress."Did you forget about India's image abroad when the United States of America denied Narendra Modi a visa? Did you protest even once? Did you stand up even once for an elected Chief Minister of India?" she asked Congress leader and former minister Sachin Pilot who was debating her on the same programme. The former chief minister of Gujarat was denied visa for his alleged involvement in the genocide of Muslims and his anti Muslim stance was in violation of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s basic tenet. So if India’s image is tarnished it is because of what is transpiring within the country. If the minister is so concerned over India’s image why not let the deputy chair person Katrina Lantos Swett visit India to find the truth about ghar wapsi or reconversion of Muslims and Christians or what transpired in the genocide. In fact PM AB Vajpayee had rushed Chairman J.S. Verma of National Human Rights Commission and jurist and Advocate General of India Soli Sorabji to Geneva to prevent Chairperson Mary Robinson of Amnesty International from visiting India during the genocide in 2002. Modi as CM had prevented journalists visiting Gujarat and covering the genocide by holding out threat of the fate of Daniel Pearl. His utterances in foreign visits is like dry cleaning his image as Slobodan Milosevic of India. He even uttered in his meet and greet of Indian diaspora, “The menace of terrorism has become enemy of humanity. People are being killed in every part of the world (due to terrorism). Who will apply balm on their injuries, who will give them a hope to live in this crisis?” “Only those whose ancestors have said ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one family)” “It is in our DNA. We should make the world recognise this.” [1] The Chinese of course recognize this and more and yet they have let him know about the difference between trade and terrorism. The Chinese have had no such officer as KK Mysorewalla whose sentence became the title of Human Rights Watch report of April 2002 although they too have their own problems. Within two months of the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat the book issued by HRW disturbed many around the world. “WE HAVE NO ORDERS TO SAVE YOU” State Participation and Complicity in Communal Violence in Gujarat. The family of Mehbood Mansoorie lost eight members, within three weeks he narrated it to HRW: “On February 28, we went to Ehsan Jaffrey’s home for safety. He is an ex-member of parliament…. At 10:30 a.m. the stone throwing started. First there were 200 people then 500 from all over, then more. We were 200-250 people. We threw stones in self-defense. They had swords, pipes, soda-lemon bottles, sharp weapons, petrol, kerosene, and gas cylinders. They began shouting, “Maro, kato,” [“Kill them, cut them”] and “Mian ko maro.” [“Kill the Muslims”]. I hid on the third floor. Early in the day at 10:30 the police commissioner came over and said don’t worry. He spoke to Jaffrey and said something would work out, then left. The wall in front of the house was broken at 11:30 a.m. When they entered the hall we had lost our spirit, we had no weapons, we couldn’t fight back. Other people also came there for safety. When the gas cylinder exploded I jumped from the third floor. This was around 1:30 p.m. At 3:30 p.m. they started cutting people up, and by 4:30 p.m. it was game over. Ehsan Jaffrey was also killed. He was holding the door closed. Then the door broke down. They pulled him out and hit him with a sword across the forehead, then across the stomach, then on his legs…. They then took him on the road, poured kerosene on him and burned him. There was no police at all. If they were there then this wouldn’t have happened. Eighteen people from my family died. All the women died. My brother, my three sons, one girl, my wife’s mother, they all died. My boys were aged ten, eight, and six. My girl was twelve years old. The bodies were piled up. I recognized them from parts of their clothes used for identification. They first cut them and then burned them. Other girls were raped, cut, and burned. First they took their jewelry, I was watching from upstairs. I saw it with my own eyes. If I had come outside, I would also have been killed. Four or five girls were treated this way. Two married women also were raped and cut. Some on the hand, some on the neck. At 5:30 p.m. a car came, it was the assistant commissioner. They brought us out slowly; some were hiding in the water tank underground. Some tried to get out but were attacked. Sixty-five to seventy people were killed inside. After the police came we told them to take us somewhere safe. They brought us to the camp. We didn’t go to the police station. Three patients were admitted in the civil hospital. On March 3 and 4 the police came here to file complaints, but only after camp organizers called them. Human Rights Watch April 2002, Vol. 14, No. 3 (C) What took place in the state of Gujarat in February-March 2002 and indeed continued for many more months militates against the goody-goody things Modi is uttering on his foreign tours. It is not the Chinese who are being mesmerized, but the Indian diaspora consisting of a big group of Gujarat migrants. Even a much bigger bloodbath took place at the dry well in Naroda Patia. According to unofficial witness there were at least 800 Muslims herded together and forced to descend in the well and petrol was poured from above and they were burnt alive. Some of them had tried to take shelter at the paramilitary force commanded by KK Mysorewalla. He turned the women and children saying that there no order that day to save the Muslims. Modi had toured the area in the evening and blessed the Chhara community to have done well and told them not to slacken but do the butchery next day too! HRW found that the administration of Modi was complicit in all the operations. “Muslims in Gujarat have been denied equal protection under the law. Even as attacks continue, the Gujarat state administration has been engaged in a massive cover-up of the state’s role in the massacres and that of the sangh parivar.” Vajpayee “blot on the country’s face,” stated that the Godhra attack was “condemnable” but what followed was “madness.” Modi “The five crore [fifty million] people of Gujarat have shown remarkable restraint under grave provocation,” Additional director general of police G. C. Raigar, had provided intelligence ahead of the Godhra incident that VHP volunteers were moving in and out of Gujarat and could instigate communal violence. Naroda Patia pogroms is the epic of continuing agony. Those who were murdered carried the details of the orgy of violence to their graves. But some who survived to tell their suffering have devastating details for those who survived and others who would be born much after the present generation is gathered into their graves. One such was a woman who was cooking when the attack came in the morning. They ran for their life. The crowd numbering 5000 chased them and so did the SRP personnel. Chasing and raping and mutilation went on the whole day of February 28, 2002. It was at 6 in the evening. Of the eleven in the family 8 were killed and three including her survived. Two of the dead were also raped. She was earlier beaten by the police and had injuries in the arms while those who raped and mutilated her left deep injuries in the thighs. Her mother in law’s six year old daughter was also killed. Her sister in law’s three month old baby was snatched and burnt alive as the mother was raped and then killed. The rape, mayhem and murder continued till 2.30 am of March 1, 2002. What a harrowing experience to watch from the terrace of another house! Thirsty and hungry but mute, she was the spectators of one’s own family and neighbours’ end. “All this ended at 2:30 A.M. The ambulance came on the scene and I sat in it along with the bodies of my husband and children.” It was this housewife whom HRW met and she it was who told her interviewers of the order of Modi; “The police was on the spot but helping the mob. We fell in their feet but they said they were ordered from above (not to help).” One youth Asif Khan 25 had entered the gate to plead to the SRP compound for safety, they beat him so bad that he could hardly come out of the gate. One of the refugees in Ahsan Jafri house, Yusuf bhai said that the police commissioner PC Pande had “betrayed” them. ‘They wanted to leave by the railroad behind Jaffrey’s house, but the police commissioner said, “ No, don’t you trust me? You must stay here.” Jaffrey even said, “Kill me and leave them alone.” After the police brought people here [the camp] then all night they set bodies on fire, so there could be no cases against them, so there could be no evidence. Without police support, none of this could have happened.’ “insiders in the Bharatiya Janata Party admit that the police were under instructions from the Narendra Modi administration not to act firmly.” Manas Dasgupta, “Saffronised police show their colour,” Hindu, March 3, 2002. Little attention has been focused on the role of Modi in the media. But there are startling revelations which HRW has recorded. “During the first two days of violence, Chief Minister Modi defended the actions of his police stating that they had “mowed down people” to quell the violence. According to the Indian Express, “one such incident he was referring to occurred on February 28 and March 1 near the Bapunagar police station, where 40 were killed in firing. Now, according to a batch of FIRs filed last week and post mortem reports, it has come to light that all 40 were Muslims, most of them shot in the head and the chest. And 36 of them were between 20 and 25 years old.” ------ [1] http://www.rediff.com/news/report/pix-modi-in-china-pm-addresses-indian-diaspora-in-shanghai/20150516.htm Chapter 16 Taking out thorn with thorn “..If there is any country, why only Pakistan, planning something against my country, we will definitely take some proactive steps. ..We have to neutralize terrorism with terrorism only. Why can’t we do it? We should do it. why does my soldiers have to do it?” [AA May 23, 2015]These words of Manohar Parrikar our defense minister enthuses us but the moot question is, was national security advisor MK Narayanan not taking the same kind of care in the same terms in the aftermath of the Indian embassy attack in Afghanistan. He had said that India would pay in the same coin. Parrikar qualified any country by adding that “Porosity on border is less; intelligence has improved” clearly indicates that he is harping on our neighbours alone. That would mean they perpetrate terror but we don’t, we only retaliate in self defense. This extreme nationalism is not the hall mark of Modi government alone but it was there when Manmohan Singh government was in power. RR Patil and Shivraj Patil were home ministers of Maharastra and Centre government when 26/11 transpired and Parrikar names that attack. But who were the foreign looking terrorists at VT/CST station? Who were the fluent Marathi speakers at Cama hospital? Why the prosecution argument that Fahim Ansari had drawn the map to guide Ismail Khan and Kasab fell on its face? Why should Indian Muslims be framed in such bogus operations. Ishrat Jahan and two others killed were blamed as Pakistani agents but not Pranesh Pillai who was agent of IB? Why Pillai had to pay with his life when he was a Hindu and in the employ of IB? Or, will India again have foreign terrorists embedded in our own security forces? Fahim is still in jail and his family’s anxiety and agony still multiplying. The pangs and throes Fahim Ansari has written on in his lteer from jail is candid enough as to how the innocent youths of India hve been subjected through miscarriage of justice. His acquittal from the 9/11mocks at the whole trial. How could he have drawn map of Mumbai by hand when better maps were available on Google and other sources. The Judge wondered at this loudly. If his map was recovered from Ajmal Kasab and Ismail Khan then they must have been also planted by ATS. Anita Udayya had seen only 6 terrorists disembarking from Cuff Parade beach. They had asked her question and she had a talk with them. The fisherwoman so surprised the American FBI that they virtually abducted her and had taken her to US to appear before court. Fahim’s co accusedd is Sabauddin Ahmad whose letter from jail is a picture of torment of resignation of the innocent languishing in jail waiting for their cases to be heard., "It's been nearly two years since I was brought to Mumbai. I live with a hundred other inmates like me. They wait forever, hoping their trial will also begin some day. They hope they will have a lawyer to represent them before the court and help them prove their innocence." His other distress is "poor condition" of Muslims in the country. "I never cared for politics until my arrest. But my yearlong stint in Arthur Road jail has made me sceptical. I read in newspapers that Muslim leaders make a statement or two everyday about how innocent men like me are implicated in false cases. But what do they really do to help us?" he asks. "Had these leaders and messiahs of Islam only shown a little more interest towards the betterment of the community, so many Muslim men would not have languished in jail. The community (Muslims) feels targeted because there is no one to take up our cases," he says. [1] The fact that a Muslim prisoner bemoans the apathy of his community to come to succor of the innocent perishing in jail is acute distress chiseled by the years of toruture and insult. ------ http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/because-muslim-leaders-don-t-care-many-of-us-are-in-jail-sabahuddin/627237/ Chapter 17 Bombs are not for Shab-e-barat On June 4, 2015 People’s Liberation Army (Khapang faction) guerrillas based in Myanmar killed 18 soldiers of Indian army in Manipur. In hot pursuit on June 9th Indian commandoes entered the Myanmar jungle and killed around 100 guerrillas. First India claimed that it had taken the Myanmar government in confidence and that the NSA Ajit Doval even visited the Myanmar government officials and briefed them. Later on the Myanmar government denied this. Unwittingly a friendly neighbor was embarrassed. But India’s other neighbor, Pakistan, was alarmed and reacted in more hostile manner than expected. While Myanmar denied that the insurgents in its territory were bombed, Indian government officials on June 10th confirmed the intrusion of the neighbouring country’s space, nay they asserted that more such hot pursuits would follow. In the night of the attack the minister even warned India’s other neighbours of such consequences in future. The minister did not mince words that this was “a lesson and a message to all the terrorist groups that India will not hesitate in going beyond its geographical borders to eliminate terrorists.” [AA June 11, 2015] Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (retd): “The message is that you are not safe if you are attacking Indians on Indian soil.” However, the director of the Myanmar presidential office remarked: “According to the information sent by Tatmadaw (Myanmar Army) battalions on the ground, we have learned that the military operation was performed on the Indian side at the India-Myanmar border.” The Naga and Meitei militants were the target of the attack. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent his PMO officer Jitendra Singh to visit Nagaland and Manipur to assess the mood there. As expected, Pakistan reacted sharply. No other than the former President Perevz Musharraf chose strong words. He blamed India for this aggressive intrusion in a neighbouring country. This is a preplanned strategy with the ultimate aim of denuclearizing Pakistan. Did he take the surgical strike as a dry run to be replicated in Pakistan? “We do not want to use nuclear capability but if our existence comes under threat, who do we have these nuclear weapons for...Don’t attack us, don’t challenge our territorial integrity because we are not a small power, we’re major and nuclear power. Don’t push us….We should have self confidence that their dream to denuclearize Pakistan is not possible. We won’t let their end game materialize.” He saw red herring in the attack: “Deal them (India) with sovereign equality, my experience is they will further suppress if we back off. Their stand is offensive one.” But the punch came when Musharraf said that “If I say in (former Prime Minister) Chaudhary Shujaat Hussein’s style, do we have nukes saved to be used on Shab-e-Barat.” [AA June 12, 2015] However curt is the remark it equates Abhinav Bharat bombing Muslim worshippers on September 8, 2006 with the work of the army. It was this kind of back and forth that US Secretary of State John Kerry found to be very disturbing: “These (India and Pakistan) are two very very important countries playing a critical role with respect to regional interests, and it’s very very important that there be no misinterpretation or miscalculation with respect to any of the back-and-forth and the empowerment some entities might feel as a result of that.” [AA June 18, 2015] It is more disturbing than what Kerry feels. And therefore subject of serious concern. It needs insight into the contours of the back and forth. Prime Minister Modi chose his pack very carefully and had experience in foreign policy nuances. He fought 2002 election between what he calls Mian Musharraf (Pakistan President Gen Perves Musharraf) and him. As a result he broadened his vision and set eyes on Mian Musharraf(an euphemism for Muslims) as his rival while asking the people of the border state to choose him over Mian Musharraf. The Pakistan President took the matter of the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat to the General Assembly of the UNO. Among the pack Modi chose is Ajit Doval as his NSA who had had a long clandestine mission in Pakistan as an undercover agent. As paracharak or guide and teacher of RSS Modi had another associate, the special deputy director of Intelligence Bureau Rajendra Kumar. The latter generated false reports like the burning of the Sabarmati Express as a terrorist attack hatched by Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan. Thus Modi had indulged in foreign policy matters even when he was just the chief minister of a state. The white bearded who ordered the killing of Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Pillai and two Pakistanis is no other than Modi. The black bearded was of course his minister of state for home, Amit Shah. That Richard Headley had mentioned her as agent of Lashkar-e-Tayaba has no evidentiary value. Kumar was ultimately responsible for supplying guns from IB arsenal to kill the four. The MHA has refused permission to try Kumar and three others of IB. BJP is a staunch Hindu nationalist party which eyes Pakistan as part of India according to its akhand Bharat ideology of its patron organization RSS. In the euphoria of having successfully exploded bombs in Pokharan II in 1998 Madan Lal Khurana in PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had challenged Pakistan to wrestling match. If this is the kind of crude unreformed nationalism how is it any different from defense minister Manohar Parrikar’s point of view of removing a thorn with another thorn? The Sopore killings in early June 2015 are a result of killing Pakistani agents and terrorists by using local terrorists in Kashmir. Former chief minister of JK Omar Abdullah called it the direct outcome of Parrikar’s change of mind set. In carrying out the Myanmar attack there was visible another instance of the change in mindset. Modi’s minister of broadcasting and information Col. Rajvardhan Singh Rathor attributed it to the 56 inches chest of Modi. It is reminiscent of DG Vanzara the close confidante of the chief minister who conducted all the fake encounters of Muslims. Vanzara called the operation as mardon ka kaam, great and daring deeds of the macho. Musharraf chose to side with the US in the war on terrorism in the wake of 9/11. It was right decision though under duress. Secretary of State Colin Powell had conveyed the warning of President George W Bush that “you are either with us or against us in the war on terror.” Later Bush’s deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage threatened Musharraf that in case he did not support it he “should be prepared to be bombed to Stone Age.” The Pakistani leader took the right decision. In case of India it fortuitously jumped on the bandwagon of the war on terror. But India’s war on terrorism turned out to be endogenous. It made it out to be a hunt for Students Islamic Movement of India, its own citizens just because they were Muslims. It banned SIMI even when there was no proof of the organization’s terrorist link. It gave a license to the police and army to frame innocent Muslims as terrorists and get awards and promotion for conducting fake encounters. In the name of fighting terrorism Lt Col Prasad Purohit did that and more. As in charge of counter terrorism intelligence section of the army he generated bogus intelligence report of Noorulhoda Shamsuddoha as a member of SIMI and had him arrested in the September 8, 2006 blasts in Malegaon. This war on terrorism focused on the enemies within, the Muslims. On the pretext of fighting separatists in Kashmir the army and police targeted SIMI and its reduction ad absurdum—IM. That work is still going on as the phenomenon of Islamic States in Syria and Iraq looms larger. To the boss of ABVP Ashok Singhal IS is another avtar of “Jehadi terrorism.” His remark is tell tale: “What happened in Godhra. Rambhaktas were burnt alive; it was an act of jehad. The result was we got a man called Modi who is an ironman.” “Islam in India has the story of being ‘jehadi Islam.” He cited IS as an example. But went further: Islamic jehad is the cause of caste system. It divided the Indian society. The scheduled castes were rendered untouchables by Islamic jehad because they did not convert and hence became dalits. Those who could not bear the onslaught of Islam fled to jungle and became Scheduled Tribes. [Indian Express June 4, 2015] Drawing inference to the present time Singhal said “A similar situation is arising before the community (Hindus) these days.” Chapter 18 How planned was the suffering inflicted on Muslims in Malegaon The Malegaon blasts caused enormous suffering that went on to become the contour of nightmare of agony of terror for the world to view. Onr such scenario is mapped from the epicenter of the blasts in the graveyard mosque. Saga of suffering of a family Masood Mohammad (32) was carrying his son Ansab (4), his nephew Azhar Mohammad (11) and another nephew Aasir (5) on his motor cycle. He saw a huge crowd surging out of the road coming from the cemetery towards Mushawarat chowk. He stopped the vehicle in surprise and curiosity. It was too late for him to know that 3 bombs had exploded in the cemetery and the crowd was running helter skelter towards Mushwarat chowk. The fourth bomb was waiting for the crowd and was only three feet from Masood’s motorcycle. It was fitted in a new bicycle attached by chain to the electric pole. It blew up just then. It hit him with full impact on his right thigh. It blew it up in pieces and he died soon afterward. His son and a nephew died on the spot. The second newphew Aasir was blown up some 25 feet above beyond the electric wire. A man saw him flew up and had the presence of mind to spread his arm and receive the falling child. How this cataclysmical upheaval changed the fate of a single family and many others (as given in the next chapter) requires the sketching of the anticedents. There were numerous bomb blasts in 2006 other than Malegaon such as Sankat Mochan temple blasts of March 7, the local train serial blasts in Mumbai known as 7/11. In the previous year 2005 there was blast on Sharamjeevi Express on July 27. In March 2006 Sunil Joshi, Pragyasingh Thakur and Bhratbhai Riteshwer visited Sabri Dham Ashram in Sabridham, Dangs district, Gujarat. They were agitated over the temple attack earlier that month. They decided to attack Muslim targets in retaliation. For this Asimanand gave 25, 000 rupees to Joshi to buy arms like pistol, sim card and explosives. He instructed Joshi and Hiteshwar to visit Gorakhpur and meet Yogi Adityanath and Rajeshwar Singh in Agra. The two started their mission in April. It was the month of May, 2006 and the place was Sabri Dham Ashram in Sabridham, Dangs district, Gujarat, there was an omnibus meeting of the Hindutva activists. The occasion was the visit of Sunil Joshi. He informed Swami Asimanand (Naba Kumar Sarkar) and Pragyasingh Thakur that three to four more people had also joined them and there should be a meeting. This subsequent meeting would take place in the house of Bharatbhai Riteshwar inValsad. In this Valsad meeting PragyaSingh Thakur, Sunil Joshi, Lokesh Sharma, Ramchandra Kalsangah, Amit (Hakla),Sandeep Dange, Asimanand and Bharat Riteshwar were present. They decided to follow bomb for bomb attack on Muslims. It was the brainchild of Asimanand. After dinner there was an exclusive meeting of Asimanand, Bhrat Riteshwar, Pragya, Joshi. In this cabal meeting Asimanand claims that he suggested the name of Malegaon for bomb blast because of heavy concentration of Muslim population, 80%. “Therefore work should begin from this nearby place and so first bomb blast should take place there”, said Asimannad. [1] Asimanand was a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and enjoyed a special position in it. When he desired to arrange the Shabri Kumb Mela from his office in Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra (an RSS body for the welfare of tribe people) the RSS agreed to sponsor it. In January 2006 the president of Shabri Mata Sewa Samiti Jayanti bhai Kewat informed Asimanand that Pragyasingh Thakur would attend the mela or mammoth congregation known as Shabri Kumbh Mela scheduled for February 11, 12, and 13. On the last day of the mela there was a programme which RSS calls ghar wapsi or reconversion of Muslims to their origin in Hindu religion. The Tadwi Muslims were considered originally to be Hindus and many of them were invited for the reconversion. But before that the Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind of Malegaon and other Muslim bodies including the group of Tadwi Muslims opposed this reconversion ceremony. In a huff Asimanand called off the meeting. The first charge sheet that the National Investigation Agency submitted on June 19, 2013 does not mention either Asimanand or Sadhvi Pryagyasingh or even Riteshwar as accused. This charge sheet according to NIA deals with the operational aspect of the case and does not amount to giving clean chit to the two. The four accused according to them are Lokesh Sharma, Dhan Singh, Rajendra Chaudhary and Manohar Narwaria. The charge sheet says that the four wanted to take revenge of the Varanasi temple attack of March 7, 2006 and the Shramjeev Express attack of July 27. [2] Pragyasingh had started Jai Vande Matrum and had set up a tent in the Ujjain Kumb mela in May 2006 Bharat Riteshwar had stayed in the tent and Asimanand also had visited her. The 100th anniversary of the national song Vande Matrum on September 7, 2006 a day before the blasts and a day after Ganpati festival made Malegaon the epicenter of sensitive spot on the map. There was unease in some quarters because the song views India as a goddess people must worship. That was a violation of their faith believed many Muslims. It was sheer idolatry. “Every image made divine In our temple is but thine. Durga, Lakshmi. Bow to thee.” In Mosum pul area the Shiv Sena arranged public meeting and prayer where freedom fighter Bhika Anand Pawar said that vande matrum manhoon rashtra la vandan karneyachi garaj aahe. “It is necessary to worship the nation by singing the song vande matrum.”