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?
Monday, October 26, 2009
Terrorism in Goa: the plot thickens
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 last year. 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.
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.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Dousing fire with petrol : fake encounters
There is need for a holistic understanding of the kind of situation created by the disclosure of the magisterial inquiry report into the fake encounter of Irshad Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Jisan Johar. Our definition of terrorism is not inclusive enough to cover the violence which the police or the state perpetrates on the hapless. We often hear people saying that a terrorist propagates certain causes while committing act of terror. Therefore propaganda is an integral defining feature of terror. This description of terrorism does not touch upon the stealth with which the state agents commit terror or a right wing group does in dastardly anonymity for the fear of being named and prosecuted. What is terrorism of one is fake encounter of another.
Gujarat Health Minister and Spokesperson of the government, Jay Narayan Vyas spoke tongue in cheek when he remarked that Irshat Jahan fake encounter must not be connected or compared with Sohrabuddin case. In both the cases state agents were used to kill ordinary people with hardly any criminal background, except smuggling of arms in the case of Sohrabuddin. In both the cases the killer cops justified the ghoulish murder in the name of deshbhakti or patriotism. DG Vanzara used that vernacular word repeatedly in describing how he and his killer team had killed the “terrorists” out to kill Narendra Modi. This created the kind of biased atmosphere against the victims which also helped consolidate the Chief Minister’s party in state election. Inadvertently the guilty cops sent another set of signal propagating the kind of treatment meted out to the minority community in India. To the groups that receive the signal as excuse for their diabolic design mount their own terrorist revenge attack. What the cops are doing is the “dousing of fire with petrol.”
The political parties and in particular BJP and Shiv Sena never fight shy of their muscle and monetary power in their own support of persons involved in terrorism. Thus BJP leader from Mumbai Kriti Somayia’s asking the government to slam MOCOCA against Abu Azmi for his statement that Ishrat was innocent. But nobody in Gujarat asked Pota to be used against industry minister of the central government Shakarbhai Vaghela when he said that Hindutva groups were behind Modasa blast and the police were deliberately neglecting this aspect. Shiv Sena threatened lawyers if they chose to defend anyone from Muslim community accused in terrorism while at the same time the party hired lawyers to defend Lt Col Prasad Purohit and sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur. This is another dimension of “dousing fire with petrol.”
The most dangerous instance of dousing fire with petrol is when the IB or RAW or Special Task Force or CBI in league with the extremist right wing groups like Abhinav Bharat use mukhbirs or police informers and turn them into terrorists for their own consideration of pleasing their political bosses or for promotion. The finger of suspicion points in this direction even in the case of Ishrat Jahan and the accused in the Malegaon blasts of 2006 and 2008, and even in the Samjhauta express bombing. Fighting fire with fire can burn either side. Therefore look carefully in the burn marks and scars.
In July 2004 the Ghazwa Times of Lashkar acknowledged Ishrat as “a woman activist of LeT.” To understand how this is so should not be a Herculean task as our intelligence agencies have their own established practice of luring Muslim youths in going to Pakistan and taking training at camps. They work for the intelligence agencies which then use them to get official recognition and promotion to lucrative posts by bumping them off and passing this off as terrorists on the way to kill Modi. Then apply the veneer of deshbhukti. Ishrat was kidnapped by Vanzara’s DCB. Why should the police carry away someone by force and illegally and then kill her altogether? In her case, the other three were killed early in night or around midnight but she was put in the car and shot in the seat in the wee hours of the next day! Kauserbi was also done to death. She along with Sohrabuddin was kidnapped from a road in Maharashtra on her way from Hyderabad and then taken to Ahemdabad, her last ride. The modern day Neros were making political capital and collecting spoils of office as the Rome was burning.
The double crossing of the Muslim youth had become so well entrenched that people like Afzal Guru had to buy the lucrative post made available to them by the Special Task Force. Destitute Muslim youths saw in this a break for a better opportunity in life and fell a victim when the police and intelligence agencies double crossed them.
This also happened with Irshad Ali and his colleague Nawab Qamar who worked as police informers to the Special Cell (which has acquired notoriety of having Rajbir Singh and MC Sherma on its staff) of Delhi police and the IB. When they refused to play the authorities declared them terrorists and now they are in jail number 8 of Tihar prison. In his letter to the Prime Minister Irshad revealed how they have been trapped and describes the way IB and Delhi police Special Cell are fighting terror as “dousing fire with petrol.”
Irshad and Nawab’s case has been documented by CBI on the order of the Delhi High Court. These two were coerced by the IB to join Lashkar-e-Toiba camp in Pakistan. They refused. The Special Cell acting at the instance of IB trapped them with the help of Mohamamd Khalid alias Majid of IB in league with the Special Cell officials Lalit, Bhushan, Rajinder and Devdutt kidnapped them and booked and implicated them in false cases.
The collusion between the police and the Hindu right in such matters is undeniable fact. In the case of Sohrabuddin a marble merchant belonging to BJP in Rajasthan had allegedgly tipped (supari) the police against Sohrabuddin. It is also well known that Narendra Modi created the kind of atmosphere where fake encounter is accepted by the people at large. For example, on December 4, 2007 Modi justified the murder of Sohrabuddin at an elelction rally at Mangrol in South Gujarat “he got what he deserved.” He asked the people what would they do to a man who dealt in smuggling of guns. The people thundered “mari nakho, [kill him]” Pat he rejoined: “Then if I have done anything wrong, let the government of Sonia Gandhi hang me.” Another version is: Modi: “What should have been done to a man from whom a large number of AK 47 rifles were recovered, who was on the search list of police from four states, who attacked the police, who had relations with Pakistan and was eyeing to enter Gujarat?” The audience replied: mari nakho, mari nakho. The chief minister then bared his fangs: “Does my government need to take permission of Sonaben for this?” He is using the fake encounter to build up vote bank for the Hindu right party but justifying the cold blooded murder. And he, a chief minister!
Modi’s government did not take permission for renting the farm houses of Hindutva activists in Ahemdabad. In such two houses Sohrabuddin and Kauserbi were kept. In some other such farm houses Ishrat and others must have also passed their last days between their kidnapping on June 12 2004 and night of June 14. Ahemdabad, Delhi, Hyderabad and Nashik and Deolali have acquired world fame of having such farm houses kept by the police and the IB where fake encounter victims are kept until they are dispatched at suitable opportune time. That depends on how much benefit the Hindu right demagogue can derive and what promotional chances of office the concerned cops and intelligence officials have. One such farm house is the Jagtap malla in Nashik where Abrar Ahmed (accused, in the Malelgaon bomb blast 2006) was kept and another in Deolali where he shared rooms with Lt Col Prsad Purohit!
http://kafila.org/2007/09/28/ibs-bearded-jihadi-moulvis-trapping-muslims/
“IB’s bearded ‘jihadi’ moulvis trapping Muslims” The Kashmir Times September 21 2007.
Gujarat Health Minister and Spokesperson of the government, Jay Narayan Vyas spoke tongue in cheek when he remarked that Irshat Jahan fake encounter must not be connected or compared with Sohrabuddin case. In both the cases state agents were used to kill ordinary people with hardly any criminal background, except smuggling of arms in the case of Sohrabuddin. In both the cases the killer cops justified the ghoulish murder in the name of deshbhakti or patriotism. DG Vanzara used that vernacular word repeatedly in describing how he and his killer team had killed the “terrorists” out to kill Narendra Modi. This created the kind of biased atmosphere against the victims which also helped consolidate the Chief Minister’s party in state election. Inadvertently the guilty cops sent another set of signal propagating the kind of treatment meted out to the minority community in India. To the groups that receive the signal as excuse for their diabolic design mount their own terrorist revenge attack. What the cops are doing is the “dousing of fire with petrol.”
