India fails to check human rights violations: Human Rights Watch

The global report pointed out that immunity for abuses committed by security forces also continued.

NEW DELHI: Custodial killings, police abuse including torture, and failure to implement policies aimed at protecting vulnerable communities marred India's record in 2011, according to the Human Rights Watch World Report.

The global report released on Monday pointed out that immunity for abuses committed by security forces also continued, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast, and areas facing Maoist insurgency.

However, the report found that killings by the Border Security Force (BSF) along the Indo-Bangladesh border decreased dramatically.

"India, the world's most populous democracy, continues to have a vibrant media, an active civil society, a respected judiciary, and significant human rights problems," the report said.

The report highlights that India is yet to repeal laws or change policies that allow de jure and de facto impunity for human rights violations, and has failed to prosecute even known perpetrators of serious abuses.

"The Indian defence establishment resisted attempts to repeal or revise the Armed Forces Special Powers Act ( AFSPA), a law that provides soldiers in disturbed areas widespread police powers," it said.

The report says that thousands of Kashmiris have allegedly disappeared - victims of "enforced disappearance" - during two decades of conflict in the region, their whereabouts unknown.

A police investigation in 2011 by the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) found 2,730 bodies dumped into unmarked graves at 38 sites in north Kashmir. At least 574 were identified as the bodies of local Kashmiris.

The government had previously said that the graves held unidentified militants, most of them Pakistanis whose bodies had been handed over to village authorities for burial. Many Kashmiris believe that some graves contain the bodies of victims of enforced disappearances."

Mentioning the anti-corruption movement of social activist Anna Hazare, the report says it brought the government to a standstill, with widespread street protests and sit-ins demanding legal reform and prosecutions.

"Activists working with two prominent efforts to address poverty and accountability -- India's rural employment guarantee scheme and right to information law -- came under increasing attack, facing threats, beatings, and even death," it said.

Maoist forces continue to engage in killings and extortion, and target government schools and hospitals for attacks and bombings. At this writing the Maoists had killed nearly 250 civilians as well as over 100 members of the security forces in 2011.

The report says that deaths from terror attacks in 2011 had decreased significantly from earlier years with two major blast incidents in Mumbai and Delhi.

Despite repeated claims of progress by the government, there was no significant improvement in access to health care and education.

"The 2011 census data revealed a further decline in India's female/male sex ratio, pointing to the failure of laws aimed at reducing sex-selective abortions. A series of honour killings and rapes rocked the country in 2011 but there has been no effective action to prevent and effectively prosecute such violence," it said.

According to Human Rights Watch, India's policy in the subcontinent continues to be heavily influenced by strategic and economic concerns about China's growing influence in countries like Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

"As a member of the United Nations Security Council and the Human Rights Council (HRC), India in 2011 had an opportunity to align its foreign policy with the ideals it claims to stand for, but officials remained reluctant to voice concerns over even egregious human rights violations in countries such as Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Syria, and Sudan," it said.

"Despite concerns over the safety of its nationals in Libya, India did support UN Security Council resolution 1970 on Libya calling for protection of the Libyan people. India later abstained on resolution 1973, which authorized military force to protect civilians," it added.

Source:http://digg.com/newsbar/ladygaga/india_fails_to_check_human_rights_violations_human_rights_watch_the_times_of_india

War on terror: If you can’t find the terrorist, make one

This is the first report of the three part series on the situation of Md. Amir after spending 14 years in jail.

New Delhi: Don’t get surprised by the title of this story, which, at several levels encapsulates the discourse of war on terror. As a series of court judgments in cases related to several blasts in and around Delhi will show, more often than not, method of terror investigation has its own pattern which defies logic, rule of law and sense of justice.

In the post-blast scenario police and investigative agencies face a tough time dealing with the pressure of clamoring voices which call for bringing the culprits to book. Interestingly, even when just to deal with the pressure police picks up a few misidentified suspects, their arrest is not seen as wrong and illegal, but as some thing which fulfills the “collective conscience” of the society, which in turn justifies it as a balancing act and a compensation for the injustice done to the terror victims.

In some cases, even the liberal voices of the influential and strongly opinionated Indian middle class, see it as an unavoidable collateral damage occurred in the “war against terror.”

Now the question one asks is, what happens, when the same youths, who were arrested under terror charges, are later acquitted mainly because the prosecution could not produce an iota of evidence which could prove their involvement into the respective terror cases?

It’s in this context that one presents the case of Md. Amir Khan, who was charged with more than 19 cases of bomb blasts, which had taken place in 1997 in and around Delhi. His release in January this year after 14 continuous years in jail holds an important place in the series of acquittals in famous cases, whether it is Godhra 2002, the Delhi blasts of 2005 and 2008, the Mumbai train attacks of 2006, Mecca Masjid cases of 2007 or men and boys routinely picked up and charged with terrorism.

The only difference with Amir’s case here is that these bomb blasts happened when there was no Indian Mujahidin (IM) in picture and when at least officially, there was no official confirmation on the existence of home grown terror in India.

Amir, who had already been acquitted by the trial in 17 out of 20 cases, walked out free on January 9, 2012. Of the three remaining cases the Delhi High Court has overturned his conviction for life in one case. The remaining two are scheduled to come up for appeal.

TwoCircles.net was the first one (and probably the only one) to report story of Amir and Shakeel around one and half years back. Read my first story, 12 yrs in jail and counting: Story of Amir – a victim of war on terror http://twocircles.net/node/215468

Story of Amir Khan, the “Mastermind”

In the year 1997 there were more than 20 major and minor bomb blasts in and around Delhi and the NCR. Delhi police arrested Md. Amir Khan, who was in 10th standard at the time of his arrest in February 1998. He was initially arrested under the Explosive Substances Act but later, made the main accused in almost all the cases and charged under Sections 302, 435, 34, 121, 121A, 122, 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for murder and conspiracy.

After 14 years in jail,school ID photo is the only thing from his childhood he is left with now

Minor and major bomb blasts with which Amir was gradually charged including those that happened under police jurisdiction of Karol Bagh, Chandni Chowk, Saraswati Vihar, Kotwali, Roop Nagar, Lahori Gate, Daryaganj, Mukharjee nagar and Sabzi Mandi police stations.