[3] Those who supported Jai Vande Matrum organized a celebration in Sangmeshwar, Malegaon. Posters were pasted around the town where provocative slogans were highlighted like “If you want to live in India you will have to sing vande matrum.” This build up of tension was the tinder box waiting for a burning matchstick. That is what resulted in the bomb blasts at the graveyard mosque and three hundred meters away Mushawarat chowk in which 37 were killed and several hundred injured. The local police under additional superintendant of police Rajwardhan had arrested nine Muslims who were innocent. They were given bail on November 16, 2011. However, the NIA on November 4, 2011 said that one of the nine Muslims arrested had planted bombs for Hindu extremists. The additional superintendent of police T Raja Balaji was the Investigation Officer of the Hyderabad bomb blast of May 18, 2007 in which connection Asimnand was arrested. Asimanand expressed self desire to confess his crime of terrorism in Malegaon and other places. The IO informed the metropolitan magistrate at the Tis Hazari court in Delhi and got the permission from the jail superintendent of Tihar prison where Asimanand was kept. Doctors at Ram Manohar hospital did a medical checkup of Asimanand on December 16, 20010. The magistrate cautioned Asimanand that the confession would be recorded under Cr P.C. 164 and he cannot deny it later and he could be punished for his crime. Two days later on December 18, Asimanand confessed before the magistrate of his involvement in Malegaon attack of 2006 and other terrorist attacks. [4] [1]. Confessional statement of Swami Asimanand. [2] http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/no-clean-chit-yet-for-aseemanand-and-sadhvi-pragya-singh-thakur-in-2006-malegaon-blasts-case-370564 3 [3]Lokmat, (Nasik, edition) September 8, 2006. [4] http://indianexpress.com/news/one-of-nine-muslims-arrested-for-malegaon-had-planted-bombs-forhindu-extremists-says-nia/870531/0 Chapter 19 Malegaon: “Living hell” Thanks to Promotional Posting of Police The Tata Institute of Social Sciences did a commendable job that was long overdue. It submitted a report on the backwardness of Muslims in Malegaon. On September 9, 2006 many bereaved families of those killed in the bomb attacks on the previous day refused the cheques from Sonia Gandhi for one cardinal reason. They were upset that their near and dear ones were killed in the bomb blasts, some of them could have been saved if adequate medical help was available in the town of Malegaon. The hospitals were in appalling conditions and so were the roads and transportation. They had demanded improvement in all these fields in 2001 and also in 2006. But there was no change in the situation. The 2008 bomb blasts put the town on the front page of news reports around the world. The Sachchar Commission recommendations also fell on deaf ears. At long last the National Minorities Commission asked an independent organization the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to undertake a survey. It meticulously gathered enough details to the effect that indeed 60 % people are below poverty line. What is even worse the Muslims live such an abominable life that the report calls it “living hell”. The condition is as squalid as Gaza strip. The sitting MLA Mufti Ismail was disheartened to see women easing themselves around public open space. He had promised to construct toilets for them. This also went in vain. The most visible show of abomination is the Id prayer ground of Millat. It is enclosed by walls on four sides which border on two ladies madrasa as well. Even in broad day light men and shockingly women defenselessly brazen by everyday call of nature sit for toilet in full view of the people on the roads! Some years back the police on duty there pleaded with women of the neighbourhood to avoid the open space for the mufti was going to pray for rain there. The rains of course came but never the toilets. The concluding part of the report by TISS is more horrendous as it touches upon dumping of ‘acid’ on the minds of the people and marring their life for good. Surprisingly no other than the police have played this role. They crave for plum posting in the town for the fast buck that is assured to them plus official promotion. All this comes with a tag: “They (police) depict and create conflict-like situation and then manage that in order to prove that they are better administrators and so they deserve promotions.” (1) This is best illustrated in the meteoric rise of superintendant of police Rajwardhan Sinha. He was posted at Malegaon from 1997 to 2001. Then he was transferred. But on October 26, 2001 a riot started. It was caused by a police man tearing a pamphlet distributed by Muslims near the central mosque. The situation could have been controlled by nipping the unruly behavior and violence in the bud. But a standoff was made to develop protractedly and Rajwardhan was called back to handle and control the situation. Far from doing his duty he let the situation fester communally for almost a month with curfew enforced in the town. The police also let migration of Muslims from nearly two hundred villages affected by the riots to take place without hindrance or control by the police. The police did hardly anything to improve the law and order situation in villages. Rajwardhan was promoted and went to the district place Nasik. Then happened the first bomb blasts of 2006 and he was again recalled as the expert. Instead of arresting the real bombers he arrested the innocent Muslims and extracted confession under torture. He was again promoted and made deputy commissioner of police in a part of Mumbai and then transferred to Foreign Service. It was around this time that Hemant Karkare the new chief of Anti Terrorism Squad exposed details which are really shocking. The full extent of the evil effect of what the police under him did will pale into insignificance the Wikileaks of Louis Assange. Justice Srikrishna Iyer has remarked that if the police do not control a riot within fifteen days then there is something fishy about it. Rajwardhan was neck deep into it. There was arms seizure in the second week of May 2006. The police arrested Mohammad Javed, the eldest son of Majid Master. Majid was a primary school teacher somewhere in Pilkhod, Khandesh. His profession was the sources of not only his livelihood but the élan in his life. He would teach with rare dedication and gusto that is hardly seen in others. He would take out his pupils to excursion and enjoy time with them telling stories, singing songs and nursing them up with the joy of life that is more or less the raison d’ etre of Shantiniketan rather than the arid Khandesh. There was also full rapport of the family, the teacher and the students. He lost this idyllic life thanks to the shoddy behavior of the police. They were looking for one Mohammad involved in the arms haul case. The eldest son of Majid had the first name Mohammad. That clicked it. The police told Majid that whether it is Javed or Zahid his having Mohammad was enough. Neither the Students Islamic Movement of India activists then nor till today have had anything to do with arms haul as far as Malegaon is concerned. Mohammad Javed’s younger brother Mohammad Zahid was the imam of a mosque in Phoolsanghvi in Yawatmal. He was leading prayer on Friday on September 8, 2006 and he too was arrested for allegedly being a member of SIMI. The police had no proof either against him or his brother. Zahid was released from prison after five years in 2011 but Javed is still languishing in prison. The judge trying the case of the arms haul came down heavily against the police when they tried to bring witnesses to court who so obviously contradicted their own statements that the judge lost patience with them. He not only ordered them out but warned the police. Since then the case is in abeyance. Its effect on Majid is disastrous. He remembers his favourite elder son with a fondness that is heart wrenching. He cannot swallow a morsel of food without recalling Javed. Majid has become schizophrenic. For him life has stopped with the arrests of his two sons. He had warned Zahid not to hobnob with the activists of SIMI. He says that SIMI was in the bad books of the government. The court proved that Zahid was not involved and so granted him bail proving his father wrong. But in the course of time Majid lost interest in teaching and in life. He not only had forbidden Zahid from visiting his house but refused to see him on his release! His face did not betray any joy except grave reserve and anger and melancholic look and dark skepticism. All these not only etched in the creases of his face but underlined every aspect when he utters words. Other victims of police opportunism have even more gory tale to tell. In direct contrast to the astronomical amount of money police showered on Abrar and his father in law and wife (At one time he had 65000 rupees, along with a motor cycle and his father in law nearly 30 lakh rupees and also flats in Mumbai and Bhiwandi, all given to them from the police and through Rajwardhan) there are others who lost their relatives and suffered abysmally. Mohammad Amin was a youth killed in the bomb blasts. His mother Shamsunnisa and sister Saeeda worked hard and so did he. They earned money to have a decent place for a house so rare in Malegaon what with a tamarind tree that grew through the house thanks to the love of Amin. They had tiled floor, a toilet and a bath room. They also kept the house clean. The death of Amin removed a steady source of income but his death also deprived the family of far more vital connections and support. Shamsunnisha’s husband collected the three lakh rupees that Sonia Gandhi paid as well as the money that came from Hyderbad and also the sum that Abu Azmi paid. He stopped paying even whatever little he used to give because his wife started taking grocery from the neighbouring grocery shop. The grocer was a decent person and shared the grief of the loss of the family. He let Shamsunnisa have what she needed and let her pay when she would. Her husband blamed her for illicit affair with him in exchange of the grocery. He even beat her and abused her occasionally and then finally deserted her. Her second son would hawk around the town and collect hundred and fifty rupees at the most of which about forty rupees would be his earning. Shamsunnisa had heard that her husband Mustak Ahmed had collected money and had simply disappeared. Elder members of the community there advised him to have joint account so that his wife would run the house with the relief. He not only ignored them but gave all the money to his daughter from his first wife. Shamsunnisa had only heard about his having another wife. He never even mentioned it once. Once she demanded money to buy school books for the children and rice for the family he became so irate that he took out a strap and beat her up. His second son tried to shield his mother but he threw him away. Another time when she demanded part of the money he had received he took out the spindle iron rod of the spinning wheel and was going to stab her. His daughter Saeeda came in between and pulled him away. He roared as if the heaven had fallen on him and shouted that his daughter had attacked him and tore his shirt. He also falsely accused his wife of providing her father with the money she and her children earned. The four to five lakh rupees changed the fate of Shamsunnisa. It turned her husband violent and a brute. In her share of ‘grapes of wrath’ also fell slanderous accusation of adultery, faithlessness, disobedience and ingratitude, demonizing and degrading! All these stigmas branded into her flesh as well as in her mind and the common fate of the family on whose account? The author John Steinbeck would have written another novel had he met Sattar of Malegaon. The novelist often wrote about the working class people whose life was interchangeable with the life of animals in hardship and struggle for survival, as in the famous novels The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Sattar was born with weakened eyes that also squinted and constantly rolled around in the sockets. His wife and mother both were killed in the blasts and now he was the poor Tom of the town. They had gone to the graveyard to beg food and alms. Since their death he had no family. He received three lakh rupees for his wife and equal amount for his mother. He did not trust his negihbours and feared that they would steal his money. They would inveigle him into giving money to them. But he mistrusted them. He and Majid Master became the mad King Lear out in the snow storm. Majid had his wife but his crazed brain on the issue of his son Zahid had unhinged his mind. Sattar had none. The neighbours thought him crazed and his desire for a wife of no avail. They also forsook him. Among those who had solidarity in the family but suffered seriously Anis Kalejiwala is one. He would buy organs of the animals after slaughter. Cut them to small size and mix spices and chilli and broil them on skewer and sell at Mushawarat chowk. His four wheeler cart was next to the new cycle with the bomb fitted in it. The bomb broke his bone in his leg and shrapnel entered his legs and made life truly hell on earth. He received one lakh rupees from the government which his family spent on travelling with him to nearby district town of Dhulia for treatment and buying him medicine. Then they spent their own money. Before the blast he would collect the animal organs for about 200 rupees and then sell the pieces for the whole day. That would fetch him 50 to 75 rupees a day. His earning went to maintaining a large family including a crippled sister, two other sisters who could not marry and one abandoned sister by her husband. Her two sons also lived with Anis while Anis’s father was nearly blind and could not do any work. His two brothers had ten children each and lived in the same narrow house near Mushawarat chowk. The floor and walls of the house were damp and septic. Bedridden for months together he had broils on his back and around his legs filled with yellowing puss. That made him groan with pain. His wife would clean his toilet and wipe the oozing from the wounds. That made his mother cry that it would have been better that he had died! The balls and nails that had entered his body were so difficult to remove for the doctor! His mother had heard that some people were gifted money even when they had not suffered injuries, the police manipulated that, she claimed. She tartly said that the blasts ‘opened their lottery’ wile for others the blasts opened their graves! (After the Bomb Blasts: Malegaon. Nilu Damle, 2008) However there was no end to their travail as her family made 500 boxes of cardboard and earned just forty five rupees to eke out existence from day to day. For others it evinced to the public how they were turned first generation beggars. They were so terribly shy that they strove strenuously to hide their slide into the slough of penury. One such was the mother of Sajida (8). Sajida’s father had walked out of the house five years ago. He never returned and left half a dozen children and his wife to fend for themselves. Only Sajida’s elder brother got some money while he worked on power loom at night and slept during the day. The mother of the girl, Shahida, claims that she and her daughter were passing the gate of the graveyard when the bomb exploded. She did not know what it was. When she came to consciousness her daughter was not with her. She said that she and her daughter were going to her father’s house when it happened. When Sajida was not found she said that she believed that she must have gone to her maternal uncle’s house. Then the dead body of the girl was brought to the house. The mother was adamant that the people were lying that she had gone to beg alms at the mosque on the holy day of Shabebarat. She was another schizophrenic in denying that she was a beggar and wanted the neighbours to accept what she wanted reality to be. That she was not a beggar! The first bomb attacks in Malegaon brought forth what most of the people were no better than. ----- [1] Indian Express March 24, 2012 [2] After the Bomb Blasts: Malegaon. Nilu Damle, 2008 Chapter 20 Cauldron lit by fire from hell: Gujarat pogroms Genocide is a revenge of ruling regime in power, a nemesis of the minority. Gujarat Pogroms were acts of revenge against the Muslims of the state to fix them in a way that they would never be in a position to claim equity in treatment. Those who set out to avenge real and perceived grudges against the community under the instructions and guidance of Chief Minister Narendra Modi came down heavily against the women of the Muslims. They destroyed their fetuses before killing them so that the new generation would not come to life. Those who were young/child/girls or adults were raped and made pregnant to deliver a new generation that would bear their disgrace in the future and remind them of perpetual humiliation and punishment. This was achieved by means of communalizing the atmosphere in the state. The planning was very meticulously prepared. There was first the rejuvenation of the momentum for building Ram temple at the Babri mosque for which there was mobilization of organized groups of devotees going to Ayodhya in a replay of 1992. As that event in the past had given the Hindu party BJP rich dividends at polls and helped them come to power in 1998 for the first time, in 2002 they wanted such a harvest. Narendra Modi and his Machiavellian politics of revenge produced the calculated effect. Surveys were conducted well in advance marking the houses of Muslims and their commercial establishments. Printouts of these were ready and supplied to the RSS-VHP cadres. “The violence that was unleashed against Muslim communities and on women from the Muslim communities in particular, in the state of Gujarat, India from February 27, 2002, onwards was beyond description in its horror. Its efficacy in showing the worst effects of communalism combined with a thirst for political power is unmatched in the post-independence Indian history.”[1] The pogroms were followed by the fake encounters which also were designed to perpetuate cruelty on the members of the Muslim community in order to win election in 2002 and subsequently. BJP used law of the jungle to rule Gujarat in 2002 as Congress did in 1993 when it used TADA against innocent Muslims who languished in jail for 20 years. They were at long last released by the Supreme Court on July 17, 2014. The government of that time did not follow Section 20-A (1) of The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA). One of the eleven innocent Muslim was a minister Mohammad Surti and the others were Mustaq Patel, Yusuf Nalband, Salim Memon, Hussain Ghadiyali. The apex court also questioned the recovery of arms from them. If that was 1993, in 2002 DG Vanzara the right hand man of Modi planted weapons and had Muslims arrested on false terrorism charges. This at a time when communal feelings were very high as a mammoth procession of a chariot was allowed to pass through the Muslim dominated areas of Kalupur and Dariapur. The Gujarat government secretary had sanctioned the trial of the accused in 1993. It was not investigated by a deputy commissioner of police as mandated by TADA. What happened in more than a decade of Modi rule is history. But his first month in office as prime minister has created foreboding that more such will follow. There are reports leaked to the press which are ominous and bode ill for Muslim community as the target like the impending attack on Amarnath yatra. In a significant development four youths from Mumbai joined Islamic States of Iraq and Syria fighters. The feeling was created that they are terrorists and there would now be imminent terrorist attacks on India. In fact the Pune based think tank Indian Initiative for Peace, Arms-control & Disarmament says the terrorists attack originating from Pakistan is on the cusp of transpiring. “For too long Indians held to the myth that there were no terrorists of Indian origin. Today radicalised Indians are being spotted in many theatres of war, like Syria or Iraq. There was an unspoken political consensus in India to blame all terror incidents on Pakistan alone. The ostensible reason for this was to spare the Indian minorities from any backlash. As a matter of fact Indian Muslims have been subject to suspicion, harassment and violence. Even the May 25, pogrom of Muslims in Atali (Haryana) was a consequence of Tabligi Jammat group visiting the village purely for self enlightenment of what Islam really and basically is. “It is now necessary to fashion military, diplomatic, police and legal instruments to effectively deal with the terrorists who are part Pakistani and part Indian. Domestically, the new government will have to build a consensus in the minority community to deal with the radicalised elements. The time for denial is over.”[2] This approach makes terrorists out of the novice mercenary Muslim youths who joined the current war in Iraq and Syria. The four youths have no criminal record let alone any terror taint. They were adherents of Islam in its pristine virtue of not permitting its followers to make images or view them as on television. Therefore calling them part Pakistani part Indian is oxymoron. If the new government under Modi wants to frame a policy to crack down upon them and others it has to also view what is happening in Gaza strip where more than 600 Palestinians had been bombed and killed by Israel and 27 Israelis lost their life. Some of the soldiers were American citizens born and brought in the US. Arif Fayyaz Majeed, Fahad Tanvir Sheikh, Aman Naim Tandel and Shaheen Farooqi from Thane, Mumbai are now fighting with the forces of Islamic States of Iraq and Syria. They are doing what Max Steinberg, 24, and Nissim Sean Carmeli, 21were doing in Gaza when they were killed. But Americans do not consider them as terrorists nor do many others. In fact the Israelis feel proud: “They are not less American when they serve in the army. They are more American. They feel they protect the values of the place they came from, and they also protect the values of the state of Israel.” [3] In fact President Obama justified the Israeli attack on Gaza when he hosted iftar party at White House. It was a gathering of Muslims and not of politicians and so it was tactless and disgraceful to say so. If that is so in the case of the US whose bandwagon the Indian governments jumped on in the after math of 9/11 in fight against terrorism then why do now police and government should feel disturbed and view Arif Fayyaz Majeed, Fahad Tanvir Sheikh, Aman Naim Tandel and Shaheen Farooqi with suspicion and deem them as terrorists. The media has gone hype over them. That is the spring source of framing Muslims in false charges of terrorism that they have not committed. Calling them part Pakistani and part Indian is obfuscation. The 2014 Human Rights Watch report castigates another aspect of making terrorists out of the simple citizens. Instead of considering Muslims as equal and legitimate citizens of the US the FBI viewed them as potential terrorists. The report says: "In some the FBI may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by suggesting the idea of taking terrorist action or encouraging the target to act." Even President Obama had disfavoured this when he advised in his 2013 speech: “The best way to prevent violent extremism inspired by violent jihadists is to work with the Muslim American community – which has consistently rejected terrorism – to identify signs of radicalization and partner with law enforcement when an individual is drifting towards violence. And these partnerships can only work when we recognize that Muslims are a fundamental part of the American family,”[4] On our side of the globe: no Indian government has deemed it necessary to work with the Muslim community as Obama says or as the Pune based think tank suggests. The innocent Muslims trapped in terror charges and their relatives and independent and fair minded people from the majority community have also urged the government to look into the cases and review them have been ignored. The case of Sohrabuddin Shaikh is the crux of the matter. He was connected with 1993 bomb attack in Surat because he was alleged to be part of Latif Lala and Dawood Ibrahim gang. There is no proof that he brought in AK 57 to make what Pravin Swamy calls a “communal war” in Surat. [5] In fact Muslims were at the mercy of the majority some of whom were extremists and were perpetrating the massacre. The accused in the 1993 case were set free on July 17, 2014 because there was no proof against them. If there was no proof against them then how could Modi cite Sohrabuddin as a smuggler who transported the weapons in 1993? He not only accused him so but dared the central government to hang him for what he did, he liquidated him and his audience encored “Kill him. Kill him.” That famous speech of 2007 partly made him win the election proving the widespread belief that violence in the name of religion helped him win election and consolidate his power. In contrast no weapons were found in the case of what Sohrabuddin had allegedly brought in, ruled the SC. Most of the accused in the case spent 20 years in prison! Two of them Ehsaan Patel and Iqbal Wadiwala died in prison. Therefore entrapment of innocent Muslim was the order of the day in 1993 as well as in the rule of Modi. Sohrabuddin, Ishrat Jahan, Sadik Jamal Mahtar and others were victims of the IB joint director Rajedra Kumar an associate of Modi in Haryana-Punjab election in 1990s generating bogus inputs against them. The central government has refused to take action against Kumar even when investigation has shown that he was involved in crimes against Ishrat Jahan, Sadik Jamal Mahtar, etc. In the case of the four from Thane Anti Terrorist Squad has seized their pen drives and laptops. [6] They have been doomed as terrorists even before any objectionable or criminal record is found. Even the letter of Arif F Majeed is critical of many evils that people of the majority community would object like obscenity, lewdness, mingling of sexes, illegal sexual intercourse, luxurious life, etc. [7] A part of the whole agenda of the Hindutva was avengement. They accused innocent Muslims and the police were too officious to scrutinize or even take trouble to do their constitutional duty. The deputy commissioner of police whose duty was to investigate the 1993 accused did not do so and the letter of the government secretary was used for jailing them for 20 years, though without proof. This theme is common. The RSS chief in 1992 justified the pogroms of Muslim and the demolition of Babri mosque by famously saying that the Muslims had it coming to them. Coincident to the September 2006 bomb attack, a letter signed by Sangh parivar or family reminds the Muslims that it was their revenge and if they do not “respect Hindu sentiment” more would follow. This is a proven strategy of Hindutva that Muslims must respect Hindu sentiment or face consequences as Ashok singhal and Parvin Togadia are repeating. Singhal: “Muslims will be treated as common citizens -- nothing more, nothing less. And, they must learn to respect Hindu sentiments. If they keep opposing Hindus, how long can they survive?”[8] What Singhal means by sentiment is in his own words Muslims should give up claims over Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura and also accept a uniform civil code. He even said that “Religion is the rock on which this country rests.” So Muslims must cease to be Muslims as the religion on which the country rests is Hinduism of his liking. In line with much that is twisted logic, Singhal views those who oppose India as jihadist. “You also have to resort to deceit at times, and there are segments in Pakistan who want good ties. The problem lies with the jihadi elements, and till they are there, relations can’t be good.”Therefore revenge has come to stay for good. As suffering in hell is perpetual so the confrontation of Muslims by the extremist Hindus is perpetuity. Another way of revenge is dispossessing Muslims of their houses and establishment. On 19 July 2014 Togadia protested at the front of the house a Muslim had bought in Bhavnagar and said that Muslims shouldn’t be allowed to buy houses in Hindu negihbourhoods, the Hindus should take over such houses by force and put a board there that it belongs to Bajgang Dal.[9] [1] Threatened Existence: A Feminist Analysis of the Genocide in Gujarat Report by the International Initiative for Justice (IIJ) December 2003 Prologue [2] http://www.rediff.com/news/column/anil-a-athale-watch-out-mr-modi-danger-confronts-india/20140716.htm?pos=2&src=NL20140717&isnlp=0&isnlsp=0 [3]http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/world/middleeast/2-americans-among-israeli-soldiers-killed-in-gaza.html?