The political parties and in particular BJP and Shiv Sena never fight shy of their muscle and monetary power in their own support of persons involved in terrorism. Thus BJP leader from Mumbai Kriti Somayia’s asking the government to slam MOCOCA against Abu Azmi for his statement that Ishrat was innocent. But nobody in Gujarat asked Pota to be used against industry minister of the central government Shakarbhai Vaghela when he said that Hindutva groups were behind Modasa blast and the police were deliberately neglecting this aspect. Shiv Sena threatened lawyers if they chose to defend anyone from Muslim community accused in terrorism while at the same time the party hired lawyers to defend Lt Col Prasad Purohit and sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur. This is another dimension of “dousing fire with petrol.”
The most dangerous instance of dousing fire with petrol is when the IB or RAW or Special Task Force or CBI in league with the extremist right wing groups like Abhinav Bharat use mukhbirs or police informers and turn them into terrorists for their own consideration of pleasing their political bosses or for promotion. The finger of suspicion points in this direction even in the case of Ishrat Jahan and the accused in the Malegaon blasts of 2006 and 2008, and even in the Samjhauta express bombing. Fighting fire with fire can burn either side. Therefore look carefully in the burn marks and scars.
In July 2004 the Ghazwa Times of Lashkar acknowledged Ishrat as “a woman activist of LeT.” To understand how this is so should not be a Herculean task as our intelligence agencies have their own established practice of luring Muslim youths in going to Pakistan and taking training at camps. They work for the intelligence agencies which then use them to get official recognition and promotion to lucrative posts by bumping them off and passing this off as terrorists on the way to kill Modi. Then apply the veneer of deshbhukti. Ishrat was kidnapped by Vanzara’s DCB. Why should the police carry away someone by force and illegally and then kill her altogether? In her case, the other three were killed early in night or around midnight but she was put in the car and shot in the seat in the wee hours of the next day! Kauserbi was also done to death. She along with Sohrabuddin was kidnapped from a road in Maharashtra on her way from Hyderabad and then taken to Ahemdabad, her last ride. The modern day Neros were making political capital and collecting spoils of office as the Rome was burning.
The double crossing of the Muslim youth had become so well entrenched that people like Afzal Guru had to buy the lucrative post made available to them by the Special Task Force. Destitute Muslim youths saw in this a break for a better opportunity in life and fell a victim when the police and intelligence agencies double crossed them.
This also happened with Irshad Ali and his colleague Nawab Qamar who worked as police informers to the Special Cell (which has acquired notoriety of having Rajbir Singh and MC Sherma on its staff) of Delhi police and the IB. When they refused to play the authorities declared them terrorists and now they are in jail number 8 of Tihar prison. In his letter to the Prime Minister Irshad revealed how they have been trapped and describes the way IB and Delhi police Special Cell are fighting terror as “dousing fire with petrol.”
Irshad and Nawab’s case has been documented by CBI on the order of the Delhi High Court. These two were coerced by the IB to join Lashkar-e-Toiba camp in Pakistan. They refused. The Special Cell acting at the instance of IB trapped them with the help of Mohamamd Khalid alias Majid of IB in league with the Special Cell officials Lalit, Bhushan, Rajinder and Devdutt kidnapped them and booked and implicated them in false cases.
The collusion between the police and the Hindu right in such matters is undeniable fact. In the case of Sohrabuddin a marble merchant belonging to BJP in Rajasthan had allegedgly tipped (supari) the police against Sohrabuddin. It is also well known that Narendra Modi created the kind of atmosphere where fake encounter is accepted by the people at large. For example, on December 4, 2007 Modi justified the murder of Sohrabuddin at an elelction rally at Mangrol in South Gujarat “he got what he deserved.” He asked the people what would they do to a man who dealt in smuggling of guns. The people thundered “mari nakho, [kill him]” Pat he rejoined: “Then if I have done anything wrong, let the government of Sonia Gandhi hang me.” Another version is: Modi: “What should have been done to a man from whom a large number of AK 47 rifles were recovered, who was on the search list of police from four states, who attacked the police, who had relations with Pakistan and was eyeing to enter Gujarat?” The audience replied: mari nakho, mari nakho. The chief minister then bared his fangs: “Does my government need to take permission of Sonaben for this?” He is using the fake encounter to build up vote bank for the Hindu right party but justifying the cold blooded murder. And he, a chief minister!
Modi’s government did not take permission for renting the farm houses of Hindutva activists in Ahemdabad. In such two houses Sohrabuddin and Kauserbi were kept. In some other such farm houses Ishrat and others must have also passed their last days between their kidnapping on June 12 2004 and night of June 14. Ahemdabad, Delhi, Hyderabad and Nashik and Deolali have acquired world fame of having such farm houses kept by the police and the IB where fake encounter victims are kept until they are dispatched at suitable opportune time. That depends on how much benefit the Hindu right demagogue can derive and what promotional chances of office the concerned cops and intelligence officials have. One such farm house is the Jagtap malla in Nashik where Abrar Ahmed (accused, in the Malelgaon bomb blast 2006) was kept and another in Deolali where he shared rooms with Lt Col Prsad Purohit!
http://kafila.org/2007/09/28/ibs-bearded-jihadi-moulvis-trapping-muslims/
“IB’s bearded ‘jihadi’ moulvis trapping Muslims” The Kashmir Times September 21 2007.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Malegaon: Terrorism and the enforced disappeared persons
As the UNO and many NGOs marked August 30 2009 as the 26th annual day of the disappeared persons it is necessary to look around to take stock. What happened in Malegaon in the aftermath of the bomb blast of September 8, 2006 is still fresh in the minds of the people. Three bombs exploded at around 1.30 pm at the graveyard mosque of what the locals call bada qabrastan and the adjoining Mushawarat chowk. The first enforced disappearance was not of any person who was alive or had survived the blasts. It was strangely the torso and head of a man who had a false beard. There were many volunteers at the scene like the tailor at the graveyard shopping complex who along with others saw the dead body with the false beard coming off from chin where it was stuck. Many also saw the remains at the Wadia hospital. Later on it disappeared. The police and the investigating agencies have not bothered to explain the situation.
But the day of the disappeared persons is mostly about the living who disappear on otherwise a regular, normal fine day. Mostly it is so in their own world. However, disturbances like acts of terrorism, war and riots or massacres take place where the atmosphere gets affected drastically and events are shrouded in mystery. Thus the disappearance of Shankar Shelke in the country side of Ahmednager on September 9, 2006 is puzzling. He was the scrap monger who could have supplied the RDX for the blast in Malegaon on the previous day. It is alleged that he had it in his stock. But given the vicinity of the army cantonment of Ahmednager there is also fear that it had its provenance there. With a hindsight of the reported revelation that Lt Col Prasad Purohit(allegedly involved in Malegaon September 29, 2008 blast) had procured RDX from the army in Jammu and Kashmir and kept it in his house in Pune and Deolali and also the reported tall and bulky man called Mithun Chakravarthy giving over explosives to several trained persons, the death of Shelke assumes sinister implication. The commissioner of Thane police had opined that the Malegaon blasts of 2006 were connected to the RDX found with Shelke, his disappearance and subsequent unnatural death.
The next such unnatural death arousing suspicion is that of Azhar Pervez who had reportedly approached some people and told them very material evidence about the blasts on shabebarat. Thereafter he disappeared. Later on his body was found in the deserted compound near his house. This is enforced disappearance which in 2006 the UN General Assembly defined and adopted through the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as: "The arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons, or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law." Had the people in whom he had confided the horrible truth of the blasts provided him a protective sheath his testimony in court would have been invaluable.
The Malegaon blasts had taken place in the kind of atmosphere which the then home minister Chaggan Bhujbad and his police had created. He blamed SIMI for every bomb blast in the state and categorically dubbed the Ahlehadesh Muslims to be responsible. They were his bete noire, god alone knows for what reason. However, it is significant to note that the new ATS chief Hemant Karkare had said that as of August 16, 2008 the ATS had not found any involvement of SIMI in the blasts.