After Amir was charge sheeted as the main accused and officially at least, all the bomb blasts in Delhi were “solved” the boy was also charged with bomb blasts outside in Sonepat and Rohtak in Haryana (1997)and with Frontier Mail bomb blasts in Ghaziabad (1997).

Importantly one Shakeel Ahmad, a poor hawker from Ghaziabad, who was co-accused in most of the case, was poisoned by the Dasna jail authorities in Ghazaibad when he was an under-trial in the 1996 Frontier Mail bomb blast.

Shakeel was found hanging from the ceiling of his high-security barrack in Dasna Jail on June 19, 2009, and the then jail superintendent V K Singh had claimed that the accused had committed suicide. But an NHRC ordered magisterial enquiry found it to be a case of poisoning, after which the Session court, Ghaziabad ordered an FIR against former jail superintendent V K Singh. Shakeel was arrested in 1999 for carrying out the blast in which two persons were killed.

Police Story “Concocted”

The story which the Delhi police had made and which, later turned out to be a concocted one, was that Md. Amir Khan along with Shakeel Ahmad used to make bombs in the clothe printing factory at Pilakhua in Ghaziabad. According to the police story, the bombs made from this factory were used by Amir in all the bomb blasts he was charged with.

To substantiate its claim police had shown several Kgs of RDX and other explosives seized from the factory, which was very strong evidence against Amir and Shakeel. Police had made Chandra Bhan the main seizure witness who as per the police story, had volunteered to be a witness, when they went to raid the factory.

But the police and prosecution case against Amir collapsed like a pack of cards when Chandra Bhan, who was the only seizure witness, told the court that the police story was a concocted one and he never went with the police for seizure of alleged explosives in a factory in Pilakhua.

He also said that it was police who had taken him to the Chanakyapuri police station and had taken his signatures.

“I don’t know from where and by whom those articles were recovered. I do not know any Amir Khan and Md. Shakeel. I saw them only in the court. I had not accompanied the police party to Pilakhuwa. I was taken (by police) to police station Chanakya Puri where I was asked to sign some documents,” Bhan said in his statement.

“It is wrong to suggest that police had recovered the chemicals and other materials as mentioned in recovery memo. It is also wrong to suggest that I had witnessed the recovery from Pilakhua…,” Bhan said in the court.

Not a single witness against Amir

Besides the police story being concocted, another reason why prosecution’s case against Amir was rejected by the courts in most of the cases, was that prosecution didn’t have even a single strong witness or evidence which could either connect or identify Amir with the bomb blasts.

Judgments after judgments by the High Court and Session Courts in Delhi, Session Courts in Rohtak, Ghaziabad and Sonepat, highlight just one and one point only.

“From the record it is thus evident that there is absolutely no incriminating evidences against the accused person as none of the witnesses stated anything against the accused,” says Sabharwal while acquitting Amir in the Sabzi Mandi bomb blast case which occurred on February 25, 1997.

Serious thinking: Amir after his release from Rohtak jail

The judgments repeatedly noted that no witness was able to identify the accused.

“In the cross examination by the defence counsel, the witnesses stated that there was not a single person, who had told the police that he could identify the person, who had planted the bomb,” reads the judgment by MS Sabharwal, the ASJ Delhi in the twin blast case under Sadar Bazaar police station which happened on October 1, 1997.

“The prosecution has miserably failed to adduce any evidence to connect the accused-appellant with the charges framed much less prove them,” says the judgment written by the Delhi High Court bench of Justices RS Sodhi and PK Bhasin on August 4, 2006, while quashing the conviction of Md. Amir Khan in the Karol Bagh bomb blast in October 26, 1997.

The Additional Session Judge Delhi on May 8, 2003 had charged Amir for planting explosives at the shop called Roshan Di Kulfi in Karol Bagh, and convicted Amir for life imprisonment in the blast in which one girl was killed and several others were injured.

The entire case against Amir was built on prosecution’s account that few minutes before the blast on 26th of October 1997 at Roshan Di Kulfi, Vikas and Sushma Narula, a son and mother duo, who were also the main prosecution witness, had seen some body resembling Amir, with a bag in his hand. According to the two witnesses, immediately after Amir left that an explosion took place.

Importantly the Delhi HC while rejecting the Session Court’s decision, highlighted the loophole in its decision as no where in the witness account, the two witnesses had talked about Amir planting the bomb in the shop; “We fail to see which is the evidence on record, that duly proves the planting of the bomb by the accused-appellant in the shop.”

Firoz Khan Ghazi, Amir’s lawyer who handled blasts cases in Delhi, says that even though he respects court’s order but “frankly telling you, even in the two cases in which the session court convicted Amir, there is not any strong evidence and prosecution’s case is very weak. We are confident that the Delhi HC where the appeals are pending, will quash the session court judgment.”

There appeared a deliberate attempt from the jail authorities to abort any opportunity of relief to Amir. “When I was made an accused in frontier Mail blasts 2006 and when warrant came from Ghaziabad session court, these people in Tihad didn’t inform me so that I don’t take any legal step to preempt the arrest,” says Amir who was shifted to Dasna jail in Ghaziabad, after his acquittal from Delhi blasts on April 10, 2007.

Likewise Tihad jail officials repeatedly ignored warrants from the Rohtak Session court for Amir’s production in Rohtak, so much so that the Session court declared him a proclaimed offender, some thing which went against him in the court.

Unanswered questions

If one analyses the way the cases were fabricated against Amir, one is forced to question the shoddy state of affairs, when it comes to not only selective arrests of youths from a particular community but also the investigation which betrays a prejudiced mentality on the behalf of the investigative agencies.

Otherwise, one might ask, that how can it be that the police framed charges against a 19 year old boy, in not, 1, 2, 5 or 10, but 18 cases when they didn’t have even a single witness against the accused to prove the case against him.

Then there are serious questions like if Amir hadn’t done those 18 blasts, then who did? If the actual perpetrators of the blasts are being let scott free, as this and many other cases show, who will be responsible for the cycle of violence which resurfaces in another cycle of bomb blasts? What about the accountability of those officers who deliberately fabricate charges against people, specially in terror cases?

Source: http://twocircles.net/2012jan26/war_terror_if_you_can%E2%80%99t_find_terrorist_make_one.html

"TERRORIST" who was portrayed as mastermind of 20 blasts won the Best Essay Award on Mahatma Gandhi and Non-Violence Movement & acquitted after 14 yrs

This is the second part of the three part series on the case of Md. Amir Khan who spent 14 years in jail in 20 fabricated cases of bomb blasts.