_r=0 [4] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/21/government-agents-directly-involved-us-terror-plots-report [5] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/london-arrest-highlights-indias-communal-war/article148970.ece [6] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/maharashtra/mumbai-youths-in-iraq-ats-picks-up-laptops-pendrives-from-their-homes/99 [7]http://indianexpress.com/article/india/maharashtra/four-men-from-mumbai-believed-to-have-joined-iraq-jihad-a-father-appeals-for-help/99/ [8] http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bjp-win-blow-to-muslim-politics-vhp-chief-patron-ashok-singhal/article1-1241242.aspx [9] http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-muslims-shouldn-t-be-allowed-to-buy-property-in-hindu-areas-says-vhp-president-praveen-togadia-1980482 Chapter 21 Sowing agony in Atali (Haryana) replicating the pogroms of Wester UP In the general election of 2014 BJP won 7 out of the 10 seats of Haryana state, Congress won 1 and others got 2. If Muzaffarnagar pogroms were calculated to divide the Muslims and Jats and win votes on communal ground, the BJP succeeded in its design. Atali pogroms are widening of the gulf between the communities and consolidating the position of the Hindu party as per the mindset of the Hindu right wing. The marauding Jats have perfected the strategy of attack. They learnt using of gas cylinder from Gujarat 2002 genocide of Muslims. From Muzaffarnagar 2013 they acquired a new identiy for Jats as Hindus and not mere Jats and hence up against the erstwhile fellow citizens having good friendly and trade relations. Furthermore, Jats from other villages also were drawn into attacking the Muslims as it happened in Shamli and Muzaffarnagar carnage. The fury of the attack was again ferocious. The ax of the agrarian Jats became the mascot of attack and aggression. It left the hapless Muslims no time to even lock their shutters, doors or put off their fans. Many hours later the fans were still whirling and cooling the houses Muslims had left for the open police compound where they sought refuge under the burning sun. When their fellow religionists had left their heath and hearth in Muzaffarnager the cold wind tormented them in the open fields of sugarcane. The attackers had come with petrol after their axes scared the Muslims into fleeing for life. There was neither any chance for confrontation nor the need for police to clear the ground for the attackers as it was the case in Gujarat. The Muslims were too few and far in between to have any hope. Their agony was that they were laying the roof of the mosque (for which the court had allowed them) when the attack came. Laying the roof was also critical as a time factor as concrete mixture was being made ready. Then the fury set in. Unlike Muzaffarnagar the ruling echelon represented by local MLA Moolchand Sharma announced in a hurry that the matter was settled beween the two communities, nay, even compensation would be paid and action would be taken against the attackers. This contrasts with Muzaffarnage where the Samajwadi Party was in power and the wounds were left to fester for good. In one hour, some say nearly three hours; of Monday May 25, 2015 even the mosque was burnt as the houses of Muslims. It was a surgical strike when the mosque along with just one shop owned by the minority was the target. The 17 houses of Muslims in the lane were also torched. A far flung godown owned by a Muslim also met the same fate on May 26. The other shops and houses remained untouched by the fury. [1]So selective was the target and so high precision of the operation. Since then the refugees had a tent, two portable cabins, and carpet for their temporary stay in the police station compound now fanned by four desert coolers. But food is hard to come by unless people from cities send some. For six years the mosque dispute was in court. There was palpable tension. The tension has left a burning brand in their skin of grim scenario of an uncertain future. An NGO Janhastakshep – A campaign against fascist designs has an inkling of that happened and its report is immediate and relevant. It found that even on May 27 the condition was showing no sign of easing of tension. A person was axed. A Jat was taken into custody for his role in the violence but the majority community exerted pressure. They had a fight with the police to have him released. Cattle feed stored by Muslims was torched. Sixty year old Hasnu was grazing his cattle when four Jats attacked him with their axes. He was shiften to Badshah Khan Hospital in Faridabad, his condition critical. The role of the police is questionable. They had enough forces to deal with the emergency and yet failed. On May 18 the CM of Haryana had inaugurated a power station; on May 20 there was stone throwing at each other by the two communities. So there was enough police force left in the village. On May 22 construction work started. On the day trouble started: the Hindus had threatened the Muslims that they would make the mosque at 3 pm. In the meantime Chhainsa Babulal Rathi SHO withdrew the police for three hours. In less than two hours the attack took place. For three days since Friday Jats held meeting in a belligerent mood as they had done in Muzaffarnagar mahapanchayat. It is strange that PM Modi has been tight lipped on both Muzaffarnagar and Atali. But has time to say in alien land Seoul, South Korea “Earlier, you felt ashamed of being born Indian. Now you feel proud to represent the country.” Why does he not become Hero No. 1 in India as he has become for NRIs? The “‘long distance nationalism’ is dangerous for India.” Benedict Anderson’s description has bearing for the home grown tension. Creating divisions of caste and religion in India for winning election and observing hate ideology of RSS and speaking of pride of being Indian is a heady mix. The NRIs contributed fund to not only BJP election but also for the pogroms in Gujarat. So the juggernaut of Hindutva natioinalism has the solid backing of the NRIs whom Modi is treatingwith indulgence while in sharp contrast he does not address all the communities at home. So he cannot strike a balance and Indian is sliding into more self divisions. Why are the NIRs in euphoria? They did not voice concern for the plight of the Muslims in Muzaffarnagar and now they are again silent over Atalia atrocities. Atalia has the same potentially explosive theme: Hindutva’s intolerance of a mosque by the side of a temple. The Unnao MP Saksi Maharaj spoke as the attack on Muslims was underway in Atali: "As far as temple construction is concerned, there is Ramlalla there and will remain there. Now, no one would be allowed to keep a single stone in the name of Babri." It is irony of irony that the Mughal emperors gave land for building Hindu temples along with mosques. The wakf property was endowed for Muslims for their religious and social works. One such property in Mumbai is occupied by the strongest house against terror attack, the splendid building of Mukesh Ambani. Another was the land adjacent to the Jat temple in Atali in Haryana which the ‘Hindus’ burnt on May 25, 2015. The quintessential continuing of distress of Muslims is seen in the Haryana village Atali on July 1, 2015 when Dalits and Jats were attending pooja near the burnt down mosque. An altercation over drinking water between Hindus and Dalits led to tension and confrontation and it automatically led to a clash with the Muslims. The Hindus said that dalits and Hindus shouldnot fight but should be together to fight the Muslims. A native Randeep singh remarked: “The fact remains that a mosque and a temple can’t coexist like this. They will have to leave.” [3]This kind of remark reveals how deliberately the Muslims are targeted and mde to suffer. ----- [1] http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/ballabgarh-communal-tension-their-houses-set-on-fire-muslims-flee-village/99/ [2]http://www.firstpost.com/india/ram-temple-will-come-ayodhya-grand-look-2019-sakshi-maharaj-2264442.html [3] http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/day-after-ballabhgarh-communal-violence-behind-atalis-second-brush-with-violence-a-spat-over-drinking-water/ Chapter 22 What it is to be a riot victim: Atali On Friday June 19, 2015 an eerie but carefully manipulated vaudeville of Hindutva started in Atali. The two fans that riot victims put in the burnt down mosque were removed because they constituted rebuilding the mosque. It was the lion dictating to lamb to behave although the river water was flowing down from the direction of the lion. The lamb was polluting the water even from down the river. A native worshipper Nizam Ali said this as the gist of the matter: “We put fans at the mosque because it becomes very hot and the elderly find it uncomfortable. We didn’t want to begin construction or do anything that could lead to tension. But the Jats protested and said we were trying to take over the land.” [1] Thus a new variety of entertainment of Hindutva began in which the Jats, Hindus, Dalits will watch the hapless Muslims do antics at the bidding of the majority, a comic interlude after the tragedy of May 25, 2015. As was the tragedy the fall out of the panchayat meeting of the majority so was the “variety”, entertainment. The landscape of India dots with mosques and temples coexisting for centuries and yet in the topsy-turvy world of Hindutva how could it be viable: “The land where they built the mosque belongs to the village and not the Waqf. There is a temple there. How can a mosque and a temple exist next to each other?” What Sudhir Choudhary is wondering is that even when the title of the land is vested with the Muslims and wakf board the “variety” has to be accepted for entertainment of the majority. The Ballabhgarh SDM Priyanka Soni played her own role by not using discretion as the matter is in court. Lack of critical thinking is the price to pay to play this role. A fact finding team by Khudai Khidmatgar unearthed another act of the vaudeville: “However on digging deeper our fact finding team found out that the Jat community claims that the Muslims had pelted stones on them twice on the Jats on 24th May 2015. They go on claiming that some Muslim families under the influence of a few rich and powerful Muslims in fact burnt their own homes and even tried to burn an old man from their own community to create the impression that Jats were creating havoc and mayhem. “There is even confusion regarding the land on which the mosque is being constructed because while the Jats claim that there was no judgment in favour of construction of the Mosque in fact those who had filed a case against the construction had withdrawn the case. The Jats claim that the Masjid cannot be constructed in that very spot because it is panchayat land and that cannot be used for construction of religious structures. They add that the Muslims may build their mosque a little away from the spot and that would be a peaceful solution.” During all these varieties of acts a new narrative sobered by experience and resignation surfaced. It is that of a humble hawker of cloths in ten villages of Wallabhgarh including Atali. Shabbir Mullah : “Where can we go. The people of these villages did not let us part them when the partition took place and people were migrating to Pakistan. They stopped us here. So where do we go from her now? If they wanted to kill us they would have done long back. The ancestors of the natives of these hamlets gave us refuge here. “Now in whatever way they want to keep us we would live accordingly.” [2]Those who heard this pathetic realization burst out in tears including minister for social justice Krish Pal Gujjar, education minister Ram Vilas Sharma, PWD minister Rao Ranvir. They hugged each other and spooke loudly that the Muslims need not leave now. They assured Mulla and the rest of the Muslims present in theWallabgarh panchayat hall that they could live as they like. Everyone wept profusely as was the cathartic effect in them. ------ [1] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/ramzan-in-atali-jats-get-mosque-fans-removed/ [2] Inquilab June 5, 2015 Chapter 23 Another village falls to the same pattern On Sunday night July 5, 2015 the village Teekri Brahman village( 30 km away from Atali) had horrifying scene of Muslims set upon by Hindus from the village an also from outside. The attack took place reportedly on account of teasing a girl going to fetch water and wash clothes. The attack on miniscule minority Muslim community follows the pattern of Atali and Muzaffarnagar. One of the victims was a woman, Amrudi. She says was alone with her five children as her husband had gone for haj. The Hindus attacked the house. She took her children and fled to the top of the house. But then the attackers came there and wanted to throw them down on the ground but she pleaded and they relented. Amrudi was alone pitted against 400, what hope for survival. Most remarkable was that the attackershad come from Phulwari, Bhamrola, Rehrana and Chirawat which are neighbouring villages of Teekri Brahman. The local Hindus were pelting stones while the people from the outside went on the rampage. They disrobed a woman and beat her mercilessly. Why does the attack on Muslims spread from village to village? After all Tekri Brahma is 30 km away from Atali and the attack on the village had well been coordinated. The Hindu villagers submitted their fellow Muslim villages to intense stone pelting while at the same time Hindu villagers from neighbouring villages attacked the Muslims. One, reason is that hatred has been sowed over the years and political parties did nothing to prevent. Two, the Hindu party BJP is in power and its policies are overtly anti Muslim. As Amartya Sen observed : “Well, first of all, in politics things survive to the extent that we fight for their survival. As has often been said, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance and the price of secularism is also eternal vigilance. And you are right that in various ways different political parties have often failed to uphold secularism adequately. I think the threat to Indian secularism right now from the governing party is rather stronger than it has been in the past.” [2] ------ [1] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/22-arrested-for-communal-clashes-in-teekri-brahman/article7393641.ece [2] http://www.livemint.com/Politics/bsW9sbkBQUeH1ntj9uxAAK/Threat-to-secularism-stronger-than-in-the-past-Amartya-Sen.html Chapter 24 Speculators in death: Modi and Ajit Kumar Doval Since it became clearer that Ishrat Jahan and others were killed for the sake of saving Chief Minister Narendra Modi in a fake encounter on June 15, 2004 much water has flown down the river. Mufti Qayum Mansoori was acquitted along with others in the Akshardham temple attack case of September 2002. The attack on the temple was a fact but it was not the work of those whom the trial and high courts judged guilty. The Supreme Court acquitted them because it was a bogus charge leveled against the innocent for which they suffered so much in jail for nearly 13 years. Another casualty of premeditated charge against another accused was the case of Ishrat Jahan fake encounter in which two Pakistani Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were also killed. The two were supposed to be in a jail in Jammu and Kashmir and ATS chief DGVanzara and his team had taken the Mufti to verify their identity. The team simply visited JK as tourists and did not bother to visit the jail. Therefore the question of what role IB under its chief SK Singh and Ajit Kumar Doval who succeeded him after a month, raises concern. Rajendra Kumar and three other officers played active role in the killing. Doval’s presence in the Golden Temple in 1989 when 40 Sikh militants were killed may have been helpful in tracing some militants. But what KPS Gill did in the case of Jaswant Singh Khalra in September 1995 puts a question mark on the events. Khalra was taken away from his house and then tortured and killed and his body was thrown in a canal. The police celebrated it by enjoying a dinner party at the government guest house. His painstaking work of analyzing the remains of the Sikhs killed and keeping record of the crematorium and the amount of wood sold in burning the dead aroused the anger of the police. He was repeatedly warned and then killed. There is a hint of this kind in what Shekhar Gupta says of Ishrat Jahan fake encounter: “What we do not know is, whether it was an operation that the intelligence agencies would sometimes describe as a "controlled killing", where you use moles and plants to lure your targets into a trap and then put them away, or was it as rogue operation, driven either by a combination of paranoia and arrogance, or to please the powers that be.”[1] One thing that is known invariably is that the “antecedents” of Ishrat Jahan militates against the “intentions” of the spooks and cannot mitigate the enormity of the crime. Furthermore, it is ominous to say as Gupta does that there is need for “controlled fallout” if a fuller disclosure is made in the fake encounter of Ishrat and others. Why should Gupta say this? Is it because he has had long contact with Doval who does not care for past operation of the agency for the assured impunity? Praveen Swami also shows close contact with Doval that he could say things on his behalf like his argument that intelligence would not survive investigation if facts are made known? “I have his permission, though, to speculate that it may have involved the cold-blooded execution of a Pakistani intelligence officer, the illegal detention of terrorism suspects, torture, the smuggling of arms and explosives across India's borders, and the use of false identities. “Lawyers have numbers and words for these things: 302, 304, 364, 120B, the Arms Act, the Explosives Act. These are the laws India’s intelligence services break every single day — to defend the Republic. “To comprehend this is to comprehend why India’s intelligence services simply won’t — at least in their present form— survive the Ishrat Jahan Raza murder investigation. Ever since their inception, the Intelligence Bureau and its sister-services have functioned without any legal mandate. This means authorisation for anything they do. Every time an intelligence officer initiates a covert operation, launches agents across the border or engages in the lethal deceptions that constitute the warp and weft of spycraft, she or he breaks the law and violates the constitution.”[2] Survival of India is not at the stake of disclosure of Ishrat Jahan case or Chittisingpora case. Right to life of citizens of India is more important, be they Muslims, Sikhs or Hindus (Tulsiram Prajapati). The last case is of grave importance because the chain of command leads to Modi whose bête noir Haren Pandya was shot through his testicles by Prajapati. This personal angle of interest does not point accusing finger at the leading accused Asghar Ali. No court so far has taken a su motto action to requisition widow of Pandya who met Asghar in Visakhapatnam jail. If Doval is that sharp why did he not take more interest in the goings on in Gujarat, a sensitive border state like Manipur? Gupta’s fear that one agency would be pitted against another, as CBI a caged bird of Congress versus IB infiltrated with rightwing Hindutva or BJP. If according to S Mushriff Modi can stop IB from Gujarat for seeking truth he can now as PM order fuller details made public in the case of Ishrat Jahan. If India has remained steady after the genocide in Gujarat how can it face any upheaval in just one case? No agency can be hangdog of any political part as the motto of the central government is, truth prevails. Let truth live. Don’t kill it by not making investigation diaries of police in Ishrat Jahan case locked up in vaults of the MHA available in the court where the case is being tried. Home Minister Rajnath Singh was Chief Minister of UP when he had refused to supply intelligence on the kar sevaks’ unruly behavour on the train returning from Ayodhya in 2002. The result was the Godhra fire accident. Now under what obligation he is sitting on the intelligence gathered in the fake encounter of 2004? IB cannot be allowed to be his underdog or of anyone else’s. There is also constitutional difference. India is a working parliamentary democracy. Vice President Hamid Ansari in his R&AW chief Kaul memorial lecture wanted an oversight committee of Parliamentarians to review intelligence. In the American presidential system President Obama may order the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki. For what did the Hindu extremist Dr RP Singh wanted to burn the vice president at Hamdard University meeting? Ishrat Jahan case is not just of any ordinary operation of investigation agency but it is travesty of justice and suborning of the judicial process. Even more the members of the team had been queasy of going ahead in killing Ishrat. GL Singhal felt that the girl did not deserve killing. He even asked counter terrorism in charge ATS chief Vanzara to clarify the matter. Vanzara contacted minister for home Amit Shah (black beard) who in turn sought consent from Modi (grey beard). If the case is allowed to proceed to its logical end even the Prime Minister would be in danger. Ministry of Home Affairs’ denying permission to produce the police investigation record diaries to CBI for court scrutiny is suborning of judiciary. It is also casual “controlled killing” of Muslims who are no better than poultry in the eyes of the reigning echelon and the right wing groups in power. The agony of the victims doesn’t mean anything! Ishrat Jahan’s father was a poor migrant from Bihar living hand to mouth life in the slums of Mumbai. Before his death caused by falling from the scaffold of a building under construction he beseeched Pranesh Pillani (Javed) to have mercy and give livelihood to his daughter. She got death, instead, administered drug by Dr Narendra Amin and killed on road by Gujarat police with guns supplied by IB! ------- [1] http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/body-politics/1138181/0 [2] http://www.firstpost.com/india/ishrat-jahan-case-intelligence-wont-survive-the-investigation-939229.html Chapter 25 Can yoga relieve the agony of Muslims? No therapy has been found to lessen the agony of Muslims enmeshed in intractable problems that defy any solution. Of these numerous problems that of the demolition of Babri mosque is humongous. Riots and bloodsheds followed the trail of the chariot on which LK Advani traversed the country exhorting Hindus to get the Ram temple built. There is no shortage of Ram temples in India. But the one in Ayodhya must be built on the site where stood the Babri mosque till December 6, 1992. There is no legal solution in sight. Given the Hindutva government in power at centre it is impossible. Yet the pain is palpably rising because any and every further move towards building the temple would herald in more bloodshed. The rathyata of Advani was the tactic of manufacturing riots and riots did follow wherever Advani went. It was BJP secretary Narendra Modi who had arranged to roll down the chariot from Somnath temple with Advani Pramod Mahajan leading the crowds from the front. That was in the early 1990s. Ten years later the RSS and its conglomerates wanted to revive the stopped work of rebuilding. Now another decade is over and the voters who put BJP in power want to en-cash the cheque that they got in demolition of the mosque. They have appealed to followers to donate one lakh square feet of stone. The right wing have won power through ballot and so why not en cash the cheque! “Ram temple is our identity. We cannot leave it at any cost. This issue will be taken up after we put together a proper strategy. And we are in the process of fine-tuning that strategy." That was Kalraj Mishra. On the yoga day on June 21, 2015 when all the media was focused on the stretching of the parts of the body in far flung places, RSS and its groups were getting ready to put in practice what their chief was ordering them. In a close-door meeting at at Nivedita Shiksha Sadan in Mahmoorganj area in Varanasi where 22 leaders of BJP who had participated in Babri demolition movement were also present Mohan Bhagwat made very serious remarks. It is fraught with dangerous dynamics. 1. The issue of the Ram temple must be settled before 2017 UP assembly election. 2. The movement to build up the temple at Ayodhya would be speeded up. 3. BJP failed to highlight the resolve to build the temple after completing one year in office. 4. Speaking in the constituency of the PM Modi he said he was ready to face the wrath of the people who elected Modi. They had voted Modi for the temple and now Modi must fulfill the pledge to build temple. 5. He condemned the elected members of BJP who were mouthing contradictory statement on Babri mosque issue every now and then. 6. BJP will suffer more from this rather than the rival Congress. This last is well known contradiction, Rajnath Singh saying development and not Ram Mandir is priority, Amit Shah saying BJP not on back foot on the issue.[1] On the yoga day itself stretching of the parts of the body generated tension of the mind of the vice president and the Muslims. Ram Madhav, secretary and RSS spokesman singled out Hamid Ansari’s absence and then said that he was perhaps sick. The Vice President’s office replied that he was not invited and then said that he was not sick. It furthered explained that according to protocols the VP attends function only where he is invited. Equally serious was the barrage of Sadhvi Prachi who said those who do not want to attend yog must go to Pakistan. Being sent to Pakistan is the recurring leitmotif which is maintained inorder to focus on the minority and raise their tension of existence in India. It is programmed to get on their nerves. Although they are the legitimate citizens of India but she says that they have “no right” to live in India. Then came the barb as she taunted that yoga programme was not the wedding function of the daughter of a politician where VP needed an invitation. The whole issue is in fact an aspect of the clash of civilization. Hindus believe yoga originated in Indian culture since ancient time. However western countries do not give credit to India. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board feels that “Brahamin dharma and Vedic culture are out to harm Islamic beliefs by all means.” Pat came the answer of Sadhvi Prachi: “They should connect themselves with the traditions of India, cultureof India. There is no need for any objection. If they ar objecting then they should go to Pakistan. People who are objecting to it have no right to reside in India…They have India’s food and sing songs of Pakistan. Democracy does not teel you to object to India’s traditions and cultures.” [2] This kind of engagement with the minority removes attention from the real problems of the community: backwardness, illiteracy, housing difficulties, diseases and plight caused by riots and premeditated framing of Muslim youths in bogus terror charges of terrorism and unemployment. Thus the community is left in the Sargasso Sea of suffering. ------ [1] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/ram-temple-mohan-bhagwat-rss-up-elections/1/446118.html [2]Asian Age June 24, 2015 Chapter 26 Rohini Salian: the saga of suffering The bomb that exploded on September 29, 2008 in Malegaon coincided with that on the same day and time and in similar targeting, Muslims, in Modasa, Gujarat was explained away as the work of Lashkar-e-Toyba. In Malegaon the HM RR Patil spoke of firm hand in dealing with the incident but the people protested in large number. This time it was like similar explosions on Shabe Barat on September 8, 2006. They could not take it in any pacifist manner. In the 2006 case the Sangh meaning RSS had claimed responsibility in a letter that was sent to the Jamte Ulemae Hind. It also had warned further attack. Muslims it asserted must leave the land. But the accusing of first attack on Muslims persisted for some years until Swami Asimanand claimed that it also was the work of their men. By that he meant Sunil Josh module. His claim gravitated attention to the other terror attacks which were also ascribed to the right wing Hindutva group of Abhinav Bharat-- the 2007 Ajmer blast, the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad and the 2007 Samjhauta Express attack. When it became clear that Lt Col Prasad Purohit had supplied RDX for Samjhauta attack, no other than the National Security Advisor MN Narayanan stalled the investigation of Haryana police because it was becoming a matter of shame for India. India dilly dallied in the matter and went on offensive in the case of 26/11. Manzoor Ali Memon, spokesperson for the Pakistan High Commission remarked: “Our job is to present evidence and prosecute the accused…we cannot push the judiciary…it is an independent institution and takes its own time.” [1]Notwithstanding this high claim India’s record is of sorts. Judiciary was subverted in full view of the media. Babu Bajrangi: “Narendrabhai got me out of jail…He kept on changing judges... He set it up so as to ensure my release, otherwise I shouldn’t have been out yet…The first judge was one Dholakiya… He said Babu Bajrangi should be hanged—not once but four-five times …Then came another who stopped just short of saying I should be hanged. Then there was a third one…By then four-five months had elapsed in jail; then Narendrabhai sent me a message—saying he posted a judge named Akshay Mehta…He (Mehta) never even looked at the file or anything at the file or anything… He just said [bail was] granted.”[2]The underlined clause implies that Modi established himself into the task of saving the guilty. DG Vanzara had arrested those who had killed Muslims in Naroda Patia. He detained them and hosted them special meal from staffs’ quarters and then released them. In another case of equal horror of mass killing under his watch, Modi ordered ten lakh rupees to be paid to the lawyer of Malika Sarabhai to torpedo the Narod Patia case from within. All this squarely places Modi in the line of hard core Hindutva extremists who are sworn to perpetrate mass casualties on Muslims. Those who are straight Hindus like RB Sreekumar, Rohini Salian are pucca Hindus. Then why Modi and Vanzra, Mehta, both Tushar and Akshay so hardened anti Muslims? Modi even cursed Ahsan Jaffri and instead of saving him and those who had sought refuge in his house he in full knowledge of their fatal circumstances of immediate extension let them go to their fiery death. That precisely is reason his never donning a traditional Muslim cap. For the crimes of hate committed by his omission and commission the last resort is not the SC but International Criminal Court. Modi made Akshay Mehta a member of the Nanavati Commission of inquiry. What truth can you expect from such? Removing Salian as PP is a step in the dark. She has stated that soon after Modi government assumed power in Delhi an NIA officer first phoned her and then called upon her at her office and told her that the higher-ups wanted her to go soft on the Malegaon 2008 case. She countered him saying that she would work for justice. The day of fixing the date of trial she was sitting in the MCOCA court she was witness to a Kafkaesque melodrama. An Additional General Solicitor of Maharashtra government came there and told the senior counsel who was to speak on her side, Mariar Puttam, would no more represent the government. Another Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh came there and asserted that he would replace Puttam. Then both nudged the senior counsel Mariar in full view of the court. They prodded him with their elbow and gestured him to leave showing the door. Mariar sought permission to leave. The judge observed that since Mariar was through the case for so many months the court would hear him. In the vaudeville the court heard and affidavits submitted. Then the end. On June 12, 2015 the same NIA officer came to her and told her that another PP would take over the work. She told him that she expected it and was happy to be relieved and asked him to settle the bill. She said now that she was free to appear in cases against NIA. Next step in the dark will come soon when Ajay Misar will be “shot down shortly” as conveyed in an anonymous letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ten days ago, June 15, 2015. [3] Misar was helping Salian and was also the one who acted as public prosecutor at the session court in Nasik. Copies of the same letter were also received by the commissioners of Nasik and Mumbai and the special judge MCOCA court AL Pansare in Mumbai. Then came the parting shot of Salian: “I am a pucca Hindu. Hindu means what? You should be straight, not have bias against anyone — Hindus, anyone who commits an offence, is an offender.”[4] There is much broader context to Salian’s revelation. She says that within a month of Modi assuming office as PM the NIA officer said that the instruction to her go soft came from higher-ups. It couldn’t be any other than Prime Minister’s Office. Modi had given such an instruction in the late night meeting of February 27, 2002 which led to the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat. He also endorsed the murky terror operation that Swami Asimanand based in Gujarat’s Dangs area was handling. He came under cloud when Home Minister LK Advani asked Chief Minister Kehubhai Patel to check Asimanand’s activities. The Swami was also involved in terrorism became manifest later. “It was Jayanti bhai of Navsari who had arranged for our meeting [his meeting with Pragya Singh Thakur]. You [reporter] should not meet him. He was a trustee of the Dang temple. He became anti-Modi, went to the Keshubhai team. So we all have distanced ourselves from him.” “When my conversion stories made national news and Sonia Gandhi flew down to make speeches against me, there was a lot of discussion about me in the media. Then Advaniji was the home minister and asked Keshubhai to rein me in. Keshubhai started stopping our work and even arrested my people.” “Then, Keshubhai left and Narendrabhai came into power. Even before he became CM, Narendrabhai used to come to meet me and he told me, “I know that Keshubhai is troubling you. He will soon be out of power and I will become the CM. Phir aapka kaam hum karenge (Then, I will do your work.).””