Nevertheless, the blame on SIMI had created such a scare that the disappearance of the SIMI president of the town Mohammad Amin Munawar is enigmatic. For, he was preparing meat hamburgers at home for Friday September 8, 2006 afternoon sale. Since then there is no trace of him. If he were a bomber and had conspired to blow up people why should he be making hamburgers for afternoon sale? Another enforced disappearance is that of the old cloth seller Ishtiyaq Ahmed Mustak. The third instance is that of Riyaz Arsalan Shafeeq. They have all disappeared. They were the breadwinners of their families and unlikely to indulge in criminal activities.
The most amazing and legally the most serious is the disappearance of Abrar Ahmed. He would have been what the UNO calls enforced disappeared person but for the habeas corpus that his high court lawyer brother Jalil Ahmed submitted on October 25 2006. From October 25 to December 15, 2006 Abrar was virtually guarded by the police and a police informer and his own brother in law Farooq Vardha. This police informer had a revolver given to him by the police. What for had they given him is a mystery. His one point agenda was to coax Abrar into toeing the police version and confessing his involvement in the blasts. If he did not, was the gun meant for bumping him off? Abrar’s case clearly shows “arrest, detention and abduction.” and “deprivation of liberty by agents of state.” In his affidavit submitted to Judge Shinde he says he was picked up by the police on September 13, 2006.
His arrest and detention was on account of what he had overheard in the Medi Care hospital where some people were talking. They were saying that the blasts were the work of their own people, meaning thereby fellow Hindus. They particularly mentioned Dr Rajender Amin, Dr Bipin Parekh, Someshwar Shankar and a couple of others. The in laws of Abrar discussed the matter of what Abrar had overheard and decided to consult Abrar’s brother in law in Bhiwandi, Farooq Verdha. This is how the police came to know. Rajwardhan showed Abrar some pictures of the suspects whom he did not know. But the senior cop was struck by what Abrar came to know at the Medi Care. In the meantime Abrar’s father and others in the paternal family did not have any contact with him immediately.
Rajwardhan gave Abrar a mobile phone 9823436809 for his use and another phone 9825826597 for his wife. The officer gave his own mobile phone number 9422250775 to them to contact him.
But Abrar and wife could not contact any relatives for the plain clothed police around them prevented it. He was not even allowed to visit Malegaon on the Id day on October 25, 2006. Such deprivation of liberty become even more unbearable as the days passed. He was often threatened of fatal consequences to his person if he did not go according to what the police were saying to him. Ultimately he lost his freedom when he was put in prison from where there is no hope that he would be ever released.
A crucial part of the affidavit which the court will have to analyze is Abrar’s meeting with Lt Col Prasad Purohit who introduced him to ATS in Deolali army cantonment on October 24, 2006. Why should the serving officer of the army introduce him to the ATS? Then on September 1, 2008 ATS officer Jaiswal, Sachin Kadam and Rajwardhan came to see Abrar in Byculla prison and told him that he would have been bailed out by now. But some investigating officers had changed the charge sheet and they (the investigating officers) would be removed as obstacles in two and half month’s time. This was part of their mission. Of course, it was the mission of Jaiswal, Sachin Kadam and Rajwardhan. The question is about what exactly the mission was? Was it a mission conducted by the investigating agencies or the Abhinav Bharat of which Purohit was the pivotal part? Remember that Abrar was brought to meet Dyanand Pandey in Bholenath temple of Ujjain. He also met sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur in the town on September 26, 2006. He stayed there for nine days. All this would imply that the organized crime syndicate is embedded by the civil and military parts. Who has infiltrated who?
For a lay person all such revelations are too awful, it would better be left to the courts to sort out. International bodies like Amnesty International could lend their expertise if we are quite honest and keen about resolving the matter.
But the day of the disappeared persons is mostly about the living who disappear on otherwise a regular, normal fine day. Mostly it is so in their own world. However, disturbances like acts of terrorism, war and riots or massacres take place where the atmosphere gets affected drastically and events are shrouded in mystery. Thus the disappearance of Shankar Shelke in the country side of Ahmednager on September 9, 2006 is puzzling. He was the scrap monger who could have supplied the RDX for the blast in Malegaon on the previous day. It is alleged that he had it in his stock. But given the vicinity of the army cantonment of Ahmednager there is also fear that it had its provenance there. With a hindsight of the reported revelation that Lt Col Prasad Purohit(allegedly involved in Malegaon September 29, 2008 blast) had procured RDX from the army in Jammu and Kashmir and kept it in his house in Pune and Deolali and also the reported tall and bulky man called Mithun Chakravarthy giving over explosives to several trained persons, the death of Shelke assumes sinister implication. The commissioner of Thane police had opined that the Malegaon blasts of 2006 were connected to the RDX found with Shelke, his disappearance and subsequent unnatural death.
The next such unnatural death arousing suspicion is that of Azhar Pervez who had reportedly approached some people and told them very material evidence about the blasts on shabebarat. Thereafter he disappeared. Later on his body was found in the deserted compound near his house. This is enforced disappearance which in 2006 the UN General Assembly defined and adopted through the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as: "The arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons, or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law." Had the people in whom he had confided the horrible truth of the blasts provided him a protective sheath his testimony in court would have been invaluable.
The Malegaon blasts had taken place in the kind of atmosphere which the then home minister Chaggan Bhujbad and his police had created. He blamed SIMI for every bomb blast in the state and categorically dubbed the Ahlehadesh Muslims to be responsible. They were his bete noire, god alone knows for what reason. However, it is significant to note that the new ATS chief Hemant Karkare had said that as of August 16, 2008 the ATS had not found any involvement of SIMI in the blasts.
Nevertheless, the blame on SIMI had created such a scare that the disappearance of the SIMI president of the town Mohammad Amin Munawar is enigmatic. For, he was preparing meat hamburgers at home for Friday September 8, 2006 afternoon sale. Since then there is no trace of him. If he were a bomber and had conspired to blow up people why should he be making hamburgers for afternoon sale? Another enforced disappearance is that of the old cloth seller Ishtiyaq Ahmed Mustak. The third instance is that of Riyaz Arsalan Shafeeq. They have all disappeared. They were the breadwinners of their families and unlikely to indulge in criminal activities.
The most amazing and legally the most serious is the disappearance of Abrar Ahmed. He would have been what the UNO calls enforced disappeared person but for the habeas corpus that his high court lawyer brother Jalil Ahmed submitted on October 25 2006. From October 25 to December 15, 2006 Abrar was virtually guarded by the police and a police informer and his own brother in law Farooq Vardha. This police informer had a revolver given to him by the police. What for had they given him is a mystery. His one point agenda was to coax Abrar into toeing the police version and confessing his involvement in the blasts. If he did not, was the gun meant for bumping him off? Abrar’s case clearly shows “arrest, detention and abduction.” and “deprivation of liberty by agents of state.” In his affidavit submitted to Judge Shinde he says he was picked up by the police on September 13, 2006.
His arrest and detention was on account of what he had overheard in the Medi Care hospital where some people were talking. They were saying that the blasts were the work of their own people, meaning thereby fellow Hindus. They particularly mentioned Dr Rajender Amin, Dr Bipin Parekh, Someshwar Shankar and a couple of others. The in laws of Abrar discussed the matter of what Abrar had overheard and decided to consult Abrar’s brother in law in Bhiwandi, Farooq Verdha. This is how the police came to know. Rajwardhan showed Abrar some pictures of the suspects whom he did not know. But the senior cop was struck by what Abrar came to know at the Medi Care. In the meantime Abrar’s father and others in the paternal family did not have any contact with him immediately.
Rajwardhan gave Abrar a mobile phone 9823436809 for his use and another phone 9825826597 for his wife. The officer gave his own mobile phone number 9422250775 to them to contact him.
But Abrar and wife could not contact any relatives for the plain clothed police around them prevented it. He was not even allowed to visit Malegaon on the Id day on October 25, 2006. Such deprivation of liberty become even more unbearable as the days passed. He was often threatened of fatal consequences to his person if he did not go according to what the police were saying to him. Ultimately he lost his freedom when he was put in prison from where there is no hope that he would be ever released.