New Delhi: This was not how Maimuna Bi had thought she would meet her son Amir after fourteen years of endless wait when Delhi police allegedly picked him illegally on February 20, 1998. When she finally met him on January 9, 2012, she was unable to speak because of the brain haemorrhage and paralysis she suffered. Only broken words were coming out after her continuous efforts to express her happiness.

Md. Amir Khan, a resident of Azad Market in Old Delhi, was charged in 20 cases of bomb blasts in and around Delhi. He had already been acquitted by the trial court in 17 out of 20 cases. He walked out of jail free only this month. Of the three remaining cases the Delhi High Court had overturned his conviction for life in one case. The remaining two are scheduled to come up for appeal.

He had not seen stars since 1998
The first thing Amir did after his release on January 9, 2012, was to go to the roof top and see the stars in an open sky.

“I hadn’t seen stars in the sky since last fourteen years because I was in the high security cell where prisoners were locked before the advent of nights. So I wanted to see stars and feel my freedom,” said Amir who was picked up by police when he was 18.

Amir showing court acquittal papers

After the third degree torture in jail and after spending 14 long years of his life in high security solitary prison cell, Amir is a changed man now, but it will take several months or maybe years to become normal.

Recalling the tragic 14 years
He is yet to reconcile with the fact that he is finally out of jail, free in most cases, of terror charges. Thanks to the number of cases which were put on him and on top of that, the slow judicial process, he had almost lost hope that he will ever be free.

"The fact that police put one by one, more than 20 odd cases on me, a tragedy which was all the more heightened because of slow judicial process," said Amir who forgets thing while talking about his past probably due to the trauma he sustained.

“What adds to my mental anxiety is the fact that in the last 14 years the world has changed upside down. I don’t have any idea how to use the mobile which I saw first time in my life when I was out,” adds Amir who did Bachelor Preparatory Program, a course for those who have not done higher secondary, and then he got enrolled in B.A. at IGNOU while he was in Tihar jail.

Ironically the "terrorist" who was portrayed as the dreaded mastermind of 20 blasts won in 2011 the Best Essay Award on Mahatma Gandhi and Non-Violence Movement in "Karagaar Bandi Jeevan" a national prison magazine.

Relatives, community deserted family of “terrorist”
Amir broke down while talking about how nearly all of his relatives abandoned and boycotted the family of a “terrorist.” What had hurt him most, was the attitude of Muslim leaders and groups. He claimed that during this period of hardship, no community leader approached his parents for the sake of extending their support, let alone financial or legal help.

“There was just no body on our side. Right from our neighbors to relatives, everyone thought that I am a terrorist. I was quite hurt when my parents informed me in jail that even my own community and my relatives had deserted us when we needed them most,” added Amir who didn’t have even sufficient money to give to the lawyers who took up his case on humanitarian grounds.

Without any support from the community, relatives or the larger civil society, the old and ailing parents of this terror accused had to fight the tough legal battle with the Indian state, completely on their own. But even that pillar of strength collapsed when his father died of heart attack in August 2001. After that it was his sister, mother and a distant cousin who showed faith in his innocence and continued to fight for him. He is happy that now after his release his relatives are coming back one by one.

He is alive but family destroyed
Amir says that even though he is alive today but his life, family have been destroyed. After his continued fight against police for the wrongful arrest of his son, Hashim Khan died of heart attack.

The family invested whatever it had to get the only son out and at present, just the ailing and paralytic mother is left in the family. With nobody left to earn, the erstwhile lower middle class family is literally on the road.

At present he is quite scared of talking to people or media and it took lots of pursuance and convincing before he talked to TwoCircles.net.

Challenges before him – Safety and Rehabilitation
The two big challenges for Amir now are his safety and rehabilitation. Amir is quite scared of the fact that Delhi police might harass him all the more now because he is out, defeating their attempts to prove him a terrorist, and is talking to media about what had happened to him.

Out of this fear only he hasn't gone out of his house since he has been released early this month, "What am I going to do if they (police) again decide to harass me and put me behind bars?" asks Amir.

The other problem is that of his rehabilitation. At present he is so much traumatised that he has no idea about what he wants to do and what are the potential areas he can work.
Amir only hopes that Muslim civil society groups will help him in his fight for a normal life.

At present his two appeals are pending in Delhi HC but he doesn't have even the money to make two ends meet, let alone paying lawyers for their minimal charges.

Even at the risk of making generalizations, one can say that Amir's tragedy is not his alone. At various levels, it’s the tragedy of all those who dreamt of the idea of India, an equitable India where every marginalised and minority has equal place.

Source: http://twocircles.net/2012jan29/amir_khan_14_years_jail_acquitted_still_scared_police_witchhunt.html

Tortured, Jailed, Brutalised

The inhuman torture of Soni Sori by the Chhattisgarh Police can put any civilised society to shame
Sadiq Naqvi Delhi

Under the Raman Singh led BJP regime, one horror story after another unfolds in Chhattisgarh every day. The latest in line is the story of a school teacher, Soni Sori, branded as a Naxalite by the state government. Now shifted to Raipur jail, after the Supreme Court intervened, she was subjected to brutal torture by the state police even while her case is under the judicial eye.
On October 5, 2011, Soni Sori was arrested from Delhi in a joint operation by the Delhi Crime Branch and Chhattisgarh Police. They have been looking for her. They raided the house of leading civil society activist Kavita Srivastava, in Jaipur. A truck full of cops swooped down on her house saying they were looking for Sori. The list of charges against Sori include conniving with the Essar group to pay off the Maoists, beside other cases.

Sori rushed to Delhi, fearing for her life. She was hiding from the Chhattisgarh police. She was afraid that the cops will physically harm her. After her arrest, when she was produced in front of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at the Saket district court in Delhi, she, along with her lawyers, requested the court to give her bail. She pleaded that she should not be sent back as she feared that the Chhattisgarh police will kill her.