[5] The work that Modi promised to Asimanand he was maintaining it after becoming PM albeit with a gusto. Salian spoke of the higher ups telling her to go soft in the terror case of 2008 in Malegaon within a month of assuming power in Delhi. Like CM like PM. The threat to the life of Salian’s assistant Misar is of the same piece. TERRORISM. What caused so much agony to the victims, Christians in Dangs and Muslims in Malegaon and elsewhere was also the lot of the straight Hindu, Hemant Karkare. "I don't know why this case [2008 attack in Malegaon] has become so political. The pressure is tremendous and I am wondering how to extricate it from all the politics." [6] Till 7 in the evening of 26/11Karkare was with Salian. He was also in agony over how terrorism was politicized and caused tremendous suffering for which innocent Muslims were accused. In fact he said in an interview on September 17, 2008 that he had not found Muslim involvement in 2006 blasts. He had feared for his life when a couple of days before his assassination he was called by the army regarding his findings in 2008 blast. He feared for his life and had gone to the US embassy for asylum in case the right wing Hindutva made life difficult. He was stung by criticism against him and his family. Even the PM aspirant LK Advani wanted to change the investigators and raised the matter of the torture of Sadhvi Pragyasigh. The last evening of his was of acute suffering and therefore he mournfully asked Salian to read every page of his investigation report. It affected her in the same measure. Julio Ribeiro a former commissioner of police in Mumbai said that Salian was as a “prosecutor who can be equated to Karkare, albeit in a parallel arm of the judicial process. As Karkare was to probity in investigations, Rohini is to probity in prosecution… Shame on those who are attempting to interfere in the course of justice. They do not realise the damage they do to the rule of law, to which, incidentally, they pay lip service.” [7] Much of the apprehension which made Karkare grim faced also came to the PP he selected because both knew from experience and the reality on ground that naming the 2008 blasts as Hindutva terrorism was alarming. It could risk their life both as a public figure and also as a private individual. Just a day before 26/11 Karkare had received a death threat from a caller in Pune. Pune was also the place where Purohit had lived and had his stock of RDX stolen from the army and from where he as Mithun Chakervorty trained in bomb making those behind Nanded blasts, etc. The Hindutva groups are the most awesome in resources and power and would not bear anyone to go against them, Karkare or Salian. Rohini knew it and diagnosed it rightly for the ordinary people when she observed and paid with her job: ““You can’t be selective when it comes to terrorism on the lines of religion and doing so would be like providing the perpetrators with the voices.” [8] But unfortunately the state and the centre under Congress rule were prejudiced against Muslims much like the BJP and hence they tried to suppress the truth of 2006 blasts. Expressing her anguish over it Salian revealed: “I have given my opinion in the 2006 (the earlier Malegaon bombing) case. Hindu khichdi paka rahe hain. I could have done something in the case as a prosecutor. Used the prosecutor’s power. They did not give it to me. Give me in writing, I will save everyone, in the interest of justice…”[9] In his last interview Karkare says investigation in Hindutva terrorism is a double edged sword. Finally it claimed him and at long last Salian who reminisces her last meeting him: “His voice was shaking and he sounded very disturbed. Then I heard that the accused were all Hindus and I was surprised… From morning to evening I read the papers. I was shocked. I started crying and got emotionally upset. In that matter I also got to know about Samjhauta and Modasa. I started to talk to Karkare and was with him till 7 pm on 26/11 after deciding on the next day’s meeting too.” ------ [1] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pakistan-rakes-up-2007-samjhauta-express-blast-as-india-protests-2611-mumbai-terror-attacks-case-delay/article6249444.ece [2] Tehelka November 6, 2007 [3]Asian Age June 27, 2015 [4] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/the-meaning-very-clearly-was-dont-get-us-favourable-orders/#sthash.74MzYcz6.dpuf [5] http://www.caravanmagazine.in/swami-aseemanand-interviews [6] http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/karkare-s-response-to-a-death-threat-a-smiley/391325/0 [7] http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/why-we-must-listen-to-salian/99/ [8] http://www.thecitizen.in/NewsDetail.aspx?Id=4166&Opposition/Attacks/PM/Modi/for/Double/Standards/on/Terrorism [9] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/i-am-out-of-all-nia-cases-its-a-matter-of-faith-principle-special-public-prosecutor-rohini-salian-the-day-after/#sthash.pkxe6tm4.dpuf Chapter 27 Torture in Arthur road Jail in Mumbai Most poignantly felt torture is on the happy festival day of Eid or Divali of the unfortunate victim. If he is innocent and framed in terror charges it is virtual hell on earth. The 15 Muslims arrested for their alleged involvement in May 2008 serial blasts were in prison on the Eid day. They asked for permission to pray the Eid namaz in the morning. The prison guards took them aside and beat them mercilessly. Two of them Ishtiaque and Taufique were accused of helping Sajid Mansuri, an alleged mastermind of the Jaipur blasts. Their defense lawer Mehmood Pracha has successfully argued that they were innocent and yet they were framed in bogus charges of terror. So the agony they felt was unmeasurably abysmal. Taufiqu’s mother Zahida said: "My son showed me several bruises on his legs. He said they had beaten him with sticks." Of the 15 arrested 11 others were allegedly tortured along with the Qureshi father-son duo. Eid was celebrated in Kota and other places on September 25, 2009 and they were in prison for last fifteen months. They were only undertrials and not convicts and bore so much physical and mental torture. What is true of Jaipur jail is true of other jails around the country. Arthur Road Jail was established in 1925. Never before were there inmates in such a large number as 80% Muslim as now. The worst torture meted out was never before as barbaric as now as far as the Muslim community is targeted in false war on terror. But even Hindus have tons of difficulties to pass through mental and physical torture although when they are arrested not on terror charges but land dealings. One of them wrote “If you want to see hell on earth you should visit Arthur Road Jail.”[1] Matching the notoriety of General Dyer of Jaliana wala bag in Amritsar was the jail superintendent Swati Sathe. During her tenure there were three terror cases in which innocent Muslims were accused and incarcerated there, the May 2006 arms haul case of Aurangabad- Malegaon-Ankai, the Mumbai serial attacks on local trains of July 2006 and Malegaon blasts of 2006. These cases were based on the false argument that the innocent accused had committed organized crimes. Lawyer Shahid Azmi had argued against the arrest. He had argued that MCOCA can be applied in cases of organized crimes but not terror. This ultimately became instrumental in SC staying the three cases of 2006. The section 2 (1)(e) of MCOCA focuses on "causing insurgency" could not be justified just on the basis of confession unless corroborated by circumstantial and hard evidence. India had unthinkingly joined the war on terror in the popular feeling generated after 9/11 despite the fact that no Indian had anything to do with the attack on America. Too officious to please the Americas and too reluctant to condemn American attacks in Iraq or Israelis attacking Palestinians during the same period. What the Americans were doing in Guantanamo, Abu Gharib and Bagram prisons was also going on in the Arthur Road prison under the supervision and direct involvement of the jail superintendent Swathi Sathe. The accused were brutally assaulted in the prison with Sathe taking part in it. One had his arm broken and another had his head broken. A son of one of the accused saw his father being taken away in police van with blood still oozing as he waited with a tiffin box he was carrying for his father. The madam wanted them to confess to the crimes the police alleged they had committed. She claimed that they had created insurgency there while they were being transferred to other prisons. Even the transfer of the prisoners was illegal and violated the norms. The judges found it very unbecoming of her and passed stricture against her and she was transferred. Her 'transfer' was without loss of pay or blood while theirs was so sanguinary. So willful was the whole conduct of transfer. Here it is contemporaneously relevant to note that Lt Col Prasad Purohit in his letter of May 30, 2014 to PM Narendra Modi delineated his own torture at the hands of the ATS telescoping blame on Hemant Karkare and Colonel RK Srivastava who arrested him on November 5, 2008. The obvious but shrewd calculation is that Purohit does not mention Karkare but targets Bagade. Karkare being proved a hero but is dead. Bagade arrested him personally. Srivastava did not flinch and take sides or subscribe to the majoritarian prejudice. Despite video proof and phone conversation and corroborated by many items seized from his house in Pune the army found Purohit a patriot and the army court of inquiry reposed faith in his work rather than focus on the crimes he committed under law of the land. He had a reconstructed knee while in service, now he blames it upon the ATS of damaging the reconstructed knee! [2] Aurangabad-Malegaon-Ankai arms haul case of May 2006, July 2006 case of serial bomb blasts in local trains of Mumbai and Malegaon blasts of September 8, 2006 were woven around innocent Muslims. Their confessions were the blank papers on which their signatures were extracted after weeks and months of unremitting torture. The focus of torture was: (a) The police wanted the accused to turn approver. (b) Their relatives were falsely implicated in terror charges when the arrested accused did not sign false statement prepared by the police. Dr Salman Farsi reveals how the accused were pressurized to confess in the 2006 blasts case: “They blindfolded me and left me in a room for three hours and used to beat me on the sole of my foot with sticks and on the insides of my fingers so that there were no evident signs of torture when I was produced in court.” [3] His negihbour was Mohammad Ali and both lived in Govandi. After the arrest the police would visit Mohammad Ali’s house and take out the children and thrashed them in public. Another hallmark of Arthur Road torture is sarcasm and irony as a weapon of mental torture after physical abuse. Noorulhoda another accused in the same case articulates it as it happened: ‘On Eid, ATS officers thrashed me saying that they were celebrating. They beat me mercilessly and ‘celebrated’ all the while saying it was their Eid gift’ “They used to strip us naked and tie our hands and legs together and beat my legs and penis with a stick. Then they used to tie a cloth on the sticks and strike hard on my head. All in a bid to force me to sign a confession statement that they had prepared! They told me that they would frame my family members in criminal cases and threatened to sexually assault my sister. When I could not take the physical and mental agony anymore, I signed that statement and my fate was sealed. I didn’t even know the statement’s contents. “They arrested me during Ramzan and tortured me by refusing to allow me to break my fast every evening. They threatened to force-feed me during the day. On Eid, ATS officers came in and thrashed me saying that they were celebrating Eid. They beat me mercilessly and ‘celebrated’ all the while saying it was an Eid gift. “Initially I was kept in solitary confinement. Then they kept me with really hardened criminals to instil fear in me. Once they targeted me in what is known in jail parlance as an ‘alarm’. They just ring an alarm and start attacking the inmates. Total mayhem ensues. I was among the 40 men who were picked up for the alarm. This happened in June 2008 when Swati Sathe was the jail superintendent.” In the serial blasts in local trains 37 people were arrested and tortured to own up what they had not done. They showed the judge their blood stained clothes and fractured hands of how the police had beaten them in the worst case of animality. The police carried out the order of Swati Sathe and bled them profusely. This was done against a premeditated design. First they were herded into one single room two weeks before their transfer to other prisons in Maharashtra. Their fate was sealed as their transfer to other jails was predetermined. But two weeks of beating became a daily routine. All this for one purpose to coerce them into confessing a crime of terror they had not committed but had been subjected to inhuman cruel treatment so that they would sign the prepared statement. [4] Abdul Azeem underwent the torturous ordeal so that he would confess his involvement in 7/11 and another fellow inmate of Arthur Road jail Adbul Samad had to go through the same so that he would self incriminate in the Aurangabad arms haul case. Some of the accused had come from educated parents who had known of how inhuman is the treatment given to the minority community members. Even before the ban of Students Islamic Movement of India came into effect they were wary of waywardness their children may fall victims of. Abdul Majid a primary school teacher and father of Zahid accused in 2006 blasts and Javed accused in 2006 arms haul case. “I always told him(Javed) not to keep the company of people who always think of exploding bombs as a way of opposing un-Islamic practices. He used to remove posters of un-Islamic films and other obscene elements that have corrupted Muslim youth. He spoke against Islamic outfits that are killing people in the name of God. And it just so happens that my innocent son found himself accused of being branded a terrorist — the same kind of people whose violent ways he was opposed to.” [5] Indeed the real life in Arthur Road jail is beyond decent limit and borders on the filthy and immoral routine life of a backward country of Africa. A builder had a civil case filed against another builder. But the police in Mumbai made it a Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime ACT (MCOCA) case. He was arrested on July 5th 2006 within two days it became clear that it was not a matter of organized crime and nor was it a case of terrorism. But he had to spend minimum one month according to MCOCA, though an innocent person. He spent 7 lakh rupees to avoid physical torture. His experience in the Arthur Road jail made him experience hell on earth as quoted earlier. He had to sleep on bare floor with many hundreds in the so called barrack. The barrack was meant for about 70 but actually more than 300 would sleep every night. The jail was meant for 820 but actually there were 3000 of them there. If anyone spread his arm it would touch the feet of another and if he spread his feet they would touch the head of someone. This would produce loud cursing by the one touched. The police had slapped MCOCA against him for their personal benefits. Even his brother was threatened to be implicated. There were 30 friends and relatives of his who were forced to give false witness against him for they were mentally tortured. If anyone complains against the jailer then there are influential prisoners who beat up the complainant. “A warden is a ruthless criminal serving life term for murder and has to manage 300 prisoners inside the barrack once the door closes from 6pm in the evening to 6am next morning, even the jail police does not enter the barrack at the time given above.” A report titled, "Torture in India 2009", by the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) says that since April 1, 2001 to March 30, 2009 there were 1, 184 deaths in custody of which 191 were from Maharashtra (Khwaja Yunu was one such). Most of them were tortured and died within 48 hours of arrest. [6] [1] http://www.ispsquash.com/MCOCA_Jail.HTM [2] http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1803#.U_K3NqPVyt8 [3] http://www.tehelka.com/how-do-you-keep-the-faith/ [4] http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-711-blasts-accused-alleges-torture-by-police-1176247 [5]ibid. [6] Hindustan Times 12/9/09 Chapter 28 Multi Headed Hydra Monstrosity of the Sangh Parivar We have failed to fully account for the role the so-called cultural organization RSS has played and is still playing in violent acts and putting Muslims in the pillory. Why does this need arise from time to time? It is primarily because the extreme right wing organization has meddled into politics of the country from time to time and by not recognizing Muslims as part of it. Or, as is its assertion from time to time that Muslims have to forgo their allegiance to the foreign faith they have embraced and be sanskritized. This is not only ridiculous but also simply impossible. The RSS indoctrinates its cadres in such a way that they view the Muslims as their enemy and trains them to fight the Muslims. Moreover from much earlier time the organization has indulged in prevarication, secrecy and conspiracy. These are not the stuff on which to build democratic structure. They are outrageously and offensively wrong, hence monstrosity. Multi headed ! Thanks to juggling of words. The police first said it was Hindu Jagran Manch behind the Malegaon September 29, 2008blast and then said it was Rashtriya Jagran Manch. Remember Hindu Jagran Manch is anti minority. It owned up the terrible attacks on Christians and Muslims in Gujarat and other parts of the country. It is also fact that the accused were from Durga Vahini who had links with Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Samir Kulkarni was from Abhinau Bharat, but also from Abhinav Bharat Sansthan as well as ABVP. Mahatma Gandhi's assassins were from RSS and Hindu Mahasabha. In his letter to Syam Prasad Mukherji, Sardar Patel wrote in July 1948 about the assassination of Gandhi: "our reports do confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two bodies, particularly the former, an atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible." Nathuram Godse was baudhik karyavah or intellectual worker of RSS and made five known attempts to assassinate. In fact Gopal Godse asserted: "All the brothers were in the RSS. Nathuram, Dattatreya, myself and Govind. You can say we grew up in the RSS rather than in our home. It was like a family to us". Can such inveterate and committed person change his party before assassinating Gandhi? What had gone into the making of Nathuram is a matter of years of ideological stockbreeding. What was equally serious about the affair was what the IAS officer told Justice Jeevan Lal Kapoor inquiry commission that the right wing organizations had secretly made plans of subverting the established government and taking over the reins of the government. Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur's involvement in the bomb blast is no less serious than what was the case at the time of the assassination of Gandhi. She and Major Ramesh Upadhya and Major Y D Sahasrabuddhe and even a serving armyman, posted at Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh had established a network of terror across states involving groups as strategic as ex-service personnel, Bhonsle Military Schools and men in ordnance factory or defence services who could pass on RDX as scrap. Does it require any more proof to show that this is sedition? Even the letter of Santosh Kumar Rai National Organising Secreatry AKHIL BHARAT HINDU MAHASABHA appeals "to all Hindu community please come in support of SADHWI and UNITE to make BHARAT as HINDU NATION." The kind of atmosphere built up over the last six months was such that it could have led to upheaval in the society on unprecedented scale. Amar Singh of Samajwadi Party feared that Muslims might rebel against their repression and oppression on account of the innumerable arrests of many innocent members of the community. It is for such an eventuality that the RSS is training its cadres in arms and ammunition. They would take over the reins. Tarun Tejpal asked the people to pause and think coolly in the wee time of the lull before the storm. It is most opportune that the Maharashtra police did what would become another historic milestone in the administrative service of the country. Their investigation may not fulfill all the expectations of the people of different groups but the nation can legitimately heave a sigh of relief. Bombs will not stop exploding but investigation would be not one sided. Those who admire Hitler could also use the techniques of Hitler of burning the parliament in order to arouse strong nationalist feelings and hatred against the Jews and minorities. Today's Jews in India are the Muslims hunted and haunted as their Semite brethren of yore. People will be wary now. There are enough reasons why one should be wary and of what. First what the right wing leaders including the prime ministerial candidate in 2009 say. It is interesting to note that LK Advani was saying then that the sadhvi had left the sangh parivar's Durga Vahini. She was a member of several such outfits. This is what Advani has been saying about Nathuram, too. The national convener of Bajrang Dal also told the same about Rajive Misra and Bhupender Singh who blew themselves up while making or assembling bomb in Kanpur on August 24. In the case of the Nanded blast of February 2007 the police tried to hide the identity of the man killed, later it was found out that he was Shiv Sena lealder of Nanded. People should also be wary of fire crackers bursting or biscuit cartons exploding not only in Nanded but also in Rajasthan and elsewhere. Thus some policemen and the right wing organizations try to hide the fact that Hindu extremists are involved in blasts. Even officers with science background do not behave with honesty and integrity because of the mindset created by RSS ideology. For example look at how a lady doctor treats a Muslim suspect Noorulhoda of Malegaon September 8, 2006 blasts case: "During the test I was given electric shocks. I was beaten so much on my ears and forehead that I still feel the pain in my brain nerves and bones of the chest. Bangalore's lady doctor Malini told me "speak up what police is asking you to say otherwise they will implicate you in two or three more such cases." She too was threatening in the same way and on my repeated refusal she used to give me electric shocks on my ear." There is also a schismatic deflective device of the Hindu extremists when members of one organization are caught, first they are either disowned or are made out to have left the organization. But it is not long when other organizations jumped in to defend the accused or arrested. The extremists among the Hindutva group in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat as well as Shiv Sena leaders want to defend the sadhvi. Manohar Joshi, former chief minister of Maharashtra and Speaker of Lok Sabha believed that the Islamic terrorism is responsible for forcing the sadhvi to take to terrorism. Hindus were so much enraged by jihad terrorism that they were forced to react the same way. Some say that this should be treated an aberration rather than the norm of the Hindu community. They labour under the illusion that terrorism is a matter of faith and not of the character of the people. In fact the editorial in Samna of that time went on to say that given Jihad terrorism it would be no surprise if all Hindus take to terrorism. This is sure recipe for subversion. Another device is subterfuge or trick to escape trouble. The sangh parivar is master in subterfuges. The VHP leader Ramvilas Vedanti had got his disciples email letters to him on August 30 2008 threatening his life. The emails were sent in the name of SIMI and Indian Mujahideen. The police in UP found out the truth that the fake letters were used to get z security cover to Vedanti but the police did not take action against the disciples or Vedanti. The Malegaon blast of 2008 provides another instance of subterfuge and deflective device. The Ahemdabad police had arrested general secretary of VHP of Ahmedabad, Ashwin Patel. The police had this to say in the FIR: "Since the last two to two and a half months, derogatory and defamatory SMSes were doing the rounds about Narendra Modi and his government. Besides there were SMSes to mislead about the Malegaon, Modasa and Ahmedabad blasts and the language used could provoke communal passions". It would take some more time to unearth the whole meaning but it is beyond doubt that the three incidents of bombing had one common purpose: inciting communal passion that could produce backlash. The obvious beneficiary would be, of course, BJP. But the question is not of that party, what about the country? Theft of RDX in the name of sale of scrap ends up in the hands of the extremists of well-spread and well-organized organizations who in the name of defending the country are in fact engaged in terrorism. Chapter 29 Terrorism and the New Line of Investigation The investigating agencies are notorious for changing horses in the mid stream while probing terror incidents in the country. Somewhere someone in the hierarchical structure does not feel comfortable if the line of investigation is in the right direction. For example, RDX found in Samjhauta express attack could have come only from military stock. This makes sense when Lt Col Prasad Purohit admitted that he had pilfered 60 kg of RDX from Jammu and Kashmir army godown. A part of it he had given to one Bhagwan for use in Samjhauta incident. This disclosure so much shocked the national security advisor MK Narayanan that he warned the government of the consequences of this on the bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan and the much vaunted weltanschauung that India was victim of terrorism from across the borders. That of course derailed the investigation. Muslim youths who had nothing to do with the attack were arrested from Rajasthan and other places and are still languishing in prison. The suit cases, bottles and batteries were of course bought in Indore. Then happened Malegaon, thanks to Hemant Karkare. Karkare admitted on August 18, 2008 that he had found no trace of SIMI in the bomb attack on September 8, 2006. Next month Malegaon suffered another attack on September 29 2008. He caught the real culprits and then someone again stymied. ATS found the mobile phone number of Dr Bipin Parekh with sadhvi Pragyasingh and Ramchandra Kalsangra. The line of investigation did not go any further. But the approver Abrar Ahmed mentioned in his April 2009 affidavit that Parekh along with Dr Rajender Amin and others had caused the blast in 2006. However, strangely the phone records of Malegaon accused Ramchandra Kalsangra lifted veil from the secrecy of those who had actually bought suitcases, bottles and batteries from Indore that were in fact used on Samjhhauta express on February 18 2007. Pranav Mandal not only had close association with Kalsangra alias Ramji of sadhvi Pragyasingh but was a member of another of the uncountable and ever expanding Hindu right outfits, Shivaji vikas mandal. Indeed so many of these are there that a thesaurus of terror would be half filled with them. Accidental bomb explosions in Goa, Kanpur, Nanded (twice) have played havoc with the numbers. Thus the new line of investigation by the CBI is pertinent but we have to wait and see if it is also persistent. Goa blast was also accidental. However, what were more persistent and pertinent were the ominous repots over the years how Goa was used to train the terrorists of the Hindu right. No significant action was taken in this regard. Could all this add up to what SM Mushrif argues in his book "Who Killed Karkare: the real face of terrorism in India", that the driving force of Hindu right terrorism is to put innocent Muslims in the dock and bring a bad name to Muslims of the country Chapter 30 Archvillain of Hindutva terror drama: Lt Col Prasad Purohit Checkered education: matriculation from Abhinav Vidyalay, Pune, BCom from Barhan Maharashtra College, Pune, post graduation in catering, Pune and then finally Combined Defense Services course, Pune. As much a product of Pune as was Nathuram Godse. Most significant posting in army is Jammu and Kashmir 2000 to 2005 and February to September 2005 Deolali camp. The first gave him the provenance of RDX and the other recruiting grounds for his Abhinav Bharat. Simultaneously he was training youths of Abhinav Bharat in arms and explosives at Sinhgarh near Pune during such training he would stay at his residence at Shantisheela housing society near Law college road, Pune. A day after his arrest the defence minister of India Mr Antony remarked that the army would go to the root of the September 29, 2008 bomb blast in Malegaon. However, there is no sign of this having been achieved except after one and half years of inquiry the army says its stock of RDX is intact! What the 60 kilos of RDX Purohit stole from the army is the holygrail which the sleuths and journalists are after. Either Praveen Togadia or Dyanand Pandey used their high profile to make Purohit the repository of the stolen RDX. Ominous to note is also the fact that a senior-ranked military officer knew before hand what Purohit was doing it and as in the case of the RDX the army has failed to identify him! More ominous to note is that how much had Purohit taken from the military’s Secret Service Fund. He is known to have 14 lakh rupees according to the earliest report of cash changing hands in the 2008 Malegaon blasts. (Arrested Lieutenant Colonel revealed name of high-profile leader, TOI November 12, 2008). The search for the holy grail ends at the precinct of the forbidden territory of the army. On these three accounts the people of this wonderful democracy will have to wait as even the writ of RTI does not run there. In the larger context of terrorism in India it is relevant to note that Purohit was in touch with Dyanand Pandey as the latter was in contact with Bhupender Singh and Rajive Sharma. Both were members of Bajrang Dal who had blown themselves up on August 24, 2008. Such was the terrific explosion that the senior most officers in the police there remarked that there was so much of RDX that it would have blown half of Kanpur to smithereens! Quite true in view of the fact that in addition to 60 kilos of RDX from the army Purohit must have also sourced the explosives with Shanker Shelke in a village not far from Pune and much closer to the artillery cantonment of Ahmedager who had 195 kilos of it when he committed suicide soon after 2006 Malegaon blasts. The police commissioner of Thane who knew Ahmednager had said that the Malegaon blasts were connected to the arms of haul from Shelke’s scrap-yard. First Shelke disappeared after the blasts and two days later hanged himself. A pertinent question to ask all the while is that Puohit also helped others to get arms with bogus documents. Those who die while handling explosives like the ones from Nanded and Kanpure die accidentally and those who pose threat meet other ends. Another person who reportedly killed himself is Pervez Azhar of Malegaon who reportedly had seen the bomb planter! Were these killed and passed off as suicides? Again the trail of Holy Grail ends there. So it also does with two pathologies. One is on Mamledargalli attached to the clinic of Dr Bipin Parekh, a child specialist, whose phone number was found in the cell phone of Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur. Abrar Ahmed has also named Parekh in his affidavit submitted to the MOCOCA judge YD Shinde as one of the conspirators behind the blasts of 2006. The police took no action against Parekh. In fact gave him clean chit. Grapevine has it that the Sadhvi had stayed at his clinic and visited the adjoining Bhiku chowk as a part of reconnaissance. This allegation needs thorough probe and the courts will have to vet the evidence. The other pathology laboratory has a basement located at camp road from where live RDX bombs, used and unused along with guns were seized in April 2008. What happened to that? Was the gun the one which Rakesh Dhawde and Purohit had procured? For what purpose were they obtained when the bombs themselves were so disastrous in effect? This is also a perennial mystery. The recce made by accused Muslims are made banner headlines! When the police fail to substantiate the innocents are set free, look at Ansari Faheem. How many of us hear that in the case of 2006 Malegaon blasts a whole group had come to do recce on the pretext of searching a girl for marriage around the neighbourhood of the sites of bomb blasts. In 2008 there was much better planning, the Sadhvi could not have just come to only attend a sermon of a Hindu priest as the police would pretend to believe! The meticulous planning at Bhonsla military school, Nasik, Bhopal, Indore and Faridabad must have been quite meticulous. Despite Dyanand Pandey being a very high profile person it is strange that the national convener of Bajrang Dal denies so categorically: “I am not even aware of this person. I don't know who he is. He is not a member of Bajrang Dal," said Prakash Sharma. (Malegaon blasts: the ATS arrests UP religious leader, Toi, November 12, 2008) Pandey and Purohit had spilled the beans even before first degree of torture, Sharma has not been even touched with a finger. Neither then nor till now has he been interrogated although he is the national convener of the most terrifying extremist Hindu organization. To what do we Indian masses owe such benevolence at gatis? Purohit has also been engaged in camouflaging the reign of terror he and his associates had unleashed on Muslims. He got the name of Venkatesh Takalki’s name changed to Praveen Mutalik to avoid detection. He had asked Tkalki to serf the net on bomb making. Purohit used different groups of RSS such as the Tigers in Karnataka. (CBI to quiz Aseemanand for Malegaon. Toi. 15-3-11). It would have been much easier to discover Purohit much earlier but because he was a military officer he escaped notice. Abrar Ahmad, an accused in Malegaon 2006 blasts, had known him in September-October 2006. Sudhakar Dwevidi alias Dyanand Panday also had known him. If Panday was a plant as Hemant Karkare suspected him to be what Panday had recoded was known to others. Yet the ATS of Maharashtra invited him for training in anti terrorism just before the first blasts in 2006 in Malegaon. The army knew him for he had conducted classes in Bhonsla Military School at Nasik and Nagpur. He was no other than the Pune based “Mithun Chakervorthy.” ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi and DGP PS Pasricha had also known him. But the impression created was that he was doing some great service to the nation in fighting against terror. This smoke screen pulled wool over the eyes of the people and government agencies by and large. What was given out by the government was accepted without scrutiny even by such discerning people as Rohini Salian: “I had a mindset like any other. Till that night [26/11], for me, all blasts are committed by Muslims. I felt I had been behaving like a goat – just eating what I was fed. I never once stopped to question.” [1 ] This self confession shows the rank prejudice against Muslims. If an enlightened Hindu woman officer, nay, a public prosecutor could be like that what of the common Hindu on the street! The Muslim community is so self absorbed in its emgrolio of exsistence that little did it do any organized mass movement to awaken the rest of the people of the country to the real danger. Even well informed people like Kuldip Nayyar were taken in by the Islamic terrorism which Narendra Modi upfronted in the aftermath of 9/11 and which G Parthasarthy glibly accepted as the crescent of terrorism from Africa-West Asia to the Pacific. Given this kindof ignorance the delusion of Students Islamic Movement of India or SIMI came handy to maling the Muslims. The CBI and ATS had prepared the chargesheet against the nine accused in Malegaon 2006 blasts and the government through its police wanted to view 2008 as the work of the same. Karkare found that in 2008 it was the Hindutva group of Abhinav Bhart behind the blast and the army was involved Salian noted the discrepancy after Karkar in the night she read through Karkare’s transcripts of Dyanand Panday’s tapes. “I went through the entire chargesheet. I advised them that it was a mistake on the part of one agency, so you have to do justice. You cannot combine both (ATS and NIA chargesheets, both with different sets of accused) and try together, because the stories are totally different. It will be difficult for the judge to discharge them… But the prosecutor has the power to do it by convincing the court. It is that power they were worried about. It is that seat they asked to go soft,” Salian had to conduct prosecution according to the report and charge sheet the invesigtion agencies and the police had prepared. But when she argued against the bail application of Pragyasingh Thakur and Purohit the state intervened for the first time. This change of mindset is heart of the matter. It reflects the Hindutva hate ideology was behind it. The extremist Hindus do not want that Hindus should be blamed in terrorism and want only Muslims to be tarnished with the brush of terrorism everytime there is bomb blast. It is this that revolted Salian and she spoke of it in her interview: “If you see my record, all favourable orders for the state. Hardly any gone against, except for these few bail applications… So the meaning very clearly was, don’t get us favourable orders. Unfavourable orders invited — that goes against society. I have a reputation; it’s not my baap ka raj. It’s an onerous duty.” So what is there in Purohit that has gravitate the higher-ups in Delhi and their surrogate in Mumbai? There is an eerie proximity of events which define the quality and frequency of terror in India. In the week of 9/11 in a television debate as a secretary of RSS Narendra Modi spoke of Islamic terrorism as a driving force of terrorism in 21st century. Next month he became chief minister. On January 12, 2003 Sadiq Jamal Mehtar was killed in fake encounter. In 2002 and 2003 there were several incidents of terrorism in Mumbai and elsewhere. The Ghatkoper blast in bus in 2002. Three incidents, Mulund local train blasts March 2003, Vile Parle and Bombay Central blasts. In the fake encounter State Bureau of Intelligence of Mumbai generated intelligence report against Sadiq. Ambady Gopinathan deputy director of SBI as a witness in the case gave his statement that the police had kept watch on Sadiq for some days after the report against him was prepared. Then just before he was murdered fresh input was generated by SBI that he was on mission to kill CM Modi. As Sadiq was unaware of his fate so was Muzammil Akhtar accused in Mulund blasts. He was arrested on May 9, 2003 without having any idea what for. Then through RTI he discovered that he was run in for the Mulund blast. He is still in prison. Lt Col Purohit is in jail because of the 2008 blast in Malegaon. His bail application was turned down on the advice of public prosecutor Rohini Salian. However in April 2015 the SC found no sufficient evidence against him and Sadhvi Pragyasingh to be tried in MCOCA court. So they are free to get bail. This has been facilitated since Modi came in power. In Sadiq’s case the deputy superintendent Tarun Baron who took Sadiq in Gujarat police custody and transferred him to Ahmadabad and killed also got bail on Saturday 27, 2015. [2]All the accused in the four encounters of Sohrabuddin, Ishrat Jahan, Sadiq and Tulsiram Prajapati are out of jail. But not Muzammil. So the question is that in all probability Purohit and Pragyasingh will also get bail soon. Removing Salian was a step in that direction. However, there is more than meets the eye. There is larger pattern of involve ment. Is Purohit’s Abhinav Bharat a break away faction of RSS? Incidents pile up to show that AB was dead against RSS. It wanted to kill the doughty no 2 in RSS. Dyanand Pandey had introducted Purohit to Dr RP Singh a Delhi based endocrinologist. Singh asked Purohit to buy a gun with which he wanted to shoot andkill Purohit. The AB was outraged by secret dossier Purohit had found in which Kumar and Mohan Bhagwat were ISI agents and had received a huge fortune from it and were also involved in fake currency. The educated cadres of RSS cannot stomach that Purohit would over throw the elected government for a Hindu nation because since the days of Sardar V Patel India has moved far ahead. If Patel could not dare to openly support RSS, Modi is the chote sardar that way. In fact Purohit had found a white power to kill Bhagwat which would not leave any trace of death. Purohit gave Rs 50, 000 to Rakesh Dhawade for the gun. Dhawade delivered the gun to Alok in Bhopal and Sudhakar Chaturvdi delivered magazine to Alok in Dyanand Pandey’s ashram in Faridabadin May 2008. Sawi Asimanand has told in his confession that it was Kumar who got Sunil Joshi. That these cases are interrelated can be seen from Kumar’s involvement in Ajmer blast. [3] In a transcript of the video of Dyanand Pandey there is a passage where Purohit says that he thought of sending a bus or a train with army marking into Muslim dominated areas like Meerut and then slaughtering Muslims. Dr RP Singh speaks of his experience of using Valmiki to kill Muslims and they do a wholesome job. In the 2008 blast in Malegaon Pragyasingh Thakur expresses consternation that ony 7 had been killed. She expected huge casualties. Purohit was very much involved in the attack as he was in the Samjhauta express attack. Despite thisuntold suffering inflicted on Muslims in his letter of May 30 2015 he has cleverly concealed this aspect: In his letter to PM Modi dated May31 2014 from Taloja jail Purohit say the entire case against is fabricated. The ATS has created ‘terrorists’ out of the patriotic lot of sons of the soil. He was doing a course in Arabic being an officer in intelligence gathering unit of the army. On October 24, 2008 Col RK Srivastva came to Panhmarhi to facilitate interaction between the army and the ATS but he treated Purohit as a terrorist. On 29 October he was handed over to the Movement Officer to move him to director MI 20 at Army Headquarters in New Delhi. His phone was seized. Instead of taking him to Delhi from Bhopal he was told to board the plane to Mumbai. His mother and wife would not know it. It was an act of abducting, kidnapping and illegal detaining. The court of inquiry of the army also agreed. He was kept in a bungalow in Khandala from October 29 to Nov 4; he was tortured and mentally and physically broken. He was threatened that his mother, wife and sister too would be made naked if he did not confess. He was brutally threatened during ATS detention from Nov 5-19 by Karkare, additional DGP Parambir Singh Arun Khanvilkar, assistant police commissioner Mohan Kulkarni. During detention he is not on record of the army. He [accused no9] was posted at Nasik 2 years and Sudhakar Chaturvedi [accused no 11]was his assistant in intelligence gathering. He was shown arrested on Nov 20, his house was searched, panchnama done on Nov 25. In later part of his letter to PM Modi, Purohit reminds him what he said earlier that ATS has created ‘terrorists’ out of the patiriotic, dedicated sons of the soil. ATS is most unscrupulous, cunning and unethical in its functioning. It planted RDX in Sudhakar Chaturvedi’s house on November 3 so as to invole Chaturvedi in it and then arrest him (Purohit) on November 5, 2008. He laces this with the saying that ATS was “running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.”[sic] So according to Purohit , Chaturvedi and he are hare and the ATS is the hound? How unconvincing Purohit is in his letter can be seen here. Then he drops a bomb when he says that the etire team network of intelligence gather he has developed is used by ATS against him. Three operators of his registers of intelligence are his coaccued and four are witnesses in the case against him. He bemoans the loss of three years of intelligence gathering established through his counter intelligence and counter terrorism efforcts. He cites hos the Maharashtra police and ATS had employed him to train their staff in this counter terrorism. They even issued letters of credit to him which he is attaching in the annexture to his letter. Then he mentions the previous Prime Minister, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Defense Minister AK Antony to whom he submitted his appeal “full of facts, substance and truth” which they chose to ignored. Then he says that the president of Nation political party has politicized the issue. The word ‘political’ is superscribed above theword ‘Congress’ which Purohit hs crossed out. The he refers to the president of the party as ‘he’ and speaks of ‘his’ ventriloquism. What hs ventriloquism to do here is up to Purohit to explain. He says his apprehension requires rumination. There are many facts of his which depend on national requirement to be discussed. He dubs ATS investigation from 2008 to April 2011 as pretentious. Then it was taken over by NIA. He then turns personal and says out of active 14 years of military service he was away from family for 9 years. His mother, wife and two minor children need to look after. He doubts if the case would ever come up for trial because of the ‘blatant fabrication’ of it. He is confident of his innocence but alsy says that he feels guilty of “my proven professional integrity, my undoubted patriotism and my insight and understanding of issues in the interest of our beloved motherland.” He also says that “patriotism is held hostage by personal whims and fancies.” He also hopes that “his shriek for justice would not go barren”. He compares himself with a war horse which gets into one step gallop at the first familir sound of the bugle regardless of its physical condition. He would serve the coutry in any place at any time when called. To sum up the toe and tenor of the letter better to quote Albert Camus who remarked telling more than truth is lie. Dr Samuel Johnson said that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. ------ [1] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/sunday-story-the-importance-of-being-rohini-salian/99/] [2] http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/sadiq-jamal-encounter-last-encounter-cop-in-jail-walks-free-after-cbi-court-grants-bail/2/#sthash.SmgDPnwx.dpuf [3] http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-01-10/india/28363185_1_ajmer-blast-rakesh-dhawade-dargah-blast Chapter 31 Shahid Azmi, a Career Produced And Consumed By Judicial System The murder of defense counsel of Fahim Ansari and those accused in Malegaon blast of 2006 is really very disturbing. It brings to mind how some of those alleged to be involved in 1993 serial blasts were bumped off by targeted assassination. The death of Shahid Azmi in the evening of February 11, 2010 was in a series of lawyers thrashed, shot at, injured or killed across the country in the aftermath of bomb blasts. Azmi was the third lawyer killed in Mumbai. In such cases the alleged terrorists were invariably suspected to be Muslims and if any Muslim lawyer showed any desire to defend the accused he was subjected to two heart wrenching problems. One, he would be targeted for engaging himself in antinational activity. Two, he would run mortal risk while discharging a duty that the constitution of the land allows him. Lawyers daring to defend Muslims allegedly involved in terrorism have had a very awfully difficult and dangerous time. They were attacked and killed, injured and made to go through great hardship. This does not reflect well on the country, a democracy avowed to live by secularism. Many of them were set upon by hooligans and beaten up. This often happened when the police personnel were standing idly and did not do anything to protect the lawyers. Even within the precincts of the courts. The kind of threats held out to the investigation authorities (like ATS chief Hemant Karkare) or lawyers intending to defend the accused (Shahid Azmi) does not die. It is kept alive with every sporadic bomb blast. No other than MNS chief Raj Thackeray had made such threats. He had issued threats to lawyers who wanted to defend the accused in the 7/11 2006 local train blasts in Mumbai. The advocate general of Maharashtra Mr Ravi Kadam had even given his consent to try Raj Thackeray on criminal charges. Raj had threatened violence while he was paying tribute to more than 180 people killed in the blasts. Such emotive reaction is a rabble rousing technique and instigative of taking law in one's hand and thereby lowering the position of the court and the law. Delhi lawyer Shakeel Ahmed had dared to defend Kamal Ansari, Khalid Shaikh and Mumtaz Chaudhary arrested from Bihar for their alleged involvement in 7/11. Shahid had been the product of the judicial system of Mumbai. It nurtured him like a mother. But in the end the byproduct of it claimed him. That byproduct is the reactionary dark forces unleashed by those who do not want to accept its verdict or countenance it with equanimity. ‘‘It is a very unfortunate incident. He was an upcoming lawyer and very polite in court,’’ said Ujwala Nikam, special prosecutor. In 1995 Shahid was arrested by Delhi police for being a member of SIM. While serving jail term he graduated and after release completed his law course and started practice. Mostly he took cases of innocent Muslims who were harassed and then arrested and tortured by the police. In the case of the fake encounter and murder of Ishrat Jehan he played a pivotal role to get justice to the bereaved family. Apparently free from narrow sectarianism his work and cause irked the Hindutva groups. Diametrically opposed to their clamour for more and more draconian laws to deal with terror, he pleaded in court against the application of MOCOCA as well as POTA for his clients. His successful pleading in the Ghatkopar blasts case of 2002 led to the abrogation of POTA. Of the eighteen charged he got nine discharged. Police inspector Sachin Vaze killed Khwaja Yunus and disposed off the body. The remaining eight were acquitted by the POTA special court. Similarly his argument that MOCOCA can be applied in cases of organized crimes but not terror ultimately became instrumental in SC staying the three cases of 2006: 11/7 Mumbai serial blasts in locals, Malegaon bomb blasts, and the Aurangabad arms haul. The section 2 (1)(e) of MOCOCA focuses on "causing insurgency" could not be justified just on the basis of confession unless corroborated by circumstantial and hard evidence. It was a moment for reforming the harsh laws. This naturally brought praise from Ujwala Nikam. Shahid's was successful in preventing the screening of the film Black Friday in order not to prejudice the mind of the public in the 1993 trial. This was also a welcome move in the judiciary system. What the Americans were doing in Guantanamo, Abu Gharib and Bagram prisons was also going on in the Arthur Road prison under the supervision and direct involvement of the jail superintendent Swathi Sathe. Shahid graphically delineated the torture. The accused were brutally assaulted in the prison with Sathe taking part in it. One had his arm broken and another had his head broken. A son of one of the accused saw his father being taken away in police van with blood still oozing as he waited with a tiffin box he was carrying for his father. The madam wanted them to confess to the crimes the police alleged they had committed. She claimed that they had created insurgency there while they were being transferred to other prisons. Even the transfer of the prisoners was illegal and violated the norms. The judges found it very unbecoming of her and passed stricture against her and she was transferred. Her 'transfer' was without loss of pay or blood while theirs was so sanguinary Shahid's brief life of 32 years was potent in works as far as fight for the prisoner is concerned. He was a 'prisoner of conscience' himself, a TADA prisoner who never felt shy about it. He reminds one of the famous English lawyer who founded Amnesty International to free the innocents imprisoned on cooked up charges. Chapter 32 Mehmood Pracha: Will the government wake up after my murder? [1] That is the agonized cry of endangered advocate Mehmood Pracha. He has been fighting cases of innocent Muslims trapped in terror charges. His discharging his duty is qua professionalism. He says in an interview that when he finds some clues as to who is really a terrorist he “as a citizen, I have a duty to inform for a cognizable offence to the relevant authority and the court.” His obligation to do so has no basis in any kind of bias and he shows partiality to none. He had received death threat from the police of Rajasthan and has complained to the government and requested for security. All this has fallen on deaf ears of the two BJP governments in Rajasthan and at the centre. So the beleaguered lawyer has been assured help from Muslim organizations and others of secular credentials. But such is his professional mindset that he wants to test how far the constitutional obligation and fair treatment will be tendered to him by the courts and the rulers of the day. The gravamen of his anguish is that the courts are witness to lawyers getting death calls when they plead for justice to the innocent accused. This is every day scene in courts across the country. That is a painful matter to every rightful thinking person. Thus Mehmood Pracha’s fight is not to save any individual but to show the malaise that has spread through the system of investigation where the police and sleuths in order to protect the real culprits actually hunt for Muslims. Though he does not admit it but it is clear the system includes inducement that easily entices the cops to get promotion and earn rewards irrespective of the innocent Muslims’ fate in their hands. Mehmood says: “After this case [Muhammad Ahmad Kazmi case of attack on Israeli embassy], there is this tacit understanding between me and all my clients in such cases (that I will not fight to defend an individual but to bring out the truth).[2] “… other cases which I took up is horrifying, not only that these people are innocent, but they have been falsely implicated. These are evidences which have come on record by way of the evidence collected by the police or various investigating agencies themselves. They themselves betray not only the innocence of the accused but also betray the fact that real culprits, real terrorists have been shielded, saved by the investigating agencies, which is horrifying and very sad.” He has proof of wrong doings of numerous officers including the police commissioner of Mumbai Rakesh Maria. But he does not want to file complaint against anyone. However, he would prefer the courts to take the initiative like suo motto notice of it. He has thrown the ball into the government court. If it does not take action or the court ignores to take cognizance it would mean a change in the mindset for the worse for judiciary. He was threatened with physical assault in the Jaipur court and was dubbed traitor to the country. It is strange that Dinesh Sharma ATS IO called him so for Pracha thinks otherwise: “But my basic condition is that he [the accused] should be innocent and he has love for our country. If these two conditions are satisfied then I take up these cases without charging any fees. So anybody can approach me. This is the service I am doing not only for the Muslims or weaker section of the society like tribals, but this is the service I am doing for my country.” Many young lawyers had come to hear his argument along many others who were interested in his argument. But no action was taken against those who had abused him although the judge asked him to file a complaint. Well inside the court Sharma interrupted the proceeding as Pracha came to the crux of his argument on June 11, 2015 in Jaipur blast case: “There are only two possibilities for this evidence less case. Either the ATS falsely implicated accused because they are not spirited enough to arrest real culprits or they wish to shield real culprits.” Sharma began to argue as if he was the public prosecutor but the judge ordered him to his seat. When the hearing ended and Pracha was coming out Sharma and 40 supporters attacked him. He even used filthy language. He told him that he would shoot him dead next time he dared to visit the Jaipur court. Another case where the innocence of the accused is clear is that of Mirza Himayat Baig. He was in Aurangabad when the German Bakery was bombed and yet Rakesh Maria the new chief of ATS accused him of planting the bomb. The NIA had found that Baig was not involved and so had the Delhi police’s Special Cell and Central Crime Branch of Bangalore Baig’s case was also investigated by the NIA, and they have given a finding that he was not involved. Besides two other agencies, Delhi Police’ Special Cell and CCB (Central Crime Branch) Bangalore too have said that Himayat Baig was not involved. It points to the murky dealings of Maria. There are numerous examples of his suspicious role. He it was who had clearly interrupted Commissioner of Police Hasan Gafoor’s order to Heman Karkare to report him. Instead Maria had sent him to his death in the lane to Cama hospital, near the Crime Branch. That is the mother of all terror attacks, 26/11. In the case of the poor Baig the case is simply pathetic as Baig had told the court that he would be 18th person to die in the German Bakery case. He was innocent and brave to utter this in the court and burst out weeping. Did this not reach the heart of Maria? Or is he bereft of human emotion. But Pracha has his own way: “The fact remains that three investigating agencies, my own understanding of the case, the charge sheet and the subsequent events, all point to one fact that the Maharashtra ATS led by Mr Rakesh Maria was responsible in not only falsely implicating Himayat Baig, but also in the process actively saving the real terrorists and for that I say that the police officers involved, including Mr Rakesh Maria should be arrested for conducting activities which are terror related. He has committed offense prima facie which are terror cases and he should be arrested as a terrorist.” This raises the spectre that the German Bakery could have been bombed by another set or by the two Hindutva extremists,Ashok Bhaleraon and Sharad Mohol , who were also accused by Qateel Siddiquy to be responsible for the Dagduseth Halwai temple blast. The duo had killed Qateel a day before he was to be handed over to the Delhi police. Did Maria arrange this in real time? In the Jungli Maharaj road blast of 2012 the public prosecutor and the police were “adversarial and vindictive.” Even the state of Maharashtra was vindictive when it said in the Zameeruddin case that Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act and MCOCA work in different domains. In a rare epiphany Pracha says where Shahid Azmi could not succeed: “I am in the process of showing them the majesty of law is far above all these criminal police officers, be them in higher places, or highest places. I will catch hold of every single terrorist involved in such activities, through law, be it the police officers or their political bosses, or their bureaucratic bosses.” “It is what I mean, when I say, that these police officers are acting like terrorists because they are aiding and abetting the real terrorists and catching hold of the innocent people to save the real terrorists. Under section 15 to 20 of the UAPA, these are terrorist activities, be it whether they are committed by the police officers or common citizens because law is equal for all.” Jaipur case is primarily aimed at dividing the people on religious lines. This also happened in Ajmer and elsewhere the chief minister Vasundhra Raje rightly assessed the situation when she said "I condemn this blast. They have tried to ruin the communal harmony of the state but they will not succeed. Never in the history of Rajasthan such a heinous incident has happened and this is not an attack on the state but on the nation". [3]But what she must have known that her own party and RSS do not eye communal harmony as desirable thanks to their poll calculations. By arresting 15 Muslims on flimsy grounds and then charging them with terrorism is against unity and real truth. There have been similar cases of lawyers thrashed and beaten when they argued in defense of the innocent Muslims accused in terror chanrges. Paikar Farooq was also attacked in the same case. The society is turned so cussed because of wrong publicity by the media that people become emotional and lose their reasoning faculty. The biased prosecutors and media create hostile atmosphere against the minority following in the footsteps of the investigators who want to frame the Muslims. Pracha broke fresh ground by refusing to toe the line of the police or the media. It is in this endeavour that he utters the essence of populism at its worse, the collective conscience. “The necessary corollary of taking up these cases is the fact that if you involve innocent people in these matters and satisfy the ‘collective conscience’ of the society then you are letting go off the real terrorist who will now be bolder, knowing that they are not being caught and renewed vigour.” Mansoor Peerbhoy is still in prison though the CFSL report shows that he was not the person who had sent the email nor was his brother who took him to Mumbai. There is no record of the brother’s car moving to Mumbai from Pune. Kenneth Haywood who had sent the message was allowed to leave the country, nay, he was also permitted to come back and collect his things and depart. This is shielding of the real culprits and it is done by corrupt police officials. ------- [1] inquilab June 14, 2015 [2]http://twocircles.net/2014mar19/substantive_evidence_against_police_aiding_and_abetting_real_terrorists_advocate_pracha#.VZNosFJHLCN [3] "Raje talks tough, says revive POTA", IBN Live, May 14, 2008. Chapter 33 Will Sadhvi Prachi oblige PM Modi to attack Jeddah? The lunatic fringe of Hindutva knows no bounds. They even want to target Jeddah or any other place of worship for the Muslims of the world and not just of Indian Muslims. Boko Haram rather than SIMI would be agitated over it. Talibans rather than the Kashmiri separatists would be offended. Muslims within India have never looked at pan Islamism as a refuge. They have been discreet to know that Kashmir problem is of freedom from India. They are resigned to their fate in India. They have paid with their life and limb, with decades of incarceration in prison and ignominy of bearing the untrue sobriquet of terrorists what for? For being Muslims! Why should the Muslims born and brought up in India have to go through intense agony for what they have not done. Why should the simple minded uncouth youth Himayat Baig be sentenced to undergo 5 death sentences and 6 life imprisonments for having not committed any crime like bombing German Bakery of Pune. He might have not even seen it in his life let alone having that much money to offer a cup of tea for him there. Even so the right wing Hindu groups and governments have conveniently shifted areas of pogroms to those areas where Muslims of India suffer more than their due. In every Amarnath yatra fracas be it for land or duration it is the Muslims within India who face the ire of the majority community. Madhya Pardesh, UP and Jammu, have records of violence against them as a fall out of the yatra in the far pavilions of pilgrims in the frozen border. 