A crucial part of the affidavit which the court will have to analyze is Abrar’s meeting with Lt Col Prasad Purohit who introduced him to ATS in Deolali army cantonment on October 24, 2006. Why should the serving officer of the army introduce him to the ATS? Then on September 1, 2008 ATS officer Jaiswal, Sachin Kadam and Rajwardhan came to see Abrar in Byculla prison and told him that he would have been bailed out by now. But some investigating officers had changed the charge sheet and they (the investigating officers) would be removed as obstacles in two and half month’s time. This was part of their mission. Of course, it was the mission of Jaiswal, Sachin Kadam and Rajwardhan. The question is about what exactly the mission was? Was it a mission conducted by the investigating agencies or the Abhinav Bharat of which Purohit was the pivotal part? Remember that Abrar was brought to meet Dyanand Pandey in Bholenath temple of Ujjain. He also met sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur in the town on September 26, 2006. He stayed there for nine days. All this would imply that the organized crime syndicate is embedded by the civil and military parts. Who has infiltrated who?
For a lay person all such revelations are too awful, it would better be left to the courts to sort out. International bodies like Amnesty International could lend their expertise if we are quite honest and keen about resolving the matter.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The Heart of the Matter: Partition
In the current controversy over Jinnah some ask with a smirk why India having an ancient civilization should be so much haunted by the past so soon and so often after its independence from the British. So soon, since we got independence in 1947 and so often since LK Advani’s tour of Pakistan in2005 and his hangover of that country’s founder and now Jaswant Singh’s book on qaid-e-azam, India, independence and partition. Still water runs deep and if historical events remain so dominant in shaping the present then there is something pathetic about it.
The creation of Pakistan or rather the inevitability of this eventuality and the role of religion ascribed to it is a matter of perennial interest. During a visit to London the Indian leaders sat for dinner. Sardar Patel, however, did not sit with the group. Afterwards Jinnah noticed him eating alone. He mused about Patel not deigning to eat with the rest. As an epiphany he found that it could be because there were people like him whom Patel did not consider equal and acceptable so far as the caste equation is concerned. If that was so how could the Muslims and Hindus share power and live together in an independent country after the British had left? This haughtier of Patel also comes out when he was home minister in the power sharing constitutional government. He could not appoint a peon without the approval of the finance minister who was from Muslim League. This drove him to such anger that he wished to have the country partitioned rather than governed together. The guilty men of India’s partition did play some role. The Hindu Mahasabha as well as Congress did want the partition of Punjab and Bengal although Jinnah had an altogether different view over the two provinces. (Something like the present time when BJP would be happy to have Jammu and Kashmir trifurcated between Hindu majority Jammu, Buddhist dominant Laddakh and the valley where the Muslims are in majority. )
Could Patel’s reluctance to eat with Jinnah be the result of hatred? There are people who feel so. Among them is Khushwant Singh who in his write up The Legacy of Jinnah says that hatred generated by history is the cause of partition. If this view persists then does it imply that the dynamic force of hatred is the motivating factor of those who want to continue to show the Muslims their place in independent India? Jinnah did change tactics to achieve his goal of having equitable share for Muslims in the governance of the emerging independent India. It was abysmal display of events which put his thought of equitable share in life and government beyond reach given the attitude of some Congress leaders. The strategic objective of equitability was invariable though he wanted to reach it by shuffling different tactics.
The division of India has made some wear their nationalism on their sleeves and be vociferous about it. Many such were not that enthusiastic during the freedom struggle, they were even very obliging to the British. It is they who have not let the ghost of Jinnah be buried once for all. They evoke it from time to time whenever the time is out of joint for them.
The creation of Pakistan or rather the inevitability of this eventuality and the role of religion ascribed to it is a matter of perennial interest. During a visit to London the Indian leaders sat for dinner. Sardar Patel, however, did not sit with the group. Afterwards Jinnah noticed him eating alone. He mused about Patel not deigning to eat with the rest. As an epiphany he found that it could be because there were people like him whom Patel did not consider equal and acceptable so far as the caste equation is concerned. If that was so how could the Muslims and Hindus share power and live together in an independent country after the British had left? This haughtier of Patel also comes out when he was home minister in the power sharing constitutional government. He could not appoint a peon without the approval of the finance minister who was from Muslim League. This drove him to such anger that he wished to have the country partitioned rather than governed together. The guilty men of India’s partition did play some role. The Hindu Mahasabha as well as Congress did want the partition of Punjab and Bengal although Jinnah had an altogether different view over the two provinces. (Something like the present time when BJP would be happy to have Jammu and Kashmir trifurcated between Hindu majority Jammu, Buddhist dominant Laddakh and the valley where the Muslims are in majority. )
Could Patel’s reluctance to eat with Jinnah be the result of hatred? There are people who feel so. Among them is Khushwant Singh who in his write up The Legacy of Jinnah says that hatred generated by history is the cause of partition. If this view persists then does it imply that the dynamic force of hatred is the motivating factor of those who want to continue to show the Muslims their place in independent India? Jinnah did change tactics to achieve his goal of having equitable share for Muslims in the governance of the emerging independent India. It was abysmal display of events which put his thought of equitable share in life and government beyond reach given the attitude of some Congress leaders. The strategic objective of equitability was invariable though he wanted to reach it by shuffling different tactics.
The division of India has made some wear their nationalism on their sleeves and be vociferous about it. Many such were not that enthusiastic during the freedom struggle, they were even very obliging to the British. It is they who have not let the ghost of Jinnah be buried once for all. They evoke it from time to time whenever the time is out of joint for them.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
BJP sans introspection
The controversy over Jaswantsingh’s expulsion and the ongoing crisis over Arun Shourie is nothing new. The RSS has again let the genii of its essentialism out of the bottle and the monster does not want to be imprisoned anymore. The ideological base of the BJP and RSS is also their raison d’etre. At the core is its twisted view of cultural nationalism which excludes the minorities, mainly the Muslims. The Dalit Christians are hardly distinguishable except when they attend the church. The Jains and Sikhs do not arouse any ill will as they are viewed to be culturally embedded in Hinduism. Therefore sanitized enough to be national minded.
To have a peep at the trouble in BJP is to look back at their practices and precepts. Or, to see the extreme reaction in defense of Pragyasingh Thakur and the other accused in Malegaon blasts.
PTI In this August 1, 2009 photo activists of Sanskriti Bachao Manch in Bhopal celebrate after a special court dropped charges under MCOCA against Sadhvi Pragnya Singh, Lt. Col. Purohit and nine other accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
At the Panjim conclave of BJP on April 12 2002 the Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee remarked what no Prime Minister had ever uttered even in private. Post 9/11 when Huntington was made out to be relevant, Vajpayee without bothering to see any nuance in meaning and implication and relevance said of Muslims “not wanting to live together with other communities and wanting to propagate their viewpoint with terror and faith…In Indonesia, Malaysia, wherever Muslims are living they don't want to live in harmony…They don't mix with the society [ghul milkar nahin rehte]. They are not interested in living in peace…Talwar ke bal par mat ka prachar nahin karna chahiye…Aag lagayi kisne?..Aag faily kaise?”
Even before he became PM he had aired such views, he wrote in Organiser May1995: “Islam has yet to learn the art of existing and flourishing in a country where Muslims are in a minority. They cannot convert the whole of India to Islam. After all, they have to live here… The Muslims of this country can be treated in three ways.... One is 'tiraskar' which means if they will not themselves change leave them alone, reject them as our compatriots. Second is 'puruskar' which is appeasement, i.e., bribe them to behave, which is being done by the Congress and others of their ilk. The third way is 'parishkar' meaning to change them, that is, restore them to the mainstream by providing them samskaras.”
He was subscribing to the egregious postulate of the clash of civilization that Muslims have difficulties in living with their neighbours, nay, their intestines are also bloody! How could he have overlooked that hardly a month had passed when the Muslims were subjected to the worst state sponsored pogroms in the subcontinent. Gujarat 2002 massacre of Muslims went on despite the President of India KR Narayanan writing letters to his own Prime Minister to act to save lives and Vajpayee not heeding it! Or was Gujarat 2002 a samskaras?