The judge had categorically ordered that the police must take care of her safety in transit. "Why does the police want to kill me? Even in the protection money case (Note kaand), they fired on me on 11-9-2011. Only I know how I saved myself. After that a policeman tried to get me entangled in a false case by asking me to flee. I told these things even in the Saket court. I cried and cried and tried to tell (the court) that the police had tortured me, even showed my earlier wound, and said that I will not go back from Delhi, I will carry on my fight in Delhi's court. But even then, the court did not believe me and gave me to the Chhattisgarh police," Sori wrote in a letter addressed to the Supreme Court.

The Chhattisgarh Police, armed with a transit remand of four days, took her to Dantewada. She was flown out of Delhi the same evening. She was then produced in front of a magistrate who ordered that she be put under judicial custody and also said that she be taken for a medical examination before she is taken into custody. The judge ordered the police to produce her on October 10. On October 10, she was taken to the district hospital. Why? The police claimed she slipped in the bathroom.
A video circulating on Youtube painted a rather gory picture. It showed her writhing in pain in the x-ray room. The local doctors in Jagdalpur and Raipur, still did not find any serious injury. "They were acting under police pressure," says Gandhian Himanshu Kumar, whose Vanvasi Chetna Ashram in Dantewada was bulldozed by the authorities. Sori, who has worked for the tribals with Himanshu, calls him 'Guruji'.

The police and the state government still remained in a state of denial. Activists, aware of the Raman Singh regime's nasty methods, approached the Supreme Court. It was then that the court, taking notice of the plea, ordered an independent medical examination in Kolkata.

The findings of the medical report can put any civilised society to shame. The findings by the NRS Medical College reportedly says that two stones had been inserted in her vagina and one in her rectum, and that she has annular tears in her spine. "We will take up this matter with the president of India, chairperson of the Congress, and leader of the opposition in Loksabha, who are all women. Let them see what is happening with women in their country," said Sylvie, an activist with the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

In a recent letter, Sori states that she was pulled out of her cell at the Jagdalpur Police Station during the "midnight of 8th/9th October on the orders of SP Ankit Garg, stripped and given electric shocks". She woke up the next morning with acute pain all over her body, head and spine. That she could not even get down from the vehicle and be presented in front of the magistrate is solid evidence of the injuries inflicted upon her the previous night. Even the report by the Dantewada hospital shows that she had severe contusions on her spine.

Sori has been long claiming that she has got nothing to do with Maoists. Indeed, she is a victim of Maoist violence. "If I was a supporter of Naxalites, then why could I not protect my father's house and property from being looted by the Naxalites? When the Naxalites shot my father in the leg, and who, today, is not in a condition to walk, then why could I not save my father from this fate? This truth is well known to the police and to the court, but they have still blindfolded themselves. My father entered the court and gave testimony, but the court still ignored it," she wrote in the letter.

Even when the police was claiming that Sori is absconding, her friends maintain that she was teaching in her school in full public view. "This is a well concealed ploy of the police. They did not want to arrest her and were using the fabricated cases to pressurise her and force her nephew Lingaram Kodopi to shut up. Kodopi, a freelance journalist, was exposing the state government," claimed Himanshu.

Lingaram has also been arrested. He was well known among journalists, lawyers and activists in Delhi while he studied journalism here. He had then alleged that the Chhattisgarh police is trying to frame him.

Sori wrote in her letter to the apex court, "Naxalites use many different ways to cause incidents. When the police received news of some incident, why didn't they come to my Ashram School in Jabeli and enquire whether or not I was in the ashram on the day of the incident? Judge Sahib, I am in the middle of 100-150 children, serving my Ashram School Jabeli students night and day. I have always taught these children to speak the truth. My students will never tell a lie. Then, why did the police not question these students?"

In a letter to Himanshu, Sori talks of how even the magistrate sympathised with her plight. Sori wrote, "Madam started to say that I have asked the police and they say that you were always absconding. I said that if it were so, then they would have given information to your court earlier that that this woman is absconding. Then, Madam, why did you not take action earlier? You should have sent a notice from the court to my education department (my employers). Then Madam smiled and said, you are absolutely correct. I myself get confused when I think about your case. I am not able to understand all this. ...You are drawing salary from the state, and the police also did not inform this court that you are absconding."

Recently, when Raman Singh arrived in Delhi to attend a media conclave where he spoke on 'good governance', activists, mostly women, were beaten up, pushed and dragged at Chhattisgarh Sadan. The activists wanted to talk to him about Sori's torture. "His definition of good governance is confined to brutal repression of any democratic dissent," said Vani. "How can he not meet people on issues concerning the well being of people in his own state?"

The Supreme Court, acting on the plea of Sori, has ordered that the state government must reply to all the allegations by January 13, 2012 and that she be kept in Raipur jail instead of Jagdalpur jail.

Sori, activists feel, in custody of the same police which tortured her, might still not be safe. As she wrote to Himanshu earlier, "Guruji, please do something. I am deeply troubled by my condition. I am innocent, and yet I am in jail. And all the people who did this to me, they are all outside. It is better to die than go through all this."

The Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) too issued a statement.

Peoples Union for Democratic Rights is distressed at the hiatus between the sharp observations of the Supreme Court judges and their timid operative orders and judgments. If there was any doubt over this it has been laid to rest by the recent orders of the apex court hearing the case of Soni Sori and the clarification offered by a bench of the Supreme Court in the much touted judgment on the issue of SPOs.

After her arrest in Delhi, Soni Sori had pleaded before three judges of the Saket District Court when her transit remand was being heard, that were she to be handed over to the Chhattisgarh police, she would definitely be tortured. Indeed she had pointed to the judge at the Saket district court that one member of the police team which had come to take her in their remand and escort her to Chhattisgarh had tortured her on a previous occasion. Her pleas fell on deaf ears.

When her complaint of torture including sexual violence inflicted on her was submitted before the Supreme Court, the judges chose not to intervene. And now when the medical check-up ordered by the court by a Kolkata hospital has established that stones were recovered from her private parts, the veracity of her charge stands corroborated. Instead of taking cognition of this and immediately moving her to safety of a jail outside Chhattisgarh, the apex court on 2nd December 2011 gave the state authorities 45 days to respond to the medical report and meanwhile merely shifted her to Raipur jail from Jagdalpur jail in the same state.