2015 pilgrimage is no exception. The hidden and intended target is obvious despite Sadhvi Prachi’s denying she does not want to take revenge on Indian Muslims she aims at larger Muslim world. “I meant those in Jeddah. Time will tell what kind of consequences they are going to face. We will give a befitting reply.” [1 It is manifested who will face the consequences, the people of India and not the people in Jeddah who do not pay a tuppence about what happens in India. It promptly made Omar Abdullah tweet: “Wow! A new low here. How do these people’s minds work this way? #shocked”. More shocked was his father Farooq when in 1989 Rubaiya rather than his daughter Saffia was construed as the intended target and the exchange of prisoners in 1999 Kandhar fiasco. How “befitting” a reply can be? Will it be to the rune of post Godhra violence and casualties? Will it only be more bombs for pooja or bombs for Shab-e-barat? Post Godhra violence was also a premeditated revenge upon Muslims and PM AB Vajpayee knew it was a mistake—a mere mistake—"woh humare se galti hui hai (it was our mistake)."A statesman realizes his mistake and acknowledges it there and then, but a politician prevaricates. Prachi has a record of speaking intemperately. However the atmosphere of the very beginning of the Amarnath pilgrimage is polluted by her reacting far more outrageously. The majority of the people of Kashmir have not been violent. They have been eking out their existence by the spring fall of remuneration they get from the Hindu pilgrims or tourists. By making outrageous statements there is fear of more radicalizing of the people in the valley. That it would spin out of control and vitiate the atmosphere in the adjoining states is repeatedly experienced in recent history. In another border state Vajpayee’s anagnorisis or realization that post Godhra violence was a mistake has shown repeatedly how effete it was in the first place and now it is mockery. For the man whom he wanted to replace as CM of Gujarat is the PM of India. It is not Modi who is telling man ki baat or the language of his heart but his surrogates like Prachi. Once upon a time it were the Gujarat cops like KK Mysorewalla who said their man ki bat that on that day of February 28, 2002 there was order from above not to save the Muslims. AS Dulat’s book Kashmir—the Vajpayee Years makes no bones that the hijacked plane that landed in Amritsar could have been immobilized. That would have called the bluff of the hijackers and deadly Kashmiri militants, Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtak Ahmad Zargar would not have been exchanged in Kandahar 1999. But the negotiation unnecessarily dragged in ISI and Gen Musharraff: “…that General Pervez (Musharraf) had to have a hand in the hijacking. The reason one can say so with such certainty is that such an operation could not have been undertaken without ISI support…” It was Delhi’s [read Vajpayee and Advani] decision to surrender in Kandahar. Farooq Abdullah was firm: “I will not let this Kashmiri fellow (Zargar) go, he’s a killer. He will not be released.’’ [2]The same was orchestrated in 2002 in Goa conclave when Vajpayee instead of sacking praised Modi and gave in. Irrefutable is the revanchist position of Modi. He wanted to teach Muslim a lesson. It was by means of equal and opposite reaction. That was the archetypal revenge pattern. Prachi is also following in its footstep. His adducing Newtonian third law to show Muslim their place once for all has spawned others to teach the same lesson. Notwithstanding all this, venturing into Myanmar was one thing but raiding the hijacked plane in a commando attack in Dubai as Dulat thought was another. America and Dubai were opposed to it. Prachi’s stirring out of India and taking revenge in Jeddah is not a Newtonian third law. One thing that is unmistakable was that Vajpayee was reacting to the loss in 2004 election. He was nonplussed and then lost in his musing at the question Dulat asked about the loss of power. : “Shayad hamare se Gujarat mein galati ho gayi. And then he got a bit serious and sad. I did not ask him anything further," remarked Dulat in his interview on India Today TV programme on July 2, 2015. [3]Vajpayee also had gone into musing as he travelled with Advani to Goa conclave of his party. Poets can muse but sadhvis in BJP rant. ------ [1] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/sadhvi-again-if-amarnath-yatris-are-harmed-haj-pilgrims-will-face-consequences/ [2] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/india-wanted-to-raid-ic-814-in-dubai-farooq-opposed-swap-ex-raw-chief-dulat/99/#sthash.77ry9Kif.dpuf [3] http://www.firstpost.com/india/vajpayees-regret-on-2002-gujarat-riots-to-flubbed-ic-814-hijacking-ex-raw-chief-dulat-reveals-all-in-new-book-2324842.html Chapter 34 Genocide, not irrelevant today A healthy democracy is also sound in morality. What is happening in India makes it the shell of democracy. Within it there is rot all around. Though the largest democracy in the world, it does not automatically make India a morally vibrant one. There are many issues like corruption, land grabbing, violation of human rights, pogroms perpetrated on minorities, miscarriage of justice, etc. Startling disclosures instead of making people and their leaders introspect their deeds prompts them to persist in the same venal path as usual as if nothing has happened. Some years ago a senior journalist Seema Mustafa had investigated the torture innocent Muslims had undergone at the hands of the police in Hyderabad in Mecca mosque blast case. She was overwhelmed by her findings and suggested that LK Advani as leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha should take the initiative of taking up the cause of the innocents framed in terror charges. It fell on deaf ears. The revelations in the book Kashmir—the Vajpayee Years purportedly shows that PM Vajpayee in 2002 did some introspection and was of the opinion of dismissing Narendra Modi over the pogroms of Muslims in Gujarat. In 2004 election BJP lost and Vajpayee was stupefied by the loss. However he thought over and said it was on account of the events in Gujarat. He did not use the word pogroms because using such word of English and western culture was anathema to him and his party. AS Dulat was chief of Intelligence Bureau then and noted that the prime minister was sad when he called the post Godhra carnage as a mistake. A not maverick senior journalist and for years in Parliament showed lack of introspection when he defended Modi as the spokesman of BJP. “I think time as well as all that has happened has made that question completely irrelevant. Congress has used every method and every strata of the administration, as well as the courts and every court, including Supreme Court, has done 10 years or more of the most thorough investigation… and found nothing against the present honourable Prime Minister. In fact, Congress should apologise for raising questions about his integrity.” [1] Akbar’s defense is on two counts. One, what he thinks. What a minority member thinks and what he says on behalf of a Hindu party are two different things. He is generally dubbed a sarkari Musalman, a sycophant for his split personality. Even if we respect him on account of his seniority and as a journalist the fact does not change. He hobnobbed with the likes of LK Advani and a man is known by the company he keeps. Advani’s rath yatra did not make Akbar realize the abysmal horrifying Dark Age sort of bloodbath it left in its wake. It left a trail of riots in every town and city it traversed. It is a serious matter that Akbar wrote books on riot after riot and failed to diagnose the architect of them. Is he blind to the architect of the genocide in Gujarat whom he calls honourable PM. If the honorific is only a traditional then it is ok. After all ours is hollow democracy where only 31 % voters can make a majority. Modi chooses not to respond to sensitive matters of unity and integrity of the country while the Parliamentary democracy makes it imperative for him to explain all this. There are glaring instances of Modi subverting the judicial processes and destroying the phone records. He used his advocate general Tushar Mehta to sabotage the cases from within. He used judge Akshay Mehta to get Babu Bjrangi bail after harbouring him in the Mount Abu guest house of Gujarat Government. He allowed his police to not intervene when the Hindu mobs would take revenge against Muslims for three days February 28, March 1, 2, 2002. He worked in a pack consisting of his bureaucracy, police and the backing of the central government under his party. He ordered payment from SBI to corrupt the lawyers employed by Malika Sarabhai defending Naroda Patiya victims. His police refused Ahsan Jafri’s widow to register a police complaint against him. She then knocked doors of High Court and Supreme Court. There are still numerous cases pending in the courts and the courts do not make a speedy trial of them. If special investigation teams have given clean chit it in no way means he is cleared of all the allegations. Furthermore, genocide cases need an International Criminal Court of justice because Muslims as a community were denied justice. Supreme Court of India also has given judgment in cases and it has called him modern day Nero. So when the remaining cases like that of the widow of Ahsan Jafri, Zakia Jafri and others come up and tried they would reveal truth of Modi’s role. Police officers like RB Sreekumar and Sanjive Bhatt have also filed cases and they have not come up for trial. The extremists who killed Muslims were from RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP. That RSS is a terrorist organization is on record. Its cadres were in the forefront of the attacks. Modi himself was a pracharak of RSS. To examine such huge matters of involvement needs courts whose legal power also should be comprehensive. For example who is the grey beard that gave order to the black beard to go ahead and kill Ishrat Jahan and others? Such a cogent cognizable chain of command is such Gordon’s knot that our judiciary sweeps it under the carpet of only euphemism whose denotation is not their concern. Second part of Akbar’s defense of Modi is all that has happened since Modi was CM and now PM. Modi dehyderated and terminated an interview by Kiran Thappar who asked him why he does not improve his image of being named a mass murderer. If he was not a mass murderer what was he doing in Naroda Patia in the evening of February 28 when he was blessing the women of Chhara community whose men had slaughtered hundreds of Muslims? Why did he ask them to continue the next day and not slacken? It was all on account of the burning of the train. The collector of Godhra had maintained till Modi changed it as a terrorist attack; that, the Sabarmati express fire was an accident when a stove burst into flames as the kar sevaks were cooking breakfast in the compartment that they had bolted and heavily barricade from within. Even the railway ministry commission found it to be so. Therefore what evidence could Modi give then for he had not given any proof when he called it terrorism? All these matters and more accrued over the years when Akbar had a Rip Vank Winle sleep. When he woke up the Modi sarkar was on the cusp of becoming. What is still not fully inquired is the preparedness for the pogroms. What about the surveys Modi government had conducted of the houses and commercial establishments of Muslims in Gujarat? Why were arms stocked well ahead of it? Why were more arms imported from far off states during curfew hours? Vajpayee did attempt to remind Modi to do his rajdharm, duty to govern, which he parried by his automation reply that he was doing. The PM knew the import of the retort. All this factored in the mournful silence Vajpayee descended into when Dulat left him: "I said: Sir, Yeh kya hua( defeat in 2004 election)? So he laughed heartily and said: Unko (Congress) bhi nahi maloom yeh kya hua! He said even Congress has been taken by surprise, not just us. And then along the way, Vajpayee said: Shayad hamare se Gujarat mein galati ho gayi. And then he got a bit serious and sad. I did not ask him anything further."[2] Among other matters that require scrutiny is that Sonia Gandhi was aware of the evil deeds of what she called maut ka saudagar, trader in dead bodies. Why did she not ask her government to file appeal in the court? Modi did order the killing in fake encounters. When he boasted and challenged her to arrest her why did she not take action in 2007? Modi’s utterance amounted to self confessed cognizable crime of homicide. All those accused in Sohrabuddin case have been discharged from jail and rehabilitated. Does such a thing happen outside India, in a democracy? President KR Narayanan had written letters to PM Vajpayee about the killings of Muslims. Why did not the PM question Modi? Ahsan Jafri had called on Sonia Gandhi also to save life. She did nothing and not even visited Zakia Jafri even once for condolence over the deaths. Congress party and government did nothing to help the bereaved Muslims. BJP did more, it allowed boycott of Muslims even after the horrendous murder, rape and killings. Congress party in Gujarat was demoralized and had evaporated. So Akbar’s questioning the Congress party’s manipulation to bring Modi to book is a figment of his imagination. Congress did nothing of the sort. Muslims of India are still in the agony of loss of their brethren, their sources of livelihood, the apartheid of Modi regime. But those wallowing in their coveted profit of office lapse of more than ten years the matter of genocide is irrelevant. They are wrong because there are still people like Dulat who though not Muslims have the conscience which is not the collective conscience of a party or people. Their own. They share the suffering. ----- [1] http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47930996.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst [2] http://www.firstpost.com/india/vajpayees-regret-on-2002-gujarat-riots-to-flubbed-ic-814-hijacking-ex-raw-chief-dulat-reveals-all-in-new-book-2324842.html Chapter 35 Ending agony through civilizational dialogue There are moments when the mind is teased by passing thoughts and prepares to respond. William Wordsworth, Iqbal and now Aayan Hirshi Ali have all resorted to this. In her criticism of Islam Ali dramatizes her thesis in the form of an imaginary conversation between the owl and the ostrich, the former sees everything in stark nakedness and the latter hides from facing harsh reality thinking that it would pass away. However a better form of dialogue is what Tariq Ramadan refers in his interview on BBC today Sunday December 30, 2007 as the Islamic tradition of having knowledge and respect while dealing with your interlocutor. Much vaunted concept of radical Islam buoys up in discussion these days like the one carried in a national daily on December 28 and 29, 2007. As it prizes the mind, from the recess comes the argument that the teaching and practical life of the prophet does not justify the epithet. Clubbing Islam with any other religion is also not correct. So the binary justification that the “twain meet” is unnecessary, some followers of Islam, but not Islam itself, are radical, but they are few although vocal. Mahatma Gandhi and Lokmanya Tilak derived a different interpretation from their holy book is their individual personal choice and cannot be ascribed to all the people practicing Hinduism. Moreover, talking of India today, culprits of heinous crimes cannot be punished either by the rules of Gita or Mahabharta or the sharia. We have a constitution and our own penal laws which are different from theological injunctions like the biblical and Judaic an eye for an eye or taking a thorn out by another thorn. The laws of India must be viewed equably in dealing with people irrespective of their religion. However, the politicizing of judiciary and the criminalizing of politics is a complex reality of contemporary India and a cause of concern. No one group can appropriate the laws or amend and modify or apply them in order to settle score for the past or present deeds of “the other”. That is what the Chief Justice of India K.G.Balakrishnan was referring when he came down heavily against the “communalisation and politicisation “ of anti terrorist laws when he addressed the conference in New Delhi organized by the Intelligence Bureau on December 22, 2007. “The fact that several states have suggested that they will enact new laws similar to Pota raises serious human rights concern.” The intention behind framing or enforcing such laws is not so much to punish the guilty but to trample the human rights of all the members of the group from which some criminals come and who happen to be in minority. If this naked truth is unpleasant it is there behind the back of the mind of those who are calling for ever stricter laws to deal with terror. They also do not fight shy of the fact that terror of one hue poses as much threat to our nation as the terror of another hue. At the end of the day one feels that after all some Muslims are terrorists no doubt as are some Hindus. But those some should be blamed and not the whole community of which they are just few. If the Muslim communityis in dolor today it is on accountof how their innocents have suffered years and decades of incarceration at the hands of both the parties when they wre in power, Congress and BJP or even the third front. Their suffering is intensifying since Modi and his saffron brigade are in power of position. No sooner was Rohini Salian chucked out than was ushered in new PP. They are handpicked by the ruling echelon on the basis of their links to RSS. Randhir Singh was a witness in Samjhauta Exprss bomb attack but now he is a minister in the right wing government in Jharkhand. He turned hostile in May 2015. This is a serious matter becaue ultimately the object of the right wing government in states and at the centre would be to have the case suppressed. Even the army would like for Purohit who supplied RDX for attack on Samjhaut must be saved by the government. It is committedto ideology of RSS whereby Hindus cannot be terrorists although they retaliate to terrorism. Randhi Singh is appointed PP in Malegaon blast case of 2008 where Purohit is the king pin accused of training the bombers as well as hatching the conspiracy. The last also includes intention and real attempt to overthrow the constitutionally elected government of India and replace it with a Hindu government with a Hidu constitution and Hindu flag. Instead of having a civilizational dialogue in the parliament we now have clear manifestation of turning India into a fascist state. Randhir Singh’s appointment is a cocking a snook at democracy and secularism. It is alsosubversion of investigation and judicial process. [1] Within one year after Modi came to power that is since June 2014 14 witnesses in Ajmer shrine blast have turned hostile. There is BJP government in Rajasthan and at the centre. In Samjhaut express 3 have turned hostile as there is Haryana state. There were 15 key witnesses in Ajmer blast cases of which 14 that turned hostile are: Randhir Singh, Rohit Kumar Jha, Bhanu Singh, Sonu Pandey, Vishnu Patidar, Swapnil Joshi, Ishan Chawla, Vinod Kumar Shav, Parimal Pal, Gautam Pal, Vimal Pal, Sugandhi Devi, Govardhan Singh and Hari Narayan. They are relatives of the accused and either RSS leaders or have affinitiy to the Sandh. Randhi was a crucial witness because he gave witness to an important meeting “Zila pracharak Giridih Mahendraji, vibhag pracharak Ranjan and Indore RSS pracharak Manoj alias Sunil Joshi came to my house on a motorcycle four years ago and told me we would have to go to Akhil Mandal’s (vibhag karyavaha) place in Godda. I took them in my Bolero JH 15R 5555. Devendra Gupta came along with Akhil Mandal and took us to a village. I don’t know the exact village’s name. They got off the car to go to a house but I kept sitting. Later, Akhil Mandal, Devendra Gupta and Manoj came out and fired from a pistol. When I asked about the pistol, they said ‘forget about these things, you just drive’. Later, I distanced myself from Devendra Gupta.” Randhi had given this statement on July 21 2010 ATS but he changed it on September 27 2010 leaving out the shooting incident. The latter was made under section 164. On May 5, 2014 he turned hostile and said he did not know Manoj or Mahendra and accused the ATS who pressurized him. Another instance of travesty of justice is giving crucial information first and changing it later under pressure from RSS like Vishnu Patidar, RSS worker, Shajapur, Madhya Pradesh On September 1, 2010, Patidar gave a statement to ATS and on September 23, 2010 recorded a Section 164 statement: “I know Chandrashekhar. He used to come to my house. Two years ago, at Pankaj’s shop, he gave me three mobile phones. I tried using all three. One of them was used by Santosh, one was not working and one my wife used. On the day of Diwali, ATS officials came to my house to investigate. Chandrashekhar told me that I should tell them that the phones belonged to Pankaj Patidar, who was already dead.” * Rohit Kumar Jha, RSS worker, Jharkhand Jha recorded his statement before a magistrate under Section 164 in New Delhi on August 21, 2010, voluntarily in English. “In 2005 summer, one guruji came from Madhya Pradesh to visit Devendra Gupta at Mihijam. Later on I came to know his name was Sunil Joshi alias Manoj. Guruji stayed there for one day. After he left, Devendra asked me for a voter ID card. I asked him for what purpose did he need it. He said he had come from outside, needed local address to arrange for a mobile number. In Dumka, one of my friends Ravi told me his father was a mukhiya and distributed ID cards at their village. At their house, I saw 30-35 voter cards lying. Without permission I picked two and gave to Devendra Gupta. I was cleaning Devendra Gupta’s room and saw pencil cell with red wire attached lying in his room. Later on came to know it was a detonator. There were 10-12 such wrapped in a newspaper.” On January 13, 2015, he told the court: “I do not know English. Not my statement.”[2] Another group which turned hostile is of Shivam Dhakad, Kavita and Ganpati. Dhakad is one of several whom Ramji Kalsangah trained in bomb making and exploding in the Bagli-Dewas region. This is related to a meeting in 2005 he attended in Jaipur. He is also a witness in Mecca mosque attack as well as on Samjhauta attack. Dhakad had also informed how when the Aligarh Muslim University declined to invite Murli Manohar Joshi andinstead invite a Muslim, the Sunil Joshi group wanted to kill the guest. Similary the same group reconnoitered the house of the judge appointed to inquire into the Sabarmati Express fire at Godhra, UC Banerjee. They wanted to kill him in Kokata. [3] These details make it clear that all the members of Sunil Joshi group were like him office holders of RSS. They had participated in terror activities for which Muslims had to spend time in jail. Those arrested initiallyin the Samjhauta express were Muslims. When the Hindu extremists were arrested later the RSS put pressure on the witnesses to turn hostile. What the RSS did is what National Security Advisor MK Narayanan did when he accused ISI for attack in Ludhiana and Ajmer. Therefore instead of having a civilized dialogue there is clear attempt to frame Muslims and when the real hand of Hindutva terrorism became clear another attempt to save the Hindu extremists was made. Muslims suffered doubly as victims of terror and also perpetrators of terror because of deliberate and premeditated framing of the innocents. ------ [1]http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/ajmer-samjhauta-blasts-cases-congress-wants-sc-to-monitor-nia-probe/#sthash.RtSQVU1D.dpuf [2] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/rohini-salians-warning-finds-echo-in-ajmer-blast-case-witnesses-turning-hostile/99/#sthash.FKtiqVgT.dpuf [3] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/on-friday-three-did-a-u-turn-in-court-on-coffins-containing-dead-bodies-of-samjhauta-express-train-explosion-victims-are-lined-up-in-the-panipat-statements/#sthash.5Fv0jVCl.dpuf Chapter 36 Towns under curfew There are many towns and cities who have been under curfew for months causing enormous suffering. Among them are the Muslim dominated Malegaon in Maharashtra and Godhra in Gujarat (particularly Signal Falia and Polan Bazar). Chief minister Narendra Modi observed fasting for harmony in September 2012. At Godhra he said it had the notoriety of having riots and curfew in 1736. However he did not mention the riot when Morarji Desai was deputy collector there and the riots broke out and Desai behaved in a discriminatory manne and made Muslims suffered. His superiors and English officers punished him by demoting. He left the service and entered politics. Modi also was quite partial and prejudiced when he chose the Ghanchi Muslims to bear the blame that they were habitually criminals. Without proof he said that they were behind the burning of Sabamati express compartments. His notorious theory of the third law of Newton justified the fate meted out to the Muslims as he had instructed the police “hinduon ko gussa utarne do” let the Hindus vent their anger. For almost a year Godhra was under curfew. How much distress and torment must the natives there have suffered is dreadful. In 2012 after a decade of the pogroms he touched upon it without feeling any atonement. “Whether it was the Jagannath Rathyatra, Moharram, Ganesh Visarjan or the kite festival, there was rioting in Godhra. It is the only town to have been under curfew for 300 days.” [1] He also targeted Muslim children who lisped ‘curfew’ curfew before they could utter mammy and papa. Muslim children have their own qualms over it for he had called Muslims marrying four wives and producing 25 chilren. Even the refugee camps were teeming with children and he called them child producing factories. It was a girl of 17 Sophia Bano whom the Hindu passengers tried to molest on February 27, 2002 which caused a brawl there. Muslim tea vendors and others pelted stones in reaction after the mother of the girl rescued her daughter from the arms of the mob. He sounded untrue when he marked the tenth anniversary during fasting when he said "But all that has changed now. For the last 10 years, there has been no curfew in the town even for a single day and people here have been living together happily." But the truth is different. The people have actually lived in a state of great sorrow. The area is divided between those who were acquitted from the charges of arson and attack and those who were sentenced to imprisonment. The doomed know that they were not involved in the bruning of the train but they were framed. One of them who saw the incident was Saleem panwala. He saw the incident from his cigarette kiosk and knew the truth but was so scared that since then he has disappeared fearing arrest and being framed falsely in the case as many others. The American writer Martha C Nusbaunn in her book The Clash Within says that there was no difference between Hindus and Muslims during the brawl as both speak the same language and the Muslims help the people to extinguish the fire from their tube well. Modi also indulged in innundo at Godhra for he said there was no vote bank politics in Gujarat. Those who know Indian politics cannot accept it as the Hindu party BJP never fails to target Muslim for its vote bank, for voting Congress party en mass. In fact the bloodshed was also meant to teach Muslim the lesson they have had it coming for their vote bank. The carage of 2002 was after all maneuvered to win election which was preponed to take place in the end of the year when Muslims were still living in refugee camps. Children could not go to school. Displaced people were mortally fearful to return to their homes and farms. It is not enough to say that only Muslims slided into the abyss of despair and distress. A Hindu man named Someshwar Pandya wante d to give true story behind the pogrom at Sardarpura where 38 Muslims were burnt alive. He had seen it that Patels were behind the massacre. In August 2003 he wanted to visit Justice Nanavati Commission to depose the truth when he was attacked. He lost an eye and suffered multiple fractures. He was a liberal Hindu who wanted to stand up for the victims and record the truth. The Hindutva brigands assigned for dealing with such matters prevented him. [2] The superintendent of police AK Sharma was actively involved in preventing people from giving witness in the filing of complaint or FIR. The election commission of India transferred him because of it and his close contact with the chief minister. What followed the December 2002 election was vitural hell for the Muslims who survived the genocide. They were prevented from returning to their farms and houses. Sardarpura was the only village they owned farming lands or worked in others farms. There was also social and economic boycott of Muslims in the village and also all over the affected parts of the state. But the people who are otherwise neutral never forget how Someshwar Pandya was reading newspaper in the market when he was attacked. The hawkers who knew him so well being so familiar rushed him to hospital. He was 65 years old and since then he lives in agony! For such a one did Modi have any time from his sadhaybhauna? He was also unperturbed by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray saying: "It cannot be forgotten that after Maharashtra, Gujarat is the laboratory of Hinduism." "Hindu ramsevaks were killed in Godhra riots (train burning) and that's why Hindus were inflammed. Do not kill them by giving them dose of the poison of secularism," [3] Thackeray was vitriolic at his best and advised Modi not to give poison of secularism to Hindus who voted him to power because of their religion. In the context of what the Sena boss is saying it is clear that Maharashtra was the first Hindutva laboratory and Gujarat followed suit. The event that really preceded Godhra was the riots on octoher 26, 2001. There were also distribution of trishuls or tridents and other arms in the region between Malegaon and Dangs in Gujarat. There were training camps in arms as well. In making Gujarat laboratory experiment to exterminate Muslims unlike Thackeray Modi used his assistants to carry out the work of pogroms. In an affidavit Gujarat Additional Director-General of Police R. B. Shreekumar revealed that the then Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Ashok Narayan told him that Chief Minister Narendra Modi gave an “oral order” to release all the people who were arrested in killing of Muslims. [4] ------ [1] http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_narendra-modi-fasts-for-sadbhavana-but-godhra-muslims-seem-unsure_1640489 [2] http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/06spec.htm?zcc=rl Down, but not Out! Someshwar Pandya still wants to tell the truth! [3] http://www.newscommando.com/N-bal-thackeray-tells-narendra-modi-not-give-poison-of-secularism.html [4] http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article2796399.ece AHMEDABAD, January 13, 2012 Modi gave oral order to release arrested Hindus, alleges Shreekumar Manas Dasgupta Chapter 37 Perpetuity of blaming terrorism on Muslims In the July 2015 first week issue the RSS mouth piece Organizer again reverts to Islamic terrorism even when India has not witnessed it. But it is this ascription of terrorism has really made the Muslims suffer as they never did before. There is also no sign of ebbing this remorseless pillorying the community. The weekly says : .