It is difficult to tell the Home Minister from the Prime Minister because of the sharing of the ideology. LK Advani was sustained by what Vajpayee had uttered and had no qualms in telling the audience in Panjim that there was no need to feel apologetic as far as the ideology is concerned. The two versions of Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie as to what happened in the plane on its way to Goa are the warp and woof of the yarn of that ideology. The man who reminded Narendra Modi what is rajdharm and reminded the world of the shame of Gujarat did not have enough of it to cross the bar. Sending away the secretary to prevent him from taking the dictation of the resignation letter or taking away the paper from the hands of the PM so that he would not write it smacks of orchestrated defense of the in-defensible. Resignation is not resigning to your fate or circumstances.
What Shourie has said must be taken in overall context of what he has been saying in his entire career as a journalist and a politician. While he was taking part in a discussion on Tavleen Singh’s book on her being politically incorrect he had said that if Muslims do not stop demanding implementation of Sachar recommendations then no one can stop Modi from reaching Delhi. Thus he was also voicing rejection of puraskar in favour of parishkar. What else that is if not cutting Muslims to their size and showing them their place, second class citizens of their country. Glued to this kind of ideology, his call for RSS to bombard the headquarters of BJP and take over the party which in the same vein he dubs as kati patang is hardly any introspection. It is this introspection they are not capable of. Had they done it in the humid air of Goa the rarified air of Shimla would not be needed with the monsoon clouds darkening the sky. Did the Ku Klux Klan ever introspect?
To have a peep at the trouble in BJP is to look back at their practices and precepts. Or, to see the extreme reaction in defense of Pragyasingh Thakur and the other accused in Malegaon blasts.
PTI In this August 1, 2009 photo activists of Sanskriti Bachao Manch in Bhopal celebrate after a special court dropped charges under MCOCA against Sadhvi Pragnya Singh, Lt. Col. Purohit and nine other accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
At the Panjim conclave of BJP on April 12 2002 the Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee remarked what no Prime Minister had ever uttered even in private. Post 9/11 when Huntington was made out to be relevant, Vajpayee without bothering to see any nuance in meaning and implication and relevance said of Muslims “not wanting to live together with other communities and wanting to propagate their viewpoint with terror and faith…In Indonesia, Malaysia, wherever Muslims are living they don't want to live in harmony…They don't mix with the society [ghul milkar nahin rehte]. They are not interested in living in peace…Talwar ke bal par mat ka prachar nahin karna chahiye…Aag lagayi kisne?..Aag faily kaise?”
Even before he became PM he had aired such views, he wrote in Organiser May1995: “Islam has yet to learn the art of existing and flourishing in a country where Muslims are in a minority. They cannot convert the whole of India to Islam. After all, they have to live here… The Muslims of this country can be treated in three ways.... One is 'tiraskar' which means if they will not themselves change leave them alone, reject them as our compatriots. Second is 'puruskar' which is appeasement, i.e., bribe them to behave, which is being done by the Congress and others of their ilk. The third way is 'parishkar' meaning to change them, that is, restore them to the mainstream by providing them samskaras.”
He was subscribing to the egregious postulate of the clash of civilization that Muslims have difficulties in living with their neighbours, nay, their intestines are also bloody! How could he have overlooked that hardly a month had passed when the Muslims were subjected to the worst state sponsored pogroms in the subcontinent. Gujarat 2002 massacre of Muslims went on despite the President of India KR Narayanan writing letters to his own Prime Minister to act to save lives and Vajpayee not heeding it! Or was Gujarat 2002 a samskaras?
It is difficult to tell the Home Minister from the Prime Minister because of the sharing of the ideology. LK Advani was sustained by what Vajpayee had uttered and had no qualms in telling the audience in Panjim that there was no need to feel apologetic as far as the ideology is concerned. The two versions of Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie as to what happened in the plane on its way to Goa are the warp and woof of the yarn of that ideology. The man who reminded Narendra Modi what is rajdharm and reminded the world of the shame of Gujarat did not have enough of it to cross the bar. Sending away the secretary to prevent him from taking the dictation of the resignation letter or taking away the paper from the hands of the PM so that he would not write it smacks of orchestrated defense of the in-defensible. Resignation is not resigning to your fate or circumstances.
What Shourie has said must be taken in overall context of what he has been saying in his entire career as a journalist and a politician. While he was taking part in a discussion on Tavleen Singh’s book on her being politically incorrect he had said that if Muslims do not stop demanding implementation of Sachar recommendations then no one can stop Modi from reaching Delhi. Thus he was also voicing rejection of puraskar in favour of parishkar. What else that is if not cutting Muslims to their size and showing them their place, second class citizens of their country. Glued to this kind of ideology, his call for RSS to bombard the headquarters of BJP and take over the party which in the same vein he dubs as kati patang is hardly any introspection. It is this introspection they are not capable of. Had they done it in the humid air of Goa the rarified air of Shimla would not be needed with the monsoon clouds darkening the sky. Did the Ku Klux Klan ever introspect?
Monday, August 10, 2009
Canonizing the sadhvi
The dropping of Maharashtra Control of Organized Crimes act against Sadhvi Pragyasing Thakur and others is based on incidence rather than the real nature of the crimes. The case is still through the judicial process. However, indications and implications engage the mind because of the nature of the crimes. One is: the involvement of Rakesh Dhawde in several incidents of bomb blasts in a number of mosques over a period of several years. The courts have not found this serious. At the same time the confession under third degree torture of the Muslims accused in July 2008 Ahmdabad blasts and Malegaon blasts 2006 is proof of terrorism. Parallel to this is organized attempt to make the sadhvi beyond reproach and a cult figure of great significance.
There is clear connection among the Sanatan Sansthan, Hindu Jagran Samiti and Abhnav Bharat and several others. In a phone conversation of October 23 2008 Ll Col Shrikant Purohit tells Major Ramesh Upadhya that the Rashtrawadi Congress(NCP) was behind the probe into Malegaon 2008 blast to divert attention from Raj Thackeray’s movement against the North Indians which had drawn so much flak against the home ministry in Mahrashtra then in the hands of NCP. He also said that Hindu Jagran Samiti was the Maharashtrian face of Sanatan Sansthan. These and other allied organizations like Bajrang Dal and VHP have avowed to use violence against the Muslims and other minorities. What is more they have left track record that they have often resorted to violence including terror tactics to achieve their aims and would do the same in future. In the case of Abhinav Bharat the aim is subversion of the constitution of the country and secession.
The larger framework of the case goes beyond terrorism. Lieutenant colonel Purohit and Shankaracharya Dyanand Pandey wanted to establish a Hindu Rashtra for which the military officer in service wanted to seek the help of the Israeli government or the Mossad and they had for all intents and purposes secured it. They had to give some results and the two results which Purohit has mentioned in his confession are most likely the two serial bomb blasts at Malegaon. But he was also involved in the group Abhinav Bharat or other such which caused bomb explosions at Nanded, Purna, Jalna and Parbhani. There is a new dimension that the 60 kg RDX which Purohit had procured from the army was used in the Samjhauta express incident of February 2007.
This should make every true national minded person sit up and take cognizance of the serious nature of the crime.
The sadhvi and the serving Lt Col were part of an organized group who had held meetings at various places and had even used Bhonsla military schools at Nashik and Nagpur for criminal acts of high treason and terrorist violence to sow hatred among people. In this they used serving as well as retired personnel of the Indian army regularly like Purohit and navy officer Sanatkumar Bhate.
Plethora of proof is now available for the discerning, if not for the intelligence and security agencies. There is the strange case of Abrar Ahmed. This is simply mindboggling. He was kept in a secret place by the police and forced to accept the role of becoming an approver. Through the despicable process of double crossing the police extracted false statements of incriminating people who had nothing to do with the 2006 blasts in Malegaon. Moreover the fear of the consequences of the Samjhauta express attack of February 2007 having some connection with the army made the national security agency as well as foreign ministry warn the central government of the implications of the disclosures regarding Ll Col Purohit for the bilateral relationship in the subcontinent as well as India’s standing in the world. Pakistan nevertheless used this as a stick to beat India on the issue of terrorism and the US took note of this startling disclosure. Such a heinous crime involving the serving lieutenant of the army was a great embarrassment to all right thinking people.