Thus the very same delinquent police force, its personnel and associated authorities have got permission to incarcerate her for an inordinately long period, a period sufficient for the state government to threaten, brow-beat and destroy Soni Sori before its prepares its response. It appears that custodial rape and torture of a woman, adivasi at that, does not enjoy any premium as there is greater concern for the prestige of the state authorities engaged in the valiant game of prosecuting a war against its own people in the tribal belt of India. The order of the Supreme Court has also risked Soni Sori’s safety further by shifting her to Raipur jail as her travel to the Dantewada court now entails a journey of 22 hours. It threatens her already frail health, puts her in prolonged police custody during transit and provides the government an easy alibi to deny her access to the court altogether.

In the SPO case the apex court bench watered down, if not trivialized, its original order issued on 5 July 2011 which had directed the Central government to desist from providing any funds for supporting directly or indirectly recruitment of SPOs and engaging them in counter-insurgency activities and had declared that the appointment of SPOs as part of regular police as unconstitutional. Thus the deployment of SPOs anywhere including in J&K, North East, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal became illegal. By agreeing to remove reference to central government and by confining the judgment to Chhattisgarh alone and by maintaining scrupulous silence over how the Chhattisgarh state got around the restriction by raising a new force, the Supreme Court restored everything it had declared to be unconstitutional and thereby trivialised its own judgment and observations.

The only rationale for the issuing of such orders is that once ‘national security’ is invoked, the Courts, even the apex Court, fall in line behind the Executive. The most recent order on the deployment of SPOs and that regarding Soni Sori’s custodial torture show the Supreme Court in poor light and even more regrettably show it to be sacrificing people’s fundamental rights at the altar of “national security”.

For those of us who perceive the judiciary, at least its higher levels, as a protector of people’s interests there is salutary message: our freedoms are at risk because people’s concerns receive a short shrift at the hands of the judiciary as and when the executive invokes national security. Thus, radical observations and timid, if not trivial, operative orders must be condemned.

Harish Dhawan, Paramjeet Singh
(Secretaries)

Source:http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2011/12/4244

In Jaipur replay, university bows to ABVP film fatwa .

Pune, January 29, 2012

Symbiosis University has cancelled the screening of documentary filmmaker Sanjay Kak's Jashn-e-Azadi on Kashmir, after the right-wing student organisation, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), raised objections to its ‘separatist' nature. The film was supposed to be screened at a three-day national seminar called ‘Voices of Kashmir' at the Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, organised in association with the University Grants Commission (UGC) on February 3, 4 and 5.

The organisation now wants the entire seminar cancelled, ABVP Pune unit Secretary Shailendra Dalvi told The Hindu on Saturday evening. “The content of the seminar, like the film, is anti-India, and against the Indian Army. We will not stand for anything that divides the country. Symbiosis has agreed to cancel the film screening, and we are giving them three days' time to think about the event, too,” Mr. Dalvi stated.

Last week, Jaipur Literature Festival organisers were forced to cancel a videoconference with author Salman Rushdie after protesters threatened to disrupt the event.

Speaking to The Hindu over telephone, Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce principal Hrishikesh Soman stated that the ABVP had approached him on Friday, and that the college agreed to cancel the film screening “considering their [ABVP's] emotions and feelings.” “I told them that the seminar is entirely academic, apolitical and non-religious. But the film has met with criticism from all corners. So we have decided to avoid unnecessary controversies and cancel the screening,” Mr. Soman said. “If people have a very strong reason to protest the film, then we should be tolerant enough,” he stated. The seminar will be attended by senior journalist and Jammu and Kashmir interlocutor Dileep Padgaonkar, among others.

Asked if the college would cancel the event altogether, Mr. Soman said: “After the first meeting, the ABVP has not made such a request yet. If they do, then we will try to sort it out.” Asked if the cancellation of the film screening withheld the students' right to experience and discuss all sides of the Kashmir conflict, Mr. Soman said: “I don't want to get into petty issues. The seminar will be purely intellectual, and will focus on socio-cultural and educational issues in Kashmir.”

Mr. Soman said Mr. Kak had been “informed categorically” that the film screening had been cancelled. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Kak stated he would be attending the seminar in spite of the cancellation. “I will utilise the two hours given to me and talk about what I want to talk about,” he said. Mr. Kak is scheduled to deliver a presentation on “Speaking about Kashmir” on February 3. His film, Jashn-e-Azadi, made in 2007, explores the meaning of azadi (freedom) in violence-gripped Kashmir.

Apart from Mr. Kak and Mr. Padgaonkar, the panel of speakers includes Hamid Marazi, Zaffar Iffat Fatima, M.K. Raina, Pran Kishore, Sanjay Nahar, and Babali Saraf. Iffat Fatima's documentary Where Have You Hidden My New Crescent Moon will be screened at the seminar, a press note stated.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2840515.ece

Dalit panchayat chief prevented from hoisting the tricolour.

PUDUKOTTAI, January 29, 2012

A. Kalaimani, a Dalit woman village panchayat president of Karu Vadatheru village panchayat near Vadakadu, was allegedly prevented from hoisting the tricolour on the Republic Day by a group of caste Hindus.

The group belonging to the Kallar community, led by Kumar, son of Rangammal, who is the vice-president of the village panchayat, allegedly pushed aside Ms. Kalaimani when she was about to hoist the national flag on the village panchayat office campus.

The village panchayat president told The Hindu on Saturday that she planned to hoist the tricolour at three places – the village panchayat office campus; Raja Kudiyiruppu, a residential colony; and the panchayat union primary school at Kanniyankollai.

But, in view of the problem at the village panchayat office, she allowed the group to hoist the flag at the school and cancelled her programme at the residential colony.

She has lodged a complaint with the Vadakadu police and submitted petitions to District Collector B. Maheswari and Superintendent of Police R. Tamil Chandran.

Ms. Kalaimani said that she had alerted the police a week ago, seeking protection for the smooth conduct of the celebrations. To her surprise, no police personnel were deployed in time.

Police sources said that the matter was under investigation.

The district wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly condemned the police for not registering a case against those who prevented the Dalit president from hoisting the tricolour.

Led by M. Balasundaramurthy, union secretary of the CPI (M), they staged a demonstration in front of the police station at Vadakadu demanding immediate action. M. Chinnadurai, district secretary of the party, was among those who participated.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/article2840615.ece

Supreme Court orders probe into all fake encounters in Gujarat.

New Delhi, January 25, 2012

The reference is to incidents that occurred during 2002-06

Dealing a blow to the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Monitoring Authority (MA) headed by M.B. Shah, a retired Supreme Court judge, to probe all fake encounter deaths in the State from 2002 to 2006.