“It’s true to some extent that majority of Indian Muslims haven’t been radicalised to a similar extent as some of their peers in other regions especially Middle East and off late Europe but one can’t deny the inevitable fact that terrorism today is a global phenomenon.” This is hunting and hounding of Muslims despite a decade and half earlier that is in the aftermath of 9/11 it was established as a fact that Muslims of India had no part in attack on America.” [1] Whabism was blamed then and it is again blamed for terrorism. Even DG Vanzara wrote a poem in prison asking the Hindus to drive out the Wahabis and kill all their children. • When the Akshardham temple attack could lead to any clue it was Vanzara who accused the Muslims of India behind it. He also said that they had joined hands with Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Toyba and were funded by Saudi Arabis. He also blamed the some Muslims of Ahmadabad behind the temple attack. Eleven years after the six Muslims arrested were discharged for there was no proof found against them. They were innocent Muslims. When one of them wrote a book the government prevented the publication of the book. Mufti Qayum Mansuri wrote his lived experience in the prison. But on July 7, 2015 Vanzara filed 101 crore rupees defamation suit in the trial court in Ahmadabad. [2] The relaxed and complacent members of his family visited the court in Ahmadabad and posed for photo. Instead of agony there was expression of Gujarati on pleasure true: contentmenst, happiness, joy, comfort, head , peace and success on their faces and dress andlife style. The suffering Qayum went through was inhuman and barbaric:” They would put electrical shocks on my finger tips, under my nails. Sometimes they would tie my feet together and put the electrical shocks on my backside. They would abuse us with so many insults. They said they would rape our wives, our mothers. Sometimes when they would hit me, I would yell Allahu Akbar (God is Great) but the guards would respond by saying, Tumhara Allah ab humare side pe he (Even your Allah is on our side now).”[3] [1 http://indianexpress.com/article/india/rss-mouthpiece-asks-government-muslim-leaders-to-protect-youth-from-wahhabism/#sthash.9cTSNiSa.dpuf] [2] http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/akshardham-case-vanzara-files-rs-101-crore-suit-against-author-for-defamation/#sthash.kja4z4Xw.dpuf [3] http://scroll.in/article/721605/The-book-the-Gujarat-police-does-not-want-released:-author-speaks-about-11-years-in-jail-in-Akshardham-case Chapter 38 Dubious terrorism I India has a rare phenomenon of most publicized events of terrorist attacks which have generated highest amount of doubt. In the general public, of course; but for the cultural nationalists there is firm conviction of the evil originating across the border. This is so much in vogue even after a decade that the terrorists are invariably the Pakis behind all terrorist attacks. In sharp contrast March 12 1993 serial bomb attacks in Bombay ascribed to the fugitive Dawood Ibrahim had all natives of India to the last man caught and tried and convicted. Since then the Pakis have become the wandering Jew for all acts of terrorism within India. Only the rarest rare exception is Ajmal Kasab, tried, convicted and quickly hanged. Even this case is fraught with many doubts. The Hindu extremist fringe includes RSS and all the other organizations under its umbrella. They had initiated bomb attacks as is clear from Saharanpur bomb attacks of May 14, 2002 and before that the Bhopal Ijtema target of the previous year. Bhopal has the largest mosque in India. There was going to be a bomb attack but it could not be carried out. The Hindutva group under Sunil Joshi was behind it. Had it been effective it would have produced very large casualties. In Saharanpur a bomb went off at the roof of the mosque and another near the gate. A third failed to blow up at the end of the prayer early morning. Luckily the third was defused. There was no dubiety regarding these three. Nor was there any such in the four bombing incidents between 2003 and April 2006 in Parbhani, Purna, Jalna and Nanded when when RSS-Bajrang Dal-VHP activists targeted mosques. The fourth incident happened in Nanded when the bomb meant for Aurangabad railway station mosque accidentally blew up and killed several terrorist busy making the bomb. The most spectacular cases of dubiety are the Parliament attack on December 13, 2001 and Malegaon September 8, 2006 and September 29, 2008. In the first Prime Minister AB Vajpayee had warned on December 12, 2001of impending attack on the Parliament and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had warned on September 5, 2006 and again on September 17, 2008 that there would be terror attacks. [1]A caller on phone had warned the office of Malegaon Marathi Daily Dinkar on September 5 2006 that within a day or two there would be attack and when it was realized he again called to remind that they had carried out the September 8th attack and would carry out another because the people have not taken it seriously.[2 ] That India is for Hindus and Muslims must leave. On September 13 there was a bomb found at Mohammadiya shopping complex. The phone call was also corroborated by a letter to the same effect which was sent to the Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind office. It was signed by “Sangh Parivar.” Regarding the Parliament attack Arundhati Roy figuratively speaks of the foot prints of the dragon. The letter and phone calls are prosaic illustration of what it was that was not named: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [RSS]. There is no organization that can choose time and place with such confidence and carry out terrorist attacks with impunity. What Mohan Bhagwat told Swami Asimanand that Sangh was doing it and he should concentrate on tribal development, much later is a confirmation of the truth, dotting the line. If there is involvement of police it is not compartmental but infiltration of the Hindutva ideology in the police force as well as the army. The Congress government had been baulking from naming it fearing backlash in election. When the Home Minister Susdhilkumar Shinde named RSS he recanted the next day. The reach of RSS is beyond computing. Its most remarkable pracharak Sunil Joshi was involved in activities in Jammu and Kashmir. He was also hiding/hibernating in Jammu in a facility that was run by RSS. That was on account of his direct involvement in the murder of a Congress leader and his son. It was again Dyanand Pandey known as Shankaracharya who had his ashram in Jammu. Lt Col Prasad Purohit had close contact with him and in this way J&K, Madhya Pardesh, Maharashtra got linked together. Furthermore Amit Chauhan aka Hakla from Nanded also lived in JK and was trained there. He had exploded the first bomb of the Hindutva laboratory in Parbhany mosque in 2003. His base was Maharashtra but he moved into the Madhya Pardesh module of Sunil Joshi and also worked for Abhinav Bharat. Purohit had provided RDX for Samjhauta Express in 2007 attack in which Hakla was very much involved and is absconding since the truth came in the open. Hakla went by another name in the Madhya Pardesh module: Ramesh Veyankat Mahalkar. He was quite active in the MP module which was behind Malegaon 2006 blasts, Ajmer blasts 2007 and Samjhauta Express blasts 2007. Thus Hakla’s link is established between two sets of attacks, one in which he figured in Marathwada region of Maharashtra and the other in which Haryana(Panipat), Malegaon in Maharshtra and Rajasthan (Ajmer) figure prominently. [3] RSS works in different guises: as VHP in the case of Hakla’s role for he and his family were members of VHP; as Bajrang Dal in the case of Malegaon 2006 attack (Former DGP Dr Pasricha had remarked that it was Bajrang Dal behind Malegaon 2006 blasts.) [4] Thus until Swami Asimanand admitted involvement of Hindutva terrorists in 2006 Malegaon blasts as well the dubiety was hidden. There are many ramifications of what Purohit remarked when he admitted his role in Malegaon blast 2008: "I am the mastermind of the blast. I arranged for the RDX and weapons but I can't understand how the weapons reached Abhinav Bharat members."[5] One, that Purohit was associated with Abhinav Bharat so if he did not know how the RDX was transferred does he mean that the RDX and weapons supplied by him caused the 2008 attack in Malegaon as well as the same consignment of explosives and arms were used by the ATS to frame innocent Muslims in the Arms haul case of Aurangabad-Malegaon-Ankai 2006? If that were true then it would mean that that was also the provenance for 7/11 attack on local trains in Mumbai. The inference is clear that all these sundry cases were dubious terrorist attacks engineered by Hindutva and their sympathizers in police and army but blamed on Muslims. The minority had to bear the cross for years on end. They were the handiwork of Hindutva! Further to note here is that source of RDX is only one way, the army. It is not easy to get it within India. Who else could do it so well than Purohit? If Zabiuddin and others transferred RDX the consignment was certainly not from Pakistan but from army source. It could also mean that it was sourced from Ahmedanagar artillery camp from the where Shanker Shelke got it in his scrap yard. The police commission of Thane SM Sangari had identified one of the attackers on Parliament as Mohammad Yasin Fateh Mohammad aksAbu Hamza arrested in November 2000 and he was handed over to JK. Did the JK special task force use him to attack the Parliament as the same agency used Afzal Guru to escort one Mohammad to Delhi for the attack? Much later Sangari also said that the lead to the attack in Malegaon 2006 is in the mysterious death of the scrap monger Shankar Shelke of Ahmadnagar on September 9, 2006. Some days ago 195 kg of RDX was seized from his scrap yard. He absconded from the police but after Malegaon blast of September 8, 2006 he was arrested. The attack on the Parliament is all the more dubious because member of Parliament Priyaranjan Dashmunshi saw 6 attackers come out of the car while the police say only five had come. The difference in counting the attackers is insidious. Anita Udaiyya had counted 6 landing on the shore from a boat on 26/11 and she had said that Ajmal Kasab was not one of them. So where did the other four come from? The Marathi speakers who attacked Cama hospital were believed to be Pakis but after the arrest of Zabiuddin Ansari aka abu Jindal it is believed that they were Muslims speaking fluent Marathi.[6] The hallmark of dubiety is covered in two books one on 26/11 by SM Mushrif universally known as who killed Who killed Karkare? the other on Parliament attack called 13 December , A Reader. Unfortunately the Establishment has failed to rise to the challenge thrown by such texts. What kind of democratic set up is this! It is noteable that when the police were framing innocents from Malegaon they chose one to be their approver and the police repeatedly promised that they would give land but outside Kashmir. Though he turned hostile and the land deal fell throug h. In other terror cases also the police in India hve tried to link Kashmir issue as if the militants of Kashmiri are closely linked to the mainland India. Nothing can be far from truth than this. India made a mistake of linking terrorism in Kashmir with what was going on in the rest of India. It is also salutary that Indian Muslims have no such mind set of joining Kashmir aazai movement of the militants. There is a whole world of difference between popular perception in India and Pakistan. Dawood Ibrahim was willing to return to India in 1990s. It is a puzzle that we did not accept his proposal. After all he was ready to be kept under house arrest. If he was not involved in 1993 serial blasts he would have thrown light on the real culprits. Similarly we in India are so much concerned with the jihadi terrorism from across the border. Do the Pakistanis really see it in that way? Even AS Dulat says that : . My impression is “Kashmir" is not an issue in Pakistan. It was not even raised during the last election.” [7] II Neither in Malegaon nor in Gujarat or anywhere else in the country Pakistan matters much. And yet Purohit’s juggernaut of anti insurgency intelligence and training was aimed at training Mahrashtra police and ATS as if they were fighting Kashmiri militants. Modi also deliberately fought his 2002 assembly election by pitting himself against Mian Musharraf. That was local politics to derive milage over Cogress but it went against the grain of the loyalty of Indian Muslims. Ultimately they bore the ignominy of being called prop Pakistan and indeed agents of ISI. In the topsy turvy world of India politics Modi may be overtly favouring reaching understanding with Pakistan but the ideology of his party and its patron RSS is other wise. Hence Dulat is right when he says “realistically getting back PoK is not likely. The best solution to Kashmir is to convert LoC into an international border which in a sense Gen.Musharraf and then PM Dr. Singh were quite close to doing , in a sense.” So the bogey of fear of Pakistan generated hatred for Indian Muslims. Any Muslim like the accused innocent Muslims in terrorism charges who visited Pakistan was dubbed ISI agent. Then followed torture and trial in false terror cases in many of them it was later found that the realy terrorists were Hindus, nay members of RSS. --- [1] 13December : A Reader. Penguin India 2006 [2] Inquilab August 30, 2008 [3] http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-17/bhopal/40027296_1_himanshu-panse-samjhauta-express-blast-maharashtra-blasts [4] Punyanagri September 11, 2006 [5] I was Malegaon mastermind, admits Lt-Col 7 Nov 2008, TNN [6] Vikram Bhave, Malegaon bomb blasts, the invisible hand (Marathi) Grukrupa Praisthan. 2013. p 108 [7] http://www.rediff.com/news/report/a-s-dulat-on-rediff-chat-getting-back-pok-is-not-likely/20150709.htm?pos=2&src=NL20150710&trackid=7MGeiBNRiOgHpjiU22XIw0UhYgsPCBFedrAsNDfdS8Q=&isnlp=0&isnlsp=0 Chapter 39 Terrorism and communal violence A delegation of lawyers and victims of bob blasts in Malegaon was prevented from meeting NIA officials in Mumbai on July 9, 2015. However it did meet public prosecutor Rohini Salian. First the NIA had told the delegation to sign the register and as they were moving towards the lift they were hurriedly called back and told to meet a local police officer. This in no way makes revelation of truth regarding terrorism any clearer. On the other hand it is persistence of the officials to hide important matters. They had then gone to Salian with hope that she would lift more of the veil that shrouds everything in mystery and creates more mistrust. It is worth remembering that we are fighting the complex phenomenon of terrorism as if we are dealing with a communal violence. An incident from 2008-09 is that of the Goa blast. Malgonda Patil who died in the Margao explosion was from the Sangli unit of the Sanatan Saunsthan. Sangli and Miraj had recently been scenes of communal riots over the controversy of the gory depiction of Shivaji killing Afzal Khan. The purpose of the display was obvious: provoking people on a sensitive historical divisive event and sowing seeds of hatred. In Miraj the SS had distributed literature that was starkly communal. During the riots Patil had been traveling between the headquarters of SS at Ramnathi and Miraj. By carrying out bomb attack on the eve of Diwali the calculated aim was creating communal disharmony, suspicion and hatred. The target was an age old local tradition of competition of effigies, Narakasura, which is not a canonized tradition of Hinduism. Hindutva ideology is urbanized middle class drawing room creation of a monolithic Hindu society. Patil was in touch with one of the accused in Mahrashtra bombings of 2008, Vikram Vinay Bhave. The scooter was traced to the wife of a Goa, minister. Jyotil Dhavalikar was known as a sympathizer of SS and yet the police did not do much. It could also be weak motivation, or bias. The bomb blast in Margao and the other at Sancoale surely indicate how organized the Hindu right terrorists are. They also enjoy patronage within the governmental set up and the police and even the investigating agencies. A full year after the exposure of the Sanatan Sanstha's involvement in Thane and Vashi, Mumbai, and Panvel bomb attacks the governments and the police not only did not take any action like banning the organization but let it and other such organizations of the Hindu right flourish. This is in sharp contrast with swift ban of SIMI and branding by the Maharashtra government of the whole Ahlehadesh section of Muslims as extremist involved in terrorism. The central government followed suit. There is too much of self justification on the part of the office bearers of the SS and it surely smacks of the self justification of Himani Savarker of the notoriety of bomb for bomb strategy. Could this too much self assurance be the product of the general support they enjoy among the power that be? The other disturbing factor is how the explosives reached there. It is plausible that the arms haul of October 10, 2009 at Bhatkal found its way to Margao through sea route. Nagaraj Somaya Devadiga, Jattayya Devadiga and Anand Manjunath Devadiga were arrested. Although 1200 kg of ammonium nitrate, 3000 electric and 500 non electric detonators recovered from them, this loose end was not tied to the subsequent blasts in Goa. Even so coastal security police officer LH Nandesh does say that the ammunition was brought by the sea. There is also misgiving that the coastal security police have accepted bribe to suppress the matter. People in Bhatkal fear that this is repeat performance of Hubli court blast where Hindu right terrorists were involved and yet the Muslim youths picked up by police are still languishing in prison. Obviously there is a connection between the communal riots and bomb blasts, often serial, that follow them. In every communal riot it is ubiquitous that the majority community exerts maximum pressure through street violence and house to house attacks in a very organized manner. The police are too eager to help in. There is hardly any disciplined and professional cop who maintains sanity while on duty. In such a murky scenario the minority community generally suffers most both in terms of its members killed, maimed and tortured; and property and houses burnt or looted. The destruction of the commercial establishments is crippling. The readymade explanation is: they had it coming. On February 14, 1998 the textile town of Coimbatore suffered a cataclysmic change as a series of bomb blasts killed more than sixty people. The chief minister of Tamil Nadu Mr Karunanidhi said ‘the seeds of extremism were sown after the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, but the immediate provocation for the blasts came from the killing of 18 Muslims and destruction of Muslims' property in the wake of the murder of a traffic constable at Coimbatore in the last week of November 1997’. There was a communal riot in the town in November and December. The offshoot of the communal frenzy was that three suicide bombers and seven armed Muslim youths tried to take revenge of the atrocities suffered by their community. Every communal riot leaves a permanent scar on the mind of the people in general. People of both communities feel fear and insecurity in varying measure. As the Muslims suffer most their trauma is widespread as a matter of commonality of experience of being victims of the fury of the majority and the brutality of state authorities, especially the police. The apparent beneficiary politically is the right wring parties. The leader of the opposition LK Advani became the Home Minister thanks to the terror unleashed by the misguided youths of grieved local minority community. It is also invariable that the right wing parties look at ISI and the local sympathizers to further divide the people. Their larger outlook makes them feel a kind of solidarity with the US and the Israelis who are fighting terrorism. This is irrepressibly true even when the fact that terrorism in a place like Coimbatore has a ‘locale and a name’. Its provenance is in the mire of communal cauldron that is allowed to boil round the year. In the natural sciences one to one connection can be verified. But in the human relations this is rather difficult. For example Godhra attack led to the pogroms. But the attempted abduction of a girl by the kar sevaks from near Godhra or the brawl on the railway platform between caterers and the sevaks is deliberately not brought forth as the antecedent. But consequences they must have produced. However, human beings can stagger the response according to the choice of time and place. That is what sets the natural sciences in a different category. A police constable was killed while he tried to stop cars carrying explosives in Coimbatore , Tamil Nadu. As a result riots started between Hindus and Muslims causing death to 19 people. Some Muslims were admitted in a hospital. As they were recovering from severe injuries they were hacked to death in the hospital. On February14 1998 twelve bombs exploded all over the textile town. One place of attack was the hospital where the injured Muslims were killed earlier. This establishes the fact that terrorism is grounded in communalism. Hence, fighting terrorism should be fighting communalism. To some parties like BJP terrorism is advantage on a platter. The party won the election from Coimbatore as well as neighbouring Nilgiri. Shiv Sena was weakened with defections of Narayan Rane and Raj Thackeray but resurged in the corporation election in Mumbai after the serial blasts of 11/7 last year. It was the time of Ganesh festival at its peak in Maharashtra and Hyderabad . Narendra Modi was preparing to visit a Ganesh mandal meeting in Hyderabad on August 28, 2003.Police Commissioner of Hyderabad VK Krishna Rao refused permission to Modi because he said that the chief minister was perceived as a fascist. If the visit had gone ahead he would have dilated upon the local connection and the Pak detestable agency while there was no such thing on the ground in Mumbai. In Mumbai itself Mr Bal Thackeray was fuming, his party was ready to retaliate for Monday’s (August 25) blasts. He warned the State government not to start arresting his ‘boys’. “Shiv Sainiks are brave hearts”, he said. “They can teach a fitting lesson to Pakistan sponsored terrorists. Unfortunately many of our laws are senseless. If Sena activists gear up to retaliate, I don’t want the State government to go on a vengeance spree.” “India should dispatch trained militants to Pak to counter cross border terrorism. The Centre should lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) and rope in the Tigers to take on the Inter State Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan . India needs a strong leader like Margaret Thatcher (former British prime minister) who once told a Muslim group from London to adhere to the country’s laws or leave Britain.” Thanks to Ganesh festival the maha aarti prayer did not go full swing like January 1993 despite Raj Thackeray’s exhortation that if Godhra was the response to the demolition of Babri then “maha aarti was ours” to August 25 blasts. What the common man in the street should infer from this hurly burly is the home truth that terrorism would recede from the land if we eschew communalism. In communal violence or terrorism, the Muslims suffer intense distress as they do not have the officials who can be neutral and hear their grievances. So the delegation from Malegaon was content that at least Salian was there to hear them. Salian : “They are happy about the fact as there are very few people who stand up to tell the truth.”