There are very serious implications of the affidavit that the induced witness Abrar Ahmed has given from jail through his lawyer brother Jalil Ahmed. Of course our courts are competent to deal with such matters but it is first of its kind and hence it needs notice of the public at large. For example, the superintendent of police in Malegaon, Rajwardhan it was who arranged Abrar to live in a house in Deolali army camp with Purohit around October 25 2006. Abrar accuses ATS of housing him in hotel Pritam of Dadar in Mumbai and treating him to a pleasure trip to the Gateway of India, etc at their expense. Rajwardhan it was who had sent him to Ujjain where he was introduced to Pragyasingh Thakur in October 2006. Rajwardhan it was at whose instance he not only had an audience with Shankaracharya Dyanand Pandey but had video film made of the visit. But then these are matters of the affidavit that Abrar has submitted to Judge Shinde from his cell in Bycullah jail. Interestingly it was here that he saw the sadhvi and the military officer and recognized them easily as they were entered there after their arrest in 2008 blast.
Abrar’s basic contention is that he was induced by senior most police officer of Malegaon Rajwardhan to commit perjury that the accused of the bomb blasts of September 8, 2006 viz., Noorulhoda and others had planted the bombs. Numerous acts show how the police officer used carrot and stick method of double crossing Abrar. On October 23 2006 Abrar and his wife were taken out for festive shopping when he contacted his brother Farid Ahmed from a PCO. Farid responded to his call on his mobile 9372710109. Abrar says he and his wife were given separate mobile phones (9823436809,9825826597) by Rajwardhan and that he was made to say incriminating sentences which were recorded on the phones and played to him to hear in the room adjoining that of Purohit.
The confessions of Purohit and Dyanand Pandey and their recording on their laptops will make any judge take serious note of what was going on in the murky world of these individuals who have enormous clout and wide range of contacts throughout the length and breadth of the country. For example, Purohit along with Sanatkumar Bhate and the mysterious “Mithun Chakarborty,” among others, is involved in not just supplying RDX but also giving training to more than 500 youths in carrying out terrorist attacks. Are some of the “outsiders” which Tehelka stumbled upon in its continued crusade of exposing and fighting terrorists, the Malegaon bombers, eleven behind bars and three at large, from the 2008 and almost all still absconding from the 2006? The Samjhauta imbroglio is still stymied and hence a nagging mystery.
Similarly the confession of another accused in the Godhra case calls our attention. It provides an inkling into how there is a sinister design in trapping the innocents to accept police version. This would prove one point that there was a super ordinate agency, either intelligence or a group or a mixture of both which wanted bomb blasts to take place but blame to go to SIMI or its new avatar IM.
The confession of the star witness of Gujarat police has similar pattern. He is called Witness by Tehelka reporter to hide his identity and save him further trouble. He was a resident of Juhapura and had seen murder and mayhem and wanted revenge but he and his associates were superseded by another group. At first he and his early contacts wanted to plant bombs at places mostly visited by Hindus to avenge the murder and arson that VHP and Bajrang dal activists had perpetrated in 2002. However, the group that superimposed itself upon them changed the targets, choosing now areas where Muslims will also be killed. At the last moment he did not plant the bombs because of change in the perception of the new comers. His involvement went to the extent of buying cycles.
“I met Alamzeb five days after the blasts and asked him about the boys from outside. Were they like us – kurta-pyjama clad and bearded? Alamzeb replied that on the contrary, they didn’t look like us. They were welleducated, wore jeans and T-shirts and smoked a lot.
Did you know their identity?
No ma’am. They never divulged these things. Alamzeb only told me that they had rented a room and that they were extremely well-trained in making bombs. They were not like one of us. There was another person who kept the bombs. There is a stark difference between us and those people. They were like none of our group or any SIMI members we had seen.”
The police told Witness that Yunus Mansuri had named him as one of those who had planted the bombs. Witness told them to produce Yunus before him so that truth could be known. Two days later Yunus was arrested because Witness was forced to name him as one of the conspirators.
Subhan Qureishi, Alamzeb and Qayamuddin are the real conspirators of July 2008 Ahemdabad blasts. They are at large. The innocents who are in jail include Mufti Bashar whom the police touted as the mastermind. The same is true of the Malegaon blasts of September 2006. The real culprits are still not found; two sketches issued by the police do not bear any resemblance to Abrar, Nurulhoda, Shabbir batterywallah, etc. In fact the batterywallah was already in police custody the day the bombs went off. These innocents are perishing in prison. The police according to Abrar used him as a double cross, they got him accuse the others and then accused him of the conspiracy and planting of the bomb. All these are matters of confession and torture. Abrar has also mentioned Dr Rajinder Amin, Dr Bipin Parekh, Someshwar Shankar and others but the police have not bothered about it. On the other hand one of the accused in September 2008 had rung Dr Parekh whose phone number was in the mobile phone of the pederast but the police casually dismissed the involvement. He lives and practices within easy access of the Bhiku chowk, the site of the 2008 blast.
Why do the right wing parties like BJP and Shiv Sena feel so much agitated over the arrest of the eleven? It is their shared vision of the Hindu Rashtra without which they feel like fish without water. Abhinav Bharat wants Bhartiya culture and nationalism derived from vedic thoughts. What the thirteen accused did through their conspiracy naturally invited MCOCA, UAPA, Indian Penal Code, Arms Act and Explosives Act. The excerpt of the constitution that Purohit read out at a meeting in Delhi attended among others Dr RP Singh bears it out and calls for even harsher laws:
“Defence: Purohit suggested that the strength of the army be increased from 14 lakh to 1 crore men. The defence minister should be called as war minister. Pandey suggested that Pakistan should not be mentioned in their plan since they consider it a part of Akhand Bharat.
Economy: Agriculture must be controlled and planned by a qualified body of advisers. Group farming must be encouraged to curtail losses. Emphasis should be on agricultural self-reliance-the backbone of the Bharatiya economy. SEZs should only be built on barren land, and acquisition of agricultural land should be prohibited. Development of infrastructure should be common and equal. The constitution also talks of uninterrupted supply of power, irrigation network, fresh land reforms, controlled and compulsive farming, and education facilities at every village.
Foreign policy: Purohit suggested declaring the country at war till its lost territory was regained or the Line of Control was accepted as international border. It also talks of forming Buddhist and Hindu nations' union to fight Islamic and Christian invasions.
Crime: The constitution recommends strict punishment for defaulters and officials facing corruption charges, capital punishment and field/corporal punishment in public places. It prohibits cow slaughter. The constitution talks of enforcement of civil code along with social security code, and national security policy.
Membership: People can become members by submitting a form physically or online, for a fee of Rs 30. The organisation would train members, offer yearly promotions, internal and mutual assessment and confidential reports will be followed, and provide identity cards. Unofficially, any Hindu is an honorary member of this organisation (Rashtra).
Military training: Every member will need to have the basic knowledge of the weapons.”
The vedic vision behind this is antithesis to not just democracy and republican system we have adopted but also the system viewed today according to Zeitgeist Movement in the West which can let the sustainable city or nation exist albeit there is a kind of anarchism that it surely will entail. But Purohit and the other conspirators have a badly cobbled utopia in common with Seitgeist Movement and Peter Joseph and the Venus Project.
There is a great difference between the arrests of Muslims accused in terror crimes and how the police and the media prate about it and the way the ATS and the police maintain a hush up when it comes to Hindus involved in terrorism. Surprisingly the NCP brought the matter to the fore because of the compulsion of realpolitick. Purohit and Upadhay were as politic as is Advani and the lot of Thackerays.