A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and C.K. Prasad passed the order on two petitions filed by Javed Akthar, B.G. Varghese and others for a direction to order a CBI probe into the 22 fake encounters that had taken place during the period. After hearing counsel Prashant Bhushan and Nitya Ramakrishnan, the Bench asked the MA to probe the killings and file its report within three months.

The Bench said: “Having regard to the fact that a Monitoring Authority has been put in place and a former judge of this court is its chairman, we desire the chairman to look into all instances of the alleged fake encounters mentioned in the two writ petitions.”

Earlier, when counsel insisted on a thorough probe, senior counsel Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the State, denied the allegations and questioned the bona fides of the petitioners. Justice Alam told counsel: “It is no point questioning the bona fides of the petitioners. Why in Gujarat when the matter comes [up before court] the State initially stoutly and vehemently denies it. When the matter is scratched even slightly the fact comes to light and then the State government admits it as a fake encounter.”

Anguished

Justice Alam, expressing his anguish, told Mr. Kumar: “It has happened on more than two times in this court [Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram Prajapati] and in the Gujarat High Court also. Why should the Gujarat government be seen running away [from the probe]?”

The Bench said: “We want the investigation to be thorough so that truth in each case is revealed. It will be open for the MA chairman to constitute an independent team either with officers from the Gujarat Special Task Force or from outside.”

It would also be open for the MA to call for earlier police and case records or records from human rights bodies on any encounter death mentioned in the writ petitions.

However, the Bench made it clear that the MA would not probe cases being investigated by other agencies on orders of the Supreme Court or the Gujarat High Court. The MA “if so desires, could give hearing to petitioners in the case or kin of the victims of encounter deaths.”

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2831280.ece

Turned away by hospital, baby dies of kidney failure.

A Two-month-old baby who was turned away by a private hospital in North Delhi died on Friday, ironically just 24 hours before a High Court-appointed committee monitoring the treatment of poor patients asked the hospital to explain its conduct.

Baby Tarun, the son of a street food vendor, threw up the milk he had been fed, and died before a local doctor could reach his parents’ Nathupura home, his mother Somwati told The Indian Express on Saturday.

Ashok Aggarwal, member of the committee on EWS (economically weaker sections) patients that issued notice to Ashok Vihar’s Sunder Lal Jain Hospital, said the panel would seek the baby’s medical records from Lok Nayak and AIIMS, the two hospitals that the baby’s parents had subsequently taken him to.

Tarun was referred to paediatric emergency at Sunder Lal Jain (SLJ) in November 2011 with “impending acute kidney failure from sepsis and metabolic acidosis”, but the hospital turned him away, allegedly because his parents could not produce a BPL (below poverty line) card. Tarun was then 22 days old.

According to the history and admission summary record of MCD’s Hindu

Rao Hospital, which referred Tarun to SLJ under the

EWS beds quota, “patient (was) referred to Sunder Lal Jain Hospital after discussion with CMO of SLJ Hospital

for further management under EWS. “(But the) patient came back to Hindu Rao Hospital as SLJ Hospital management refused admission due to non-availability of BPL card.”

Dr Kiran Aggarwal, who treated Tarun at Hindu Rao, said, “We were treating the baby for an acute infection. When we thought it would affect his kidneys, we referred him to SLJ Hospital since we do not have a facility for paediatric dialysis. Though the patient’s father gave a written affidavit as directed by the court, and our medical officer accompanied the family, the hospital authorities refused admission without a BPL card.”

Dr Aggarwal said that after SLJ turned the family away, they returned to Hindu Rao, from where Tarun was taken to Lok Nayak Hospital and admitted to the paediatrics department there.

Tarun’s grieving mother Somwati said on Saturday that her child had fought a long battle for treatment.

On January 11, Lok Nayak referred the baby to AIIMS for management of his kidneys. He was admitted for three days, during which tests were conducted on him. Doctors at AIIMS diagnosed him with a congenital disorder of the kidneys which was not “surgically correctible”. They stabilised him, and after asking his parents to return for follow-up treatment, sent him home.

Dr V K Paul, head of the department of paediatrics at AIIMS, said the baby had been born with dysplastic kidney syndrome, and had a single, improperly developed kidney. “Lok Nayak Hospital referred the case here because it was a complicated one. We stabilised the infection and then put him on peritoneal dialysis. Since the problem was not surgically correctible, after his condition stablilised, we discharged him, and told the parents to come back for a follow-up.”

EWS committee member Ashok Aggarwal said, “SLJ Hospital violated High Court orders by turning away the baby. We will now seek medical records from Lok Nayak and AIIMS to establish what happened.”

Authorities at SLJ said they were yet to go through the notice. “As a norm, poor patients are not turned away if they sign an affidavit, even if they don’t have a BPL card. We will have to look into this case,” Dr Rekha Gupta, nodal officer for EWS patients at the hospital, said.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/turned-away-by-hospital-baby-dies-of-kidney-failure/905084/

Gujarat pogrom: SIT shielding the accused...

Despite the availability of direct circumstantial evidence against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 63 others, SIT still needs legal help to conclude whether the evidences collected so far are prosecutable.

It is important to note that the accused figuring in Zakia Jafri FIR includes the Chief Minister, other Ministers, Assembly Speaker, and some serving and retired Senior officers.

In the Gulberg Society incident in 2002, some 69 persons including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri were killed. Mrs Zakia Jafri stands an eyewitness to this gruesome act.

Records show that Ehsan Jaffri made nearly 200 calls for assistance; some of these were to the police control room. At that time cabinet ministers Ashok Bhatt and IK Jadeja were in the control room, yet Jaffri was killed. Some 69 Muslims were burnt or hacked to death over a period of 11 hours at Gulbarg Society. There are witnesses, hours and hours of phone call records for help but no help came for the residents of Gulbarg Society.

Officers like Sanjiv Bhatt kept informing the CM, the commissioner of police about the attack but it went unheard.

The SIT wholly failed to inquire into/investigate the circumstances in which repeated calls for police assistance went unheeded. SIT is on its last lap of finalizing its report on the 2002 carnage.

In one of the last ditch efforts the whistle blower cop Sanjiv Bhatt on Wednesday urged SIT chief Dr. Raghvan through his letter that the SIT should seek to prosecute Narendra Modi in the Gulbarg Society case.