[1] Communalism and Terrorism: two sides of the same coin Obviously there is a connection between the communal riots and bomb blasts, often serial, that follow them. In every communal riot it is ubiquitous that the majority community exerts maximum pressure through street violence and house to house attacks in a very organized manner. The police are too eager to help in. There is hardly any disciplined and professional cop who maintains sanity while on duty. In such a murky scenario the minority community generally suffers most both in terms of its members killed, maimed and tortured; and property and houses burnt or looted. The destruction of the commercial establishments is crippling. The readymade explanation is: they had it coming. On February 14, 1998 the textile town of Coimbatore suffered a cataclysmic change as a series of bomb blasts killed more than sixty people. The chief minister of Tamil Nadu Mr Karunanidhi said ‘the seeds of extremism were sown after the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, but the immediate provocation for the blasts came from the killing of 18 Muslims and destruction of Muslims' property in the wake of the murder of a traffic constable at Coimbatore in the last week of November 1997’. There was a communal riot in the town in November and December. The offshoot of the communal frenzy was that three suicide bombers and seven armed Muslim youths tried to take revenge of the atrocities suffered by their community. Every communal riot leaves a permanent scar on the minds of the people in general. People of both communities feel fear and insecurity in varying measure. As the Muslims suffer most their trauma is widespread as a matter of commonality of experience of being victims of the fury of the majority and the brutality of state authorities, especially the police. The apparent beneficiary politically is the right wing parties. The leader of the opposition LK Advani became the Home Minister thanks to the terror unleashed by the misguided youths of grieved local minority community in Coimbatore. It is also invariable that the right wing parties look at ISI and the local sympathizers to further divide the people. Their larger outlook makes them feel a kind of solidarity with the US and the Israelis who are fighting terrorism. This is irrepressibly true even when the fact that terrorism in a place like Coimbatore has a ‘locale and a name’. Its provenance is in the mire of communal cauldron that is allowed to boil round the year. Even the chief minister of Gujarat Narender Modi did not hesitate to accept the cause and effect theory, otherwise the third Newtonian law. In the natural sciences one to one connection can be verified. But in the human relations this is rather difficult. For example Godhra attack led to the pogroms. But the attempted abduction of a girl by the kar sevaks from near Godhra or the brawl on the railway platform between caterers and the sevaks is deliberately not brought forth as the antecedent. But consequences they must have produced. However, human beings can stagger the response according to the choice of time and place. That is what sets the natural sciences in a different category. A police constable was killed while he tried to stop cars carrying explosives in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. As a result riots started between Hindus and Muslims causing death to 19 people. Some Muslims were admitted in a hospital. As they were recovering from severe injuries they were hacked to death in the hospital. On February14 1998 twelve bombs exploded all over the textile town. One place of attack was the hospital where the injured Muslims were killed earlier. This establishes the fact that terrorism is grounded in communalism. Hence, fighting terrorism should be fighting communalism. To some parties like BJP terrorism is advantage on a platter. The party won the election from Coimbatore as well as neighbouring Nilgiri. Shiv Sena was weakened with defections of Narayan Rane and Raj Thackeray but resurged in the corporation election in Mumbai after the serial blasts of 11/7 last year. Former RAW official and a leading commentator on terrorism B Raman says that we are a nation without memory. One may not agree with him because there are people who remember how LK Advani and his party men were unhappy with the US over the latter’s kid glove treatment of Pakistan . They would say that the US was very selective in its approach to terrorism. But they forget that they are also quite selective in their view of the same. The right wing politicians are in the rut created by their bete noire Pakistan and hence blaming the ISI is a gut reaction. The local sympathizer is the wandering Jew even if such a one does not exist at times. On Monday August 25, 2003 two bomb blasts in taxis killed more than two scores of people at the Gateway of India and the Zaveri bazaar. Next day Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi blamed the Lashkare toiba for it. Advani was at it again blaming Pakistan and the ISI as he did in the case of the Coimbatore. Once more the provenance of terror was the humdrum shanty of Mumbai. Syed Mohammad Hanif, wife Fahmida and their baby daughter Farheen as well as Ashrat Ansari were citizens of the city. The pogroms in Gujarat had irked them too much. This family and friend carried the home made bombs to kill the innocent. Interestingly majority of the victims at the Gateway of India were the kathiawadi people of Gujarati origin. The mastermind was the wandering Jew. Abdul Aydeet alias Naseer, was killed in an encounter on September 13, 2003. Home Minister Bhujbal called the killing big achievement. Perhaps the story would have been different if Naseer were caught alive. Communalism and terrorism is two headed poisonous snake. It is pulling the country in different directions. Both are baleful and feeding upon one another. It is now history that Hanif and family had made the bomb in their dingy home in a crowded chawl. The Director of State Forensic Laboratory Dr Rukmini Krishnamurthy had stated that “On the face of it, it doesn’t appear to have had any external missiles as was the case in 1993 serial blasts.” Al Qaeda or the ISI would have made more sophisticated explosive devices. Even the terrorists of Coimbatore were amateurish. One of them had blown himself in a lane when the police gave him chase. They had made their devices in Kerala with locally available materials. Even so those who fish in the troubled waters of communalism and terrorism hardly distinguish the two. It was the time of Ganesh festival at its peak in Maharashtra and Hyderabad . Narendra Modi was preparing to visit a Ganesh mandal meeting in Hyderabad on August 28, 2003.Police Commissioner of Hyderabad VK Krishna Rao refused permission to Modi because he said that the chief minister was perceived as a fascist. If the visit had gone ahead he would have dilated upon the local connection and the Pak detestable agency while there was no such thing on the ground in Mumbai. In Mumbai itself Mr Bal Thackeray was fuming, his party was ready to retaliate for Monday’s (August 25) blasts. He warned the State government not to start arresting his ‘boys’. “Shiv Sainiks are brave hearts”, he said. “They can teach a fitting lesson to Pakistan sponsored terrorists. Unfortunately many of our laws are senseless. If Sena activists gear up to retaliate, I don’t want the State government to go on a vengeance spree.” “India should dispatch trained militants to Pak to counter cross border terrorism. The Centre should lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) and rope in the Tigers to take on the Inter State Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan . India needs a strong leader like Margaret Thatcher (former British prime minister) who once told a Muslim group from London to adhere to the country’s laws or leave Britain.” Thanks to Ganesh festival the maha aarti prayer did not go full swing like January 1993 despite Raj Thackeray’s exhortation that if Godhra was the response to the demolition of Babri then “maha aarti was ours” to August 25 blasts. What the common man in the street should infer from this hurly burly is the home truth that terrorism would recede from the land if we eschew communalism. Whether it is communal violence or terrorism attacking patients and hacking them is most painful. It is terror, qua terror. No one can gauge the pain and misery. In one such incident people had thrown down a patient from the fourth floor of a hospital in Ahmadabad in 2002. On falling from such a height he survived. So they again carried him up and threw him down. There was still life in him so they then burnt him to ashes. To end such barbarity and animality India should include communal riots also as terror. ------- [1]http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/malegaon-descends-on-mumbai-to-thank-salian-2/ Chapter 40 Police informers “waging war against the nation” It is a sad day that police have nurtured informants into waging war against the nation! Sajid Shaikh overheard three Kashmiri men in Secunderabad in January 2006. They were hatching a conspiracy against India. Hundreds of miles from there the police in Mumbai arrested the three Kashmiri. Sajid also implicated the Imam Maulana Yahyah Baksh of the Haj House in Mumbai for harbouring the three Kashmir. The imam was arrested on January 14, 2006. Sajid then had boasted, “I got the Kashmiri terrorists arrested.” The imam was acquitted in 2010 but the three were sentenced to seven years in jail. Some arms and explosives were recovered from them. It is usual that the Kashmiri people speak in Kashmiri dialect and not in Urdu in intimate context. Why should the three speak a very grave matter of conspiracy in Urdu so loudly that Sajid the informer could over hear? That too on a platform rather than in an alcove or a closet! On September 8, 2006 bombs went off at the graveyard mosque of Malegaon and at Mushawarat chowk. The police were absent from both the sites. This is not as eerie as Sajid knowing that the people who planted the bombs had come there to reconnoiter the scene on the pretext that they were searching suitable girls for marriage! If this much is the trailer that has come out then this police informant must have the whole film for the court to see. He has claimed to know the inside story of the blasts! He claims that he joined the ATS on September 8, 2006 and since then he worked for them. Similarly he had joined not just the ATS, the Crime Branch of Mumbai and even the Intelligence Bureau to report what he was snooping. He had joined them on January 6, 20006 for the Haj House melodrama. He must have been a cloak and dagger type of police spy. Only a detective thriller or a bollywood thriller is the refuge of such! As he hails from Azad nager area of Malegaon, it is worth to know that his environs make him a suspect. The area abounds in antisocial elements including informers, gamblers, absconders, and extortionists. Though this does not mean that all the people there are like him. On May 15, 2006 the police reportedly broke open a shop under the very nose of the police station there at 11 in the night. They seized arms and ammunitions and explosives. They held a press conference after an hour and half. The former MLA Mufti Ismail was called several miles away from the scene of seizure of arms to witness the haul. No one was called to bear witness and verify what the police took from the shop at the time of breaking open the shutters. Thereafter Sajid was involved in extortion and cases were registered against him including that of assault. After that he disappeared in the murky scene. Suddenly Sasjid came out of his hibernation on January 21. 2011. This time he himself planted bombs at a garage in Malad and got three brothers arrested. But a man saw him planting the bombs so the police arrested him. Mehmood and his wife Irfana purchased a house from Rashid. The earlier owners were the three brothers of Rashid who jointly owned it. This is how the additional commissioner of police Ramrao Pawar in charge of the northern region put it: “At Irfana’s home they (Irfana and Sajid, etc,) hatched a plan to implicate Rashid’s three brothers so that they (the three brothers) would end up behind bars and they (Irfana and her husband Mehmood) would get the property.” A plot within a plot, the eighteenth century dramatists would fade out of memory if you unravel this taking place in Malad. All these personae are from Malegaon and performed their intrigues in Mumbai. But this was not the most melodramatic part. The police had slapped Sajid with the charge of “waging war against the nation.” This intrigue comedy had had to end with a whimper, a bathos, when the Hindustan Times reporter would give a running commentary on it: “But a tea vendor, who saw them (Sajid and company) place the bags, informed Salim, Hanif and Hafiz(the three brothers), and they assumed that their brother(Rashid) had performed black magic and disposed off the bags in a creek behind Inorbit Mall.” The drama of the absurd does not have an ending. For the police reappear. They told the next day that Sajid Shaikh was not slammed with the heinous act of “waging war against the nation”. That would have made it a problem play, if not for the audience, at least for the cops in the gallery. One more sop fed to the media, it is not any news to the wary how Sajid was extorting money as is seen in what inspector Deepak Phatangare says: "Sajid would warn his targets that he could implicate them in cases filed with the CBI or the ATS. The residents were too scared to protest. Finally, in 2007, one of his targets lodged a complaint with the local police claiming that Sajid had demanded Rs 1 lakh from him. The police arrested Sajid, but he was later released on bail," Every day the police are revealing a little about Sajid. What is the police strategy behind the trickle release to the mainstream newspaper? Do they take the public for granted? What else is it than an ipso facto justification of what the informer has been doing and saving him departmentally? Even the director general of police of Maharashtra said that he was unaware of the slapping of “waging war against the nation” charge! Good example of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing! Good way of conducting investigation in serious crimes like terrorism! Chapte 41 Why Maharashtra is embroiled in terrorism? There are two sets of events of arms haul, one in Malad, Mumbai and another in Ankai near Manmad. There is one common police informer in Malad case and also in the case of the arrest of Haj House Imam Gulam Yahya Ilahi Baksh and 3 Kashmiris Khursheed Gani Lone alias Lala (35), Arshad Gulam Hussain (31) and Ramzan Wahab Qazi (64). Can this insignificant malefactor play such a role as of overthrowing the elected government of India? The first case is known as Aurangabad arms haul within which comes Ankari seizure of arms of May 2006. Second is the Malad case where explosives were planted on Tuesday January 18, 2011in the front of a garage. On January 20, 2011 police arrested 7 persons Maqsood Ahmad, Sajid Shaikh, 29, Mahmood Khan, 45, his wife Irfana Khan alias Ipako, 40, Shakil Vakil Ahamad Khan, 39, Rashid Khan, 54, and his son Imran Khan, 28. The third case is the arrest of the Imam of Haj House case and the 3 Kashmiris of January 13, 2006. As terrorists like Sunil Joshi entered Maharashtra so did many others who played crucial roles in bomb blasts in the state. One such was Rajwardhan Sinha who came to Malegaon as senior superintendant of police. Nobody, and neither the present writer, says that he is a terrorist. But there are two affidavits - one in the arms seizure of May 2006 and the other in the subsequent or a logical sequence of it, the bomb blasts of September 8, 2006. If proved true in a court of law, the allegations of the two would naturally put Rajwardhan in the dock. Much would depend on the fair and secular approach to probe crimes on the basis of objectivity and professionalism as shown in the work of Hemant Karkare. But that will come a little later, first the land they claimed theirs before they were on it. The murder of Qateel Siddiqui on June 8, 2012 in the top security Yerwada jail, the brutal attack in Arthur Jail on the accused in the Mumbai train blasts and the murder of Shahid Azmi, have taken place in Maharashtra along with many other such instances. All these are related to terrorism. There is an attempt to destroy important witnesses who could expose the kind of investigation which the so-called investigation agencies were/are carrying on; or, lawyers who had defended the innocents whom the agencies had framed. Some of these agencies have played foul. Siddiqui was an important source for exposing the reality behind the bogey of the so-called “Indian Mujahideen”. Shahid Azmi had successfully got Fahim Ansari, accused in 26/11, acquitted in the case. He was also confident that he would prove Fahmida innocent. She was accused in the attack at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar. The accused in the train blasts were an embarrassment to the agencies which could not prove anything against them. The Kashmiris and the imam of the Haj House were arrested on the basis of the false accusations of a Malegaon resident and a police informer called Sajid Shaikh. He told the court that he was sitting on one platform of Secudnrabad railway junction and the Kashmiris were sitting on the other platform on the opposite and yet he could overhear them plotting the 7/11 attack! He also accused the imam of Haj House of having links with the Kashmiris. The police and their informers played havoc with innocent Muslims in the state of Maharashtra. That was repeated in the Malegaon 2006 blasts as well as the Aurangabad Arms Haul case of May 2006. Even Zabiuddin Ansari was a police informer before the police morphed him into a dreaded Lashkar-e Toiba operative. Naturally, there is suspicion that hardcore Hindutva groups have spread their tentacles into the police force and could be behind several more attacks. The reason is that their ideology against Muslims is like deep stagnant water. Bal Thackeray’ Shiv Sena, Shrikant Prasad Purohit, and extremist organizations like Abhinav Bharat, Sanatan Sanstha and others hail from Maharashtra. All these also lead to other disturbing apprehensions like the fact that some of those who attacked Cama hospital during 26/11 spoke Marathi fluently. That some of the calls made on the phones of the attackers of 26/11 were traced to Sholapur but these leads were not followed up by ATS. The bloody attack on the train blasts accused within the prison walls was due to the instructions of the jail superintendent Swati Sathe. On the day the nine accused were given bail in Malegaon blasts of 2006, a prison officer had told Shahid Azmi’s brother lawyer that he would have his son also framed in a case and have him imprisoned. Not to speak of the conspiracy behind the assassination of Hemant Karkare but coming fast forward to the present scenario in Maharashtra, what is happening now is even more a matter of reflection. There is a tussle taking place wherein the state and the investigation agencies (some of them at least) work at variance with what they are supposed to do. They are in stark terms not taking the line of investigation that the case and available leads demand. One such is the August 1, 2012 Pune blast. The central government had taken a serious note of it. The newly appointed home minister Sushilkumar Shinde had bluntly said: “We have taken Pune incident very seriously and will announce all the details once the investigation is completed.” There is a hint here that the home department would take the matter to its logical end. In other words, he means to be professional and unbiased. He would also want the agencies to be non-partisan in their work. Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar even voiced poignant criticism of the very casual view of the state police. He said: “It appears our intelligence gathering network is poor. This situation is unacceptable. There appears to be negligence at certain levels. If the officers are not performing, the state must take stringent action.” One Dyanand Patil was carrying the bomb according to the earliest reports from Pune shortly after the blast. Thereafter, new and attenuating facts and implications are given to his arrest. First, that he picked up the box thinking it to contain cake. It is ridiculous that anyone would pick up such a box from the road unless he is a hungry beggar. Then another angle that he had visited Arab countries like Jordan. Then Sakal on 3 August “revealed” that he had converted to Islam! And that he had a “Gujarat connection.” This would mean that this convert was a radical Muslim like Javid aka Pranesh Pillai aka Javed Ghulam Sheikh who was killed along with Ishrat Jehan in a fake encounter. Pillai was from Pune and most certainly was killed for the common agenda of blaming Muslims for seeking revenge for 2002 genocide in Gujarat. Not only this, the investigation has got a new dynamic by this claim about his alleged conversion and the Gujarat connection. “The conversion of Patil has given a tremendous boost to investigation!”(patilani dharmaanter keleya che ughadkees aale aahe. Yamude sphotancheya tapasala gatee midali aahe), said a report. Next to come was: Why did he have frequent talk on phone with his friend Ramzan Sheikh? Maharashtra is the breeding ground of terrorism of the Hindu right. Excepting 1993 blasts, blasts in the state have the distinct signature of the extremist Hindu organizations. They either explode bombs to put the blame on Muslims or explode bombs to take revenge but blame Muslims nevertheless. Furthermore, the Hindutva ideology includes burning the grounds under the Muslims so that they either accept Hinduism or leave the country. This ideology was and is associated with both Savarkar and Golwalkar. Both were Maharashtrians. Their descendants have inherited the same ideology of hate for Muslims and espousal of an exclusionary nationalism. Their sympathizers are galore in the state and outside. But Maharashtra being the birthplace of this ideology, it is but natural that its influence would be felt here even today. For example, Pius Agarwal, the son of the owner of a bicycle shop that sold one of the bicycles to explode bombs in the graveyard and Mushawarat chowk of Malegaon in 2006, said on his mobile what his customer Shakeel Ahmad Muhammad Yusuf overheard: “Jo samaan aapan log ankai ki pahadi key pas baudy men rakhe the wah sub samaan raj wardhan saheb kee maujoodgi me uth gaya aur jo sub naam ki list aapan diye the uskay mutabik sey raj wardhan saheb sey meri ru ba ru baat cheet ho gaye hai. Sab naam ki mukammal setting baith gayee hai. Sab kaam perfect hai aur aage ki jo karwai hai who aapan log beyth kar wahaan programme banayen ge” (Whatever material we had put in the well near Ankai hill has been lifted away in the presence of Rajwardhan saheb. And according to the list of names that we had supplied, regarding that I had talked with Rajwardhan face to face. The setting has been done exactly in accordance with the list of names. Everything is perfectly (matching). We will chalk out the future action when we meet there). This clearly implies that some material was deposited in a (dry) well near Ankai hill off Manmad town on the highway to Yeola. There is every possibility that this could be the RDX and arms and ammunition which was recovered from the site as the ATS had claimed. In fact, two wooden boxes filled with ammunition and explosives and a CPU frame containing one AK 47 was found at Ankai. But this was part of the much larger arms haul at Aurangabad and Malegaon. If proved true, it would lead to the conclusion that people were framed and made accused in the arms seizure (the 21 accused of which 16 were arrested by the police then while others were arrested later). This perfectly fits into the design of the conspiracy. When carried to its logical conclusion, the so-called Abu Jundal or Zabiuddin Ansari as a police informer was also involved as he according to the reports led the police to this haul. But the heart of the matter is that Pius Agarwal and the SP of Malegaon Rajwardhan Sinha were allegedly a part of this high treason that is in other words the conspiracy for which Muslims of Malegaon were made to wear the cross. Their years in prison have not come to end as of July 2015. So their agony is unmapped and incalculable. Then anxiety and care worn life of family members know no quantum it would jump to. And its impact on the wretchedness of the life of the minority suspect. This network of suffering went into the warp and whoop of Mohammad Shakeel’s wife and daughters were weaving in the carpets near Delhi. There is another affidavit of Abrar Ahmed, one of the accused in bomb blasts of 2006. He was a police informer who was made approver. He later turned hostile. At the instance of Rajwardhan, he got a friend of his namely Hamid Husain Iqbal Ahmed utter a tutored sentence from a phone to Abrar’s mobile number 9823436809. The sentence was recorded. Even Rajwadhan had recorded this sentence on his mobile number 9422250775. Both the accused and the police officer made the recording, heard it and confirmed it. The substance of the recorded conversation is that whatever material the speaker on the phone and his associates wanted to bring into the town they had brought it in. If this sentence refers to RDX as the material, it would mean that the material was used to make bombs that exploded on September 8, 2006. This sentence the police wanted to ascribe to Muhammad Zahid Majid Ahmed. They made two CD recording and sealed it and presented it in the court as proof of Zahid’s involvement in the blasts though on the day of the blasts he was hundreds of miles away in Phoolsanghvi village in Yawatmal district. His brother Mohmmad Javid was arrested in the Aurangabad Arms Haul Case in May 2006. In this way the ATS yoked the two cases together. The two cases of Malegaon blasts 2006 and the arms haul 2006 would collapse in a court of law like a pack of cards if the two affidavits are thoroughly vetted and investigated professionally and objectively. Then it will be clear whether the agents provocateur came from Pakistan or Bihar and Madhya Pardesh and who were their local supports. The Imam had led prayers nearly a quarter of a century before he was put in prison where he speant nearly 5 more years and led prayers there albeit with a melodramatic change—a lesson for the Hindus and Muslims of the free world outside the jail. He amicably offered his Hindu brethren the offer to adjust Hindu Muslim prayers in such a way that there is no clash in the timing. They welcomed it. “There were times when I was completely shattered but several Hindu inmates would sit next to me and console me. They said I would be released if I had not done anything wrong.’’ Another inmate was Saji Mohan accused in drug peddling. “He would prefer to keep himself busy reading the Bible and his legal papers. He hardly spoke to other inmates but, whenever we met, he would talk to me very politely and console me.’’ This is a rare comfort in despair, to use a phrase of Alan Paton from his Cry, the beloved country. Sajid also belongs to the same country as the Imam. Yet he is so different. The police used him as informer and also blamed him for attempting to overthrow the government! How the accused live with other accused and in the same city live with the PC of Mumbai AN Roy who accused the Imam of receiving 40 lakh rupees through hawal and harbourig the Kashmiris from whom arms were recovered. The huge amount was alleged collected by the Kashmisis for carrying out terror attacks in Mumbai. Then the only charge that remained to convict them was the cache of arms. If that was only a plant, then? Like what Sajid planted or Pius Agarwal at the behest of SP Rajwardhan Sinha? Sajid is from a slum of Malegaon and the arms haul case witness were also from a famous slum known as central talkies Id gah. It is a notorious place for brothels, dug trafficking and dens of gamblers. The police can easily outsource witnesses in any case with no loss of time and urgently summon them at the most unearthly times too. They seem to oblige the police for a quid pro quo. The locals arrested in arms haul case had the inhabitants of that murky place as their witnesses whom they had never even seen. One such accused was the imam of another mosque 500 km away in Phool Sanghvai in Yawatmal district. Zahid, the imam, and his brother Javed were arrested because of mistaken identity. The police wanted one Mohammad and as the two were Mohammads the police under Sinha exercised their discretion and put one (imam) in the 2006 blasts case and another in 2006 arms haul. They remind you another divine Mufti Qayum Mansuri of Godhra and asked him to choose in which case he would like himself placed, Godhra train burning, Akshardham or Haren Pandya. Is anyone out there in Malegaon who can write his own Cry, the beloved country? ------ http://www.ndtv.com/mumbai-news/mumbai-four-held-for-planting-explosives-at-a-garage-445511 Index Abdullah, Dr Farooqu 165 Abdullah, Omar 99 Abhinav Bharat53, 153 Abdul Rahim Kathewala 75, 78 Advani, LK 80, 128, 144, 191 Abrar Ahmad 15 Abu Gharib 138, 158 Adam Suleiman Ajmiri 9 Ahmad, MLA Nihal44 Agarwal, Pius 200 Agnevish, swami 9 Akbar, MJ 167, 168 Akshardham temple attack 179 Amin, Dr Narendra 66 Amnesty International 90 Anderson, Benedict 119 Anis Kalejiwala 109 Ansari, Fahim 33, 96 Ansari, Vice President Hamid 127, 129 Ansari, Zabiuddin 184 Anwar al Awlaki 127 Asimanand, Swami 73 103, 104, 133 Apte Shyam 52, 53 Arif Majeed 115 Arthur Road Jail 137 Atali 117- Ayodhya 111 Azmi, Shahid 33, 156- Babu Bajrangi 131 Bagram 158 Baig, Mirza Himayat 161 Baksh, Maulana Gulam Yahya Ilahi (Imam of Haj House) 16, 197 Balkrishnan, Chief Justice KG 171 Bhagwat, Mohan 38, 42, 52 Bharatbhai, Riteshwar 102, 103 Bhatt, Sanjiv 30 Bhave, Vikram 52 Bilkis Bano 43 Bush, President George 83 Camus, Alber 155 Carmeli, Nissim Sean 113 Chaturvedi, sudhakar 154 Choudhar, Rajendra 73 Coimbatore riots 189 Desai, PM Morarji 176 Dhawde, Rakesh 153 Dulat, AS 167 Gandhi, Rahul39 Guantanamo Bay 138 Hashipura 6 Heywood, Kenneth 76 Damle, Nilu 109 Dange, Sandeep 102 Dharmpal shivanch 9 Dimapur (Nagaland)-18 Doval, Ajit K 97, 124 Farooqui, Shaheen 113 Fernandes, George 35, 43 Gandhi, Sonia 105 Gill, KPS 125 Godhra 87, 169, 175 Golding, William 20 Gujarat pogroms 110 Gulberg society 85 Gupta, Shekhar 125 Hakla, Amit 73 Haywood, Kenneth 163 Headley, Richard 99 Hindu Jagran Manch143 Hindu Rashtra Sena 37 Hirsi Ali 171 Human Rights Watch 93, 94, 113 Ibraheem, Dawood 114 Ignatieff, Michael 55 Indian Mujahideen 83 Iqbal Wadiwala 114 Ismail, Mufti 32, 105 Ishrat Jahan 114, 125 Ishtiyaq 137 Jafri, Ahsan 85, 92 Jafri, Mrs Zakia 85 Javed, Mohammad 106 Jha, Rohit Kumar 174 Johnson, Dr Samuel 155 Joshi, Sunil 102 Kalsangrah, Ramji 102 Karkare, Hemant 134, 135, 147 Kasab, Ajmal 33, 96 Kerry, John 98 Kaushik, KR 61 Khalra, Jaswant Singh 125 Khan, Asif 94 Khan, Ismail 96 Khan, Sharif, 17-22, 35 Khudai khidmatgar 122 Kudasne, SP Sunil 32 Kulkarni, Sameer 52 Kumar, Indresh 52,72 Kumar, Manohar 73 Kumar, Rajendra 61, 99, 114 Jafri, Mrs Zakia 29 Latif Lala 114 Madhav, Ram 129 Mahaja, Pramod 80 Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce 26 Majeed, Asif Fayaz 113, Majid, 106, 109 Malegaon 10, 13, 44, 83, 101, 105, delegation 187 Mansoor Peerbhoy 83 Mansoorie, Mehboob 92 Memon, Yakub 8 Misar, Ajay 133 Modasa 83 Modi, PM Narendra 14, 20, 28, 46, 80, 85, 86, 99, 111, 125 Mody, Rupa 85 Mohsin, Shaikh 37 Mujahid, Khalid 70 Mufti Mukaram 10, Musharraf, Mian (President Pervez) 99, 100 Muthalik, Pramod 7 Muzammil, Akhtar 74, 152 Muzaffarnagar 117 Myanmar 97 Mysorewalla, KK 91 Narayanan, President KR 11,12, 85 Naroda Patia 93 Nayyar, Kuldip 77 Nigerians 22 Nizam Ali 121 Nussbaum, Martha C 176 Obama, President Barack 47,48, 55, 79, 113, 114,127 Ode village 84 Oweisi, Akbaruddin 62 Pandya, Someshwar 177 Parrikar, Manohar 95, 99 Pasricha, DGP Dr PS 15, 77 Patel, Ehsan 114 Patel, CM Keshubhai 133 Patil, Dyanand 200 Patil, RR 95 Paton, Alan 203 Pearl, Daniel 51 Pracha, Mehmood 159- Raghuvanshi, KP 15, 59 Qayum, Maulana Mansuri 15, 46, 51, 54, 69, 125, 203 Purohit, LtCol Prasad 52, 84, 138, letter to Modi 138, 148- Rana, Sureh 26 RSS Rashtriy Swayamsevak Sangh ,6, 53, 129, 142 Rehman, Rizwanur 36 Ribeiro, Julio 35, 42, 134 Roy, CP AN 203 Sadiq Jamal Mahtar 28, 114, 115 Sajida 109 Sadhvi Prachi 130, 163 Sakshi Maharaj 39, 79, 119 Salian, Rohini 42, 131- 151 Samir Khan Pathan 63, 66 Sanatan Sansthan 54 Sangh Parivar warning 182 Sangari, commissioner of police SM 184 Sardarpura 49, Saroptdar, Madhukar 57 Sathe, Swati 140 Seema Mustafa 167 Shabbier Mullah 122 Sen, Amartya 13, 124 Setalvad, Teesta 48 Shah, Amit 58, 59 Shah, Sonal 84 Shahnawaz 7 Shamshunnisha 107 Sharma, Lokesh 102 Sharma, Moolchand 118 Sheikh, Fahad, Tanvir 113 Sheikh, MLA Asif 73 Shabbir 89 Shahida 110 Shaikh Sajid 195- Shakeel Ahmad/Mohammd 70 Shameem Banu 88 Shelke, Shankar 149 Sheena Sumaria 43 Shri Ram Sene 7 Siddiqui, Qateel 70 Signal Falia 88 Singh, Dhan 73 Singh, Giriraj 79 Singh, Hukum 26 Singh, PM Dr Manmohan 86 Singh, HM Rajnath 19 Singh, Dr RP 127 Singh, Rajvardhan (Rathor) 98, 99 Singh, Randhir 173 Singhal, Ashok 100, 115 Singhal, GL 49, 66, 70 Sinha, Rajwardhan 76, 105, 106, 203 Sophia Bano 176 Spoor killing 99 Sreekumar, RB 178 Srivastva, RK 138 Steinbeck, John 108 Steingerb, Max 113, Students Islamic Movement of India 90 Subhan, Dr 76 Sufi Azam fakir 27 Swett, Dr Katrina Lantros 34, 86, Tabligi Jamat 60, 112, Tandel, Alam Naim 113 Tariq Ramzan 171 Tata Institute of Social Sciences 104, 105 Taufiqu’s mother Zahida 137 Tekri (Tikri) Brahman 123 Thackeray, Bal 82, 190 Thakur, Sadhvi Pragyasingh 102, 103 Thapar, Karan 86 Thapar, Romila 30 Tendulkar, Vijay 83 Todi, Pryanka 36 Togadia, Parvin 62, 115, 116 Turkeman gate 7 Udaiyya, Anita 33 Umerji, Maulana 14, 87,88 Vajpayee, PM AB 9, 14, 60, 72,85, 87, 88, 91, 99, 164, 165, 181 Vanzara, DG 15, 49, 51, 63,70, 100, 111, 125, 132, 179 Vaquaruddin Ahmad 63, 64, 67 Verma, Justice JS 91 Wahabism 179 William Wodsworth 171 Zahid, Maulana Mohammad 15, 106 Zelaing, CM of Nagaland 19