Upaddhyay: That means the news has been leaked before confirmation by the ATS or somebody...it's politically motivated to defuse the situation existing in Maharashtra in the wake of Raj Thackeray
Prasad: Yes, it is basically the Rashtrawadi...
Another difference between arrest and parading in media during peak hours of the arrested members of two different communities and the institutions or prayer houses they attended is evident. Nearly a year after the arrest of the sadhvi it is only now that we know greater details of the Ram temple of old Bhopal where she stayed for a night and held a meeting. The temple according to media report “flaunts” ISO 9001:2000 certificate issued by Orion Registrar, Inc, USA. There you worship Hindu gods through vedic traditions and Administration of Campus. Pragya stayed in a room specially reserved for saints and the meeting was held near the sanctum sanctorum. The arrangement was made through an office bear of Abhinav Bharat and the day was in April 2008. Satyendra Jain, the associate officer of Orion in central India, even gave discount to the temple for registration and finds nothing wrong in issuing the certificate though the conspiracy to bomb a Muslim dominated part of Malegaon hundreds of miles away was hatched there. The kind of respectability the sangh parivar has acquired overflows along with the kind of subterranean agenda against the minorities. There is no question of any misgiving. In stark contrast is the madrassa in the length and breadth of India which is brushed with the paint of ignominy and the groups of Muslims like Ahle Hadish are dubbed extremists and terrorists. In the aftermath of Malegaon blast 2006 the home minister of Maharashtra, Chaggan Bhujbal of NCP, came down heavily against the whole sect of Ahle Hadish. Why Upadhya and Purohit feel so strongly against the NCP is left for you to ponder. The fronting and centering of the temple in Bhopal according to world standard by a US organization cannot be deemed cocking a snook at the madrassas. But it is equally relevant to recall how even a place of sati like that of Rup Kanwar can arouse humongous popularity, devotion and what is more important, following. What if the Ram temple through its Administration Campus jumps at the opportunity offered now?
Pragya must have had local contact in Malegaon and must have supplied what Lt Col Shrikant Purohit could not have.
“Main kuch baat kahunga isse pehle kabhi nahi kahi gayi thi. Do operation humne kiye, successful ho gaye. Operation karne ki meri kshamta hain, swamiji. Mere paas equipment ki kami nahi hain. Main equipment paida kar sakta hoon. Equipment la sakta hoon. Agar jab thaan leta hoon. Lekin target chunna yeh mere ek ke vishay ke hisaab nahi hona chahiye.
It was she who asked Ramji Kalsangra why so few died in Bhiku chowk. Most probably she must also have visited the site in veil.
Such is the upfronting of the sadhvi that she would soon leave all other saints like Rup Kanwar far behind because of the kind of politics she and her adherents like Advanis and Thackerays represent. Bailing her out would be a matter of time and honouring her right in Bhiku chowk (now called Shaheed Hemant Karkare street) is not impossibility. Gopal Godse too was honoured not far from there on his release from jail.
There is clear connection among the Sanatan Sansthan, Hindu Jagran Samiti and Abhnav Bharat and several others. In a phone conversation of October 23 2008 Ll Col Shrikant Purohit tells Major Ramesh Upadhya that the Rashtrawadi Congress(NCP) was behind the probe into Malegaon 2008 blast to divert attention from Raj Thackeray’s movement against the North Indians which had drawn so much flak against the home ministry in Mahrashtra then in the hands of NCP. He also said that Hindu Jagran Samiti was the Maharashtrian face of Sanatan Sansthan. These and other allied organizations like Bajrang Dal and VHP have avowed to use violence against the Muslims and other minorities. What is more they have left track record that they have often resorted to violence including terror tactics to achieve their aims and would do the same in future. In the case of Abhinav Bharat the aim is subversion of the constitution of the country and secession.
The larger framework of the case goes beyond terrorism. Lieutenant colonel Purohit and Shankaracharya Dyanand Pandey wanted to establish a Hindu Rashtra for which the military officer in service wanted to seek the help of the Israeli government or the Mossad and they had for all intents and purposes secured it. They had to give some results and the two results which Purohit has mentioned in his confession are most likely the two serial bomb blasts at Malegaon. But he was also involved in the group Abhinav Bharat or other such which caused bomb explosions at Nanded, Purna, Jalna and Parbhani. There is a new dimension that the 60 kg RDX which Purohit had procured from the army was used in the Samjhauta express incident of February 2007.
This should make every true national minded person sit up and take cognizance of the serious nature of the crime.
The sadhvi and the serving Lt Col were part of an organized group who had held meetings at various places and had even used Bhonsla military schools at Nashik and Nagpur for criminal acts of high treason and terrorist violence to sow hatred among people. In this they used serving as well as retired personnel of the Indian army regularly like Purohit and navy officer Sanatkumar Bhate.
Plethora of proof is now available for the discerning, if not for the intelligence and security agencies. There is the strange case of Abrar Ahmed. This is simply mindboggling. He was kept in a secret place by the police and forced to accept the role of becoming an approver. Through the despicable process of double crossing the police extracted false statements of incriminating people who had nothing to do with the 2006 blasts in Malegaon. Moreover the fear of the consequences of the Samjhauta express attack of February 2007 having some connection with the army made the national security agency as well as foreign ministry warn the central government of the implications of the disclosures regarding Ll Col Purohit for the bilateral relationship in the subcontinent as well as India’s standing in the world. Pakistan nevertheless used this as a stick to beat India on the issue of terrorism and the US took note of this startling disclosure. Such a heinous crime involving the serving lieutenant of the army was a great embarrassment to all right thinking people.
There are very serious implications of the affidavit that the induced witness Abrar Ahmed has given from jail through his lawyer brother Jalil Ahmed. Of course our courts are competent to deal with such matters but it is first of its kind and hence it needs notice of the public at large. For example, the superintendent of police in Malegaon, Rajwardhan it was who arranged Abrar to live in a house in Deolali army camp with Purohit around October 25 2006. Abrar accuses ATS of housing him in hotel Pritam of Dadar in Mumbai and treating him to a pleasure trip to the Gateway of India, etc at their expense. Rajwardhan it was who had sent him to Ujjain where he was introduced to Pragyasingh Thakur in October 2006. Rajwardhan it was at whose instance he not only had an audience with Shankaracharya Dyanand Pandey but had video film made of the visit. But then these are matters of the affidavit that Abrar has submitted to Judge Shinde from his cell in Bycullah jail. Interestingly it was here that he saw the sadhvi and the military officer and recognized them easily as they were entered there after their arrest in 2008 blast.
Abrar’s basic contention is that he was induced by senior most police officer of Malegaon Rajwardhan to commit perjury that the accused of the bomb blasts of September 8, 2006 viz., Noorulhoda and others had planted the bombs. Numerous acts show how the police officer used carrot and stick method of double crossing Abrar. On October 23 2006 Abrar and his wife were taken out for festive shopping when he contacted his brother Farid Ahmed from a PCO. Farid responded to his call on his mobile 9372710109. Abrar says he and his wife were given separate mobile phones (9823436809,9825826597) by Rajwardhan and that he was made to say incriminating sentences which were recorded on the phones and played to him to hear in the room adjoining that of Purohit.
The confessions of Purohit and Dyanand Pandey and their recording on their laptops will make any judge take serious note of what was going on in the murky world of these individuals who have enormous clout and wide range of contacts throughout the length and breadth of the country. For example, Purohit along with Sanatkumar Bhate and the mysterious “Mithun Chakarborty,” among others, is involved in not just supplying RDX but also giving training to more than 500 youths in carrying out terrorist attacks. Are some of the “outsiders” which Tehelka stumbled upon in its continued crusade of exposing and fighting terrorists, the Malegaon bombers, eleven behind bars and three at large, from the 2008 and almost all still absconding from the 2006? The Samjhauta imbroglio is still stymied and hence a nagging mystery.
Similarly the confession of another accused in the Godhra case calls our attention. It provides an inkling into how there is a sinister design in trapping the innocents to accept police version. This would prove one point that there was a super ordinate agency, either intelligence or a group or a mixture of both which wanted bomb blasts to take place but blame to go to SIMI or its new avatar IM.