Further in his letter Mr. Bhatt also advised SIT that acts of commission and omission on part of the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Gulberg Society case tantamount to abetment of gruesome carnage, thereby he should be charged under provisions of Section 107 (abetment to crime) of IPC.

Officer Bhatt in his previous communication to the investigating agencies has shared fax messages which he had sent to the CM, and the commissioner of police informing them of the mob mobilization outside the Gulbarg Society and requesting them for help.

Officer Bhatt also suggested that Modi would be liable to be charged under sections 109, 112, 115, 117, 118 and 119 of the Indian Penal Code(IPC).
Reiterating what he had already told to SIT and the Amicus Curiae Raju Ramachandran, Bhatt stated in his letter, by the time of second meeting that he claimed to have had with the Chief Minister on February 28, 2002, the carnage at Gulbarg Society had begun in full view of the police personnel who were deployed there for bandobust duties.

Excerpts from Sanjiv Bhatt’s letter:
"The Gujarat CM was accordingly briefed about the police inaction and complicity. He was informed about the threat to the life of ex-MP Ehsan Jafri and his family,” said officer Bhatt in the letter.

"Surprisingly, on conclusion of second meeting, the Chief Minister instructed me to find out details regarding the past instances wherein Ehsan Jafri had supposedly opened fire on Hindus, during earlier communal riots in Ahmedabad City," Bhatt claimed in the letter.

"I was informed by control room and other State Intelligence Bureau sources stationed at Gulbarg Society, that a few minutes ago Ehsan Jafri had opened fire on a riotous mobs," Bhatt stated.

"This makes it clear that the Chief Minister was fully aware of the on-going carnage and was independently getting real-time information updates on the developments taking place at Gulbarg Society", he stated.

"Later, I was told to collect details regarding past offences registered against Ehsan Jafri, which was followed by a similar telephonic request from cabinet minister Ashok Bhatt who was stationed at Ahmedabad City Control Room, by the Chief Minister," Bhatt stated.

"All this, absolutely makes it clear that the Chief Minister Narendra Modi was not interested in directing the police to act with firmness to protect the life and property of helpless citizens. Instead, at the time of gory carnage, he (CM) sought to condone the police inaction," he stated.

The Supreme Court of India had ordered the SIT “to take steps as required in Law”, yet SIT is perplexed whether or not to prosecute the perpetrators of the bloodbath of 2002.

The fact that this can happen even with the apex court keeping a sharp eye on these investigations speaks volumes about the Gujarat state’s adherence to constitutional governance or lack thereof.

Sanjiv Bhatt’s letter dated 25th Jan. 2012

By Sayema Sahar
Source:http://twocircles.net/2012jan27/gujarat_pogrom_sit_shielding_accused.html

BJP promises Ram temple, opposes minority quota in U.P. manifesto.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been struggling hard to regain its pre-eminent position in Uttar Pradesh, revived the Ram Temple issue promising construction of a grand temple in Ayodhya if voted to power.

The BJP’s manifesto for the State Assembly elections brought back the issue which had once propelled the party to the centerstage of national politics.

“Construction of a grand temple is associated with the faith of crores of people of the country. Ram is the symbol of prestige, pride and dignity of the country. Unfortunately due to psuedo-secularism and vote bank politics it is being opposed. BJP is committed to remove all hurdles in the path of construction of Ram temple,” the manifesto said.

The manifesto was released by senior leaders, including Uma Bharati, Kalraj Mishra, Mukhtar Abas Naqvi, Narendra Singh Tomar, Suddhendra Kulkarni and U.P. State unit president Surya Pratap Shahi at the party office in Lucknow on Friday.

On questions regarding the temple at Ayodhya, Mr. Shahi said that the party was of the opinion that Hinduism was the life substance of the country, but due to vote bank politics it was being attacked by parties, including the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Left.

Leader of the BJP Legislative Party Om Prakash Singh said that the party was opposed to religion-based reservation.

“The UPA government’s decision is motivated by vote bank politics and when BJP comes to power 4.5 per cent reservation for minorities would be scrapped and 27 per cent quota of the OBCs will be restored,” he said.

In fact, for the welfare and development of economically weaker sections among the upper castes, the party announced to constitute a Samanya Nirdhan Varg Kalyan Ayog.

“This commission will be constituted for 50 per cent people of unreserved class, who are socio-economically backward. Arrangement of necessary reservation for them will be made,” Mr. Shahi said.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article2836862.ece

SC slams Army over Pathribal fake killings!!

New Delhi: The Indian Army has been severely criticised by the Supreme Court for not deciding if it wants to take action against its officers involved in the Pathribal encounter case. The apex court on Monday issued a notice to the Defence Secretary and the Home Secretary in the March 25, 2000 encounter at Pathribal in South Kashmir in which seven people were gunned down for allegedly being Lashker-e-Toiba terrorists.

The court asked the Army if it will initiate court martial proceedings against the officers involved in the case. The Centre has to decide whether five Army officials including a serving Major General could be tried under the Army Act in the case.

A bench of Justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar gave the direction even as the Centre and the CBI continue to differ on the immunity enjoyed by the Army under the controversial AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) and other regular laws in encounter killings.

According to the Army officials, the seven people killed in Pathribal were allegedly responsible for the gunning down of 36 Sikhs at Chittisingpura in the same district on the intervening night of March 19-20, 2000.

The case was investigated by the CBI which filed its chargesheet in 2007 against five Army personnel including a Brigadier who later rose to become a Major General.

However, the trial in the case was stopped after the Army moved Supreme Court claiming immunity for its personnel under the AFSPA whereas the CBI contended that the five had allegedly indulged in murder of civilians for which the immunity could not be provided.

Additional Solicitor General PP Malhotra, on behalf of the Centre, had denied that any fake encounter killings had taken place in the specific cases pertaining to Kashmir and Assam pending before the apex court.

Source:http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sc-slams-army-over-pathribal-fake-killings/223547-3.html

Violence on minorities up by 90 pc in Karnataka: Justice Saldanha

Mumbai, January 12: Former judge in the Bombay and Karnataka high courts, Justice Michael Saldanha has described Karnataka with having the worst communal-persecution record and a state that encourages terror on micro-minorities.