The confession of the star witness of Gujarat police has similar pattern. He is called Witness by Tehelka reporter to hide his identity and save him further trouble. He was a resident of Juhapura and had seen murder and mayhem and wanted revenge but he and his associates were superseded by another group. At first he and his early contacts wanted to plant bombs at places mostly visited by Hindus to avenge the murder and arson that VHP and Bajrang dal activists had perpetrated in 2002. However, the group that superimposed itself upon them changed the targets, choosing now areas where Muslims will also be killed. At the last moment he did not plant the bombs because of change in the perception of the new comers. His involvement went to the extent of buying cycles.
“I met Alamzeb five days after the blasts and asked him about the boys from outside. Were they like us – kurta-pyjama clad and bearded? Alamzeb replied that on the contrary, they didn’t look like us. They were welleducated, wore jeans and T-shirts and smoked a lot.
Did you know their identity?
No ma’am. They never divulged these things. Alamzeb only told me that they had rented a room and that they were extremely well-trained in making bombs. They were not like one of us. There was another person who kept the bombs. There is a stark difference between us and those people. They were like none of our group or any SIMI members we had seen.”
The police told Witness that Yunus Mansuri had named him as one of those who had planted the bombs. Witness told them to produce Yunus before him so that truth could be known. Two days later Yunus was arrested because Witness was forced to name him as one of the conspirators.
Subhan Qureishi, Alamzeb and Qayamuddin are the real conspirators of July 2008 Ahemdabad blasts. They are at large. The innocents who are in jail include Mufti Bashar whom the police touted as the mastermind. The same is true of the Malegaon blasts of September 2006. The real culprits are still not found; two sketches issued by the police do not bear any resemblance to Abrar, Nurulhoda, Shabbir batterywallah, etc. In fact the batterywallah was already in police custody the day the bombs went off. These innocents are perishing in prison. The police according to Abrar used him as a double cross, they got him accuse the others and then accused him of the conspiracy and planting of the bomb. All these are matters of confession and torture. Abrar has also mentioned Dr Rajinder Amin, Dr Bipin Parekh, Someshwar Shankar and others but the police have not bothered about it. On the other hand one of the accused in September 2008 had rung Dr Parekh whose phone number was in the mobile phone of the pederast but the police casually dismissed the involvement. He lives and practices within easy access of the Bhiku chowk, the site of the 2008 blast.
Why do the right wing parties like BJP and Shiv Sena feel so much agitated over the arrest of the eleven? It is their shared vision of the Hindu Rashtra without which they feel like fish without water. Abhinav Bharat wants Bhartiya culture and nationalism derived from vedic thoughts. What the thirteen accused did through their conspiracy naturally invited MCOCA, UAPA, Indian Penal Code, Arms Act and Explosives Act. The excerpt of the constitution that Purohit read out at a meeting in Delhi attended among others Dr RP Singh bears it out and calls for even harsher laws:
“Defence: Purohit suggested that the strength of the army be increased from 14 lakh to 1 crore men. The defence minister should be called as war minister. Pandey suggested that Pakistan should not be mentioned in their plan since they consider it a part of Akhand Bharat.
Economy: Agriculture must be controlled and planned by a qualified body of advisers. Group farming must be encouraged to curtail losses. Emphasis should be on agricultural self-reliance-the backbone of the Bharatiya economy. SEZs should only be built on barren land, and acquisition of agricultural land should be prohibited. Development of infrastructure should be common and equal. The constitution also talks of uninterrupted supply of power, irrigation network, fresh land reforms, controlled and compulsive farming, and education facilities at every village.
Foreign policy: Purohit suggested declaring the country at war till its lost territory was regained or the Line of Control was accepted as international border. It also talks of forming Buddhist and Hindu nations' union to fight Islamic and Christian invasions.
Crime: The constitution recommends strict punishment for defaulters and officials facing corruption charges, capital punishment and field/corporal punishment in public places. It prohibits cow slaughter. The constitution talks of enforcement of civil code along with social security code, and national security policy.
Membership: People can become members by submitting a form physically or online, for a fee of Rs 30. The organisation would train members, offer yearly promotions, internal and mutual assessment and confidential reports will be followed, and provide identity cards. Unofficially, any Hindu is an honorary member of this organisation (Rashtra).
Military training: Every member will need to have the basic knowledge of the weapons.”
The vedic vision behind this is antithesis to not just democracy and republican system we have adopted but also the system viewed today according to Zeitgeist Movement in the West which can let the sustainable city or nation exist albeit there is a kind of anarchism that it surely will entail. But Purohit and the other conspirators have a badly cobbled utopia in common with Seitgeist Movement and Peter Joseph and the Venus Project.
There is a great difference between the arrests of Muslims accused in terror crimes and how the police and the media prate about it and the way the ATS and the police maintain a hush up when it comes to Hindus involved in terrorism. Surprisingly the NCP brought the matter to the fore because of the compulsion of realpolitick. Purohit and Upadhay were as politic as is Advani and the lot of Thackerays.
Upaddhyay: That means the news has been leaked before confirmation by the ATS or somebody...it's politically motivated to defuse the situation existing in Maharashtra in the wake of Raj Thackeray
Prasad: Yes, it is basically the Rashtrawadi...
Another difference between arrest and parading in media during peak hours of the arrested members of two different communities and the institutions or prayer houses they attended is evident. Nearly a year after the arrest of the sadhvi it is only now that we know greater details of the Ram temple of old Bhopal where she stayed for a night and held a meeting. The temple according to media report “flaunts” ISO 9001:2000 certificate issued by Orion Registrar, Inc, USA. There you worship Hindu gods through vedic traditions and Administration of Campus. Pragya stayed in a room specially reserved for saints and the meeting was held near the sanctum sanctorum. The arrangement was made through an office bear of Abhinav Bharat and the day was in April 2008. Satyendra Jain, the associate officer of Orion in central India, even gave discount to the temple for registration and finds nothing wrong in issuing the certificate though the conspiracy to bomb a Muslim dominated part of Malegaon hundreds of miles away was hatched there. The kind of respectability the sangh parivar has acquired overflows along with the kind of subterranean agenda against the minorities. There is no question of any misgiving. In stark contrast is the madrassa in the length and breadth of India which is brushed with the paint of ignominy and the groups of Muslims like Ahle Hadish are dubbed extremists and terrorists. In the aftermath of Malegaon blast 2006 the home minister of Maharashtra, Chaggan Bhujbal of NCP, came down heavily against the whole sect of Ahle Hadish. Why Upadhya and Purohit feel so strongly against the NCP is left for you to ponder. The fronting and centering of the temple in Bhopal according to world standard by a US organization cannot be deemed cocking a snook at the madrassas. But it is equally relevant to recall how even a place of sati like that of Rup Kanwar can arouse humongous popularity, devotion and what is more important, following. What if the Ram temple through its Administration Campus jumps at the opportunity offered now?
Pragya must have had local contact in Malegaon and must have supplied what Lt Col Shrikant Purohit could not have.
“Main kuch baat kahunga isse pehle kabhi nahi kahi gayi thi. Do operation humne kiye, successful ho gaye. Operation karne ki meri kshamta hain, swamiji. Mere paas equipment ki kami nahi hain. Main equipment paida kar sakta hoon. Equipment la sakta hoon. Agar jab thaan leta hoon. Lekin target chunna yeh mere ek ke vishay ke hisaab nahi hona chahiye.
It was she who asked Ramji Kalsangra why so few died in Bhiku chowk. Most probably she must also have visited the site in veil.
Such is the upfronting of the sadhvi that she would soon leave all other saints like Rup Kanwar far behind because of the kind of politics she and her adherents like Advanis and Thackerays represent. Bailing her out would be a matter of time and honouring her right in Bhiku chowk (now called Shaheed Hemant Karkare street) is not impossibility. Gopal Godse too was honoured not far from there on his release from jail.
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