Addressing a press meet organised jointly by All India Secular Forum and Catholic-Christian Secular Forum(CSF) the retired judge said that while across the country there has been a marked decrease in communal-related violence between 65 per cent to 75 per cent, “In Karnataka the violence targeting minorities jumped up by 90 per cent.”



He warned that the current scenario “is so alarming that even a minor flash point in near future may turn the state into a communal inferno... if steps to rein in parochial forces are not taken in time.”



The retired judge who grew up in Mangalore said, “This was never the case during my schooling and college days. All communities used to live harmoniously. But now something is wrong and the partisan-nature of the state machinery can be seen clearly.”



Justice Saldanha who had recently carried out an in-depth study of communal-related violence, said: “I found that Catholic community is the worst affected by this kind of violence. False cases are registered against people from this community. All this shows that apart from the saffronisation of the police force...what has been unleashed in this once-a-peaceful region is state-sponsored terror.” Citing examples of violence meted out to people belonging to Catholic community, he said no action was taken against parochial organisations espousing Hindutva ideology through hate-speeches instigating majority community to carry out violent attacks on micro-minorities.



Elaborating the former judge’s point, CSF general secretary Joseph Dias said that in Karnataka, “it has been found that micro-communities are worst affected in Dakshin Karnataka, Mysore and Mangalore.”



Dias said that going by the press reports also, “2011 has been the worst year for Indian Christians. Sheer number of attacks clearly point to the fact that the persecution has become more widespread.



“Moreover, even though there has been no major problem like Kandhamal in Orissa, one just has to see the fear glinting in the eyes of minority communities residing in interiors.”



Dias also claimed that the attacks on Christians have increased so much that the number of such incidents have over taken attacks on Muslims.

Source: http://www.coastaldigest.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34950%3Aviolence-on-minorities-up-by-90-pc-in-karnataka-saldanha

Express news service Posted online: Thu Jan 05 2012, 03:50 hrs
Ahmedabad : Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has produced yet another piece of ‘evidence’ before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing into the 2002 post-Godhra riots and the Nanavati-Mehta Commission.

Bhatt has produced a copy of an intelligence alert, which indicates that it was after a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Narendra Modi that the state government decided to bring the bodies of all the kar sevaks killed on the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, to Ahmedabad. He had sent the alert on behalf of the additional DGP (intelligence) to the commissioner of police Ahmedabad, dated February 27, 2002, the day of the carnage.

The purported intelligence alert annexed to his letter to the Commission refers to the decision to bring the bodies under police escort to Ahmedabad, and warns of widespread communal violence since the VHP and Bajrang Dal cadres were being mobilised to enforce the bandh call the following day.

The letter says the bodies of kar sevaks were to be brought to Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. The parading of these burnt bodies has been blamed for sparking off riots the next day.

He has annexed this letter as a sample, with a request to the Commission to issue orders to him to file a comprehensive affidavit to bring out more such evidence under the expanded terms of references of the Commission, which cover roles of the chief minister and council of ministers.

Copies of this intelligence input (D2/2-COM/ ALERT/100/2002) marked ‘priority’ by Bhatt, who was then the deputy commissioner of intelligence, had also been sent to the offices of chief minister, minister of state for home and DGP. The letter seems to be referring to same meeting held at Modi’s residence on February 27 wherein, Bhatt has claimed, the CM wanted to allow Hindus to vent their anger.

The letter says, “Pursuant to the meeting held by the CM, it has become clear that the state government wishes to go ahead with the decision of bringing the dead bodies of the Kar Sevaks to Ahmedabad by road under police escort.”

The officer has also reiterated that the documents he has requisitioned from government files be provided to him. “It is reiterated that documents submitted by me to the SIT as well as other documents which would be available with the State Intelligence Bureau would clearly reveal the dubious role and criminal conduct of the then Chief Minister and/or other Ministers in his council of Ministers, Police Officers and other individuals and organisations with respect to the references (a) to (e) of the widened Terms of Reference. I am aware of the said fact as many such highly incriminating documents were either authored by me or had come to my notice during my tenure as Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence in-charge of Internal Security in the year 2002,” Bhatt says in his letter to the Commission.

He requested the Commission to ensure that crucial documents and records of the state IB are not destroyed and the government should give him the relevant records that he has requested for.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/896006/

Hindu right-wing group "Sri Rama Sena" flew Pakistani flag on a government building to create communal tension.

Six members of a right-wing Hindu group have been arrested in India's southern Karnataka state for raising Pakistan's national flag on a government building.

Police say those arrested belong to the Sri Rama Sena group.

The flag was raised in Sindgi, near Bijapur, on 1 January, leading to angry protests by Hindu organisations and the stoning of a Muslim prayer hall.

Police say Sri Rama Sena was trying to create "communal disharmony" in an area with a sizeable Muslim presence.

Sri Rama Sena is a fringe group that claimed responsibility for attacking women outside a pub in the coastal district of Mangalore in 2009, saying that allowing females in pubs was against Indian culture.


'Dividing society'

Inspector general of police Charan Reddy told the BBC the situation in Sindgi was "now peaceful".

"It seems they were out to create communal disharmony," he said.

Hindu organisations had called for strikes in a number of towns around Bijapur to protest against the flag-raising.

But Mr Reddy said police investigations had led them to members of the Sri Rama Sena, a group founded by Pramod Muthalik after it broke away from the Bajrang Dal, an affiliate of the long-standing Hindu nationalist organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Mr Muthalik is the leading suspect in the attack on the women in Mangalore.

Former chief minister and Janata Dal Secular party leader HD Kumaraswamy said of the flag-raising: "It is such a shame. I blame the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the incident. They want to divide society on religious lines."

Bijapur is close to Hyderabad in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and is a historic town with a sizeable Muslim population.

Police arrested Sri Rama Sena members for the desecration of a mosque in Mysore a few years ago.

The carcass of a pig was thrown near the prayer hall, an act that triggered major riots between Hindus and Muslims.

Karnataka was also rocked by a series of attacks on churches by right-wing groups in 2008, immediately after the BJP came to power.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-16424473
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No any National media covered this news....How biased they are??? likewise If any Muslim is arrested by police calling him terrorist the entire national media give it a special coverage and runs the news for many days, but most of them are acquitted by the court but this news of acquittal hardly get any mention in these so called FORTH PILLAR of our DEMOCRACY........:(