Hindu Vahini’s involvement case thrown in SIMI’s basket to further the ban.

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,

Hyderabad: Security agencies have once again landed in awkward moment with their consistent maneuver to maintain ban over Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Andhra Pradesh police while deposing before a UAPA tribunal turned a Hindu Vahini attached communal violence instigation case into a SIMI proscribing justification.

On 8th April 2012 communal clashes had erupted in Madanapet and Kurmaguda areas of Hyderabad after cow legs were found hanging on Hanuman temple gate. A SIT formed to investigate the case arrested five men belonging to the right wing militant group Hindu Vahini, who according to the police desecrated the temple to create communal clashes and to gain from polarization.

Since getting banned in Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in 2001, SIMI alleged to be an Islamist fundamentalist group by the Ministry of Home Affairs faced seven ban extensions on Government notifications. According to the provision of UAPA the ban has to be proved by a sitting High Court judge. Every tribunal except in 2008 upheld the ban on SIMI.

The new tribunal headed by Delhi High Court Judge Suresh Kait is formed after fresh notification from Government was issued extending ban on SIMI. The tribunal began its hearing from March this year and already completed proceedings in Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The tribunal proceedings were held at Ranga Reddy district collectorate office in Hyderabad on May 21st and 22nd. In the first day of proceeding Madhusudan Reddy DIG Counter Intelligence cell deposed before the tribunal.

Mr. Reddy in his affidavit gave reference to Darsgah Jihadt o Shahadat, Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Shair-e-Islam, Thereek-e-Galba-e-Islam, Wahdat-e-Islami and Al Ummah and their activities supporting ban on SIMI.

When defense counsel Advocate Ashok Agarwal pointed out that none of those organizations mentioned in affidavit are banned by any authority, DIG Counter Intelligence showed lack of knowledge. Later when official list of banned organizations were summoned by the judge it was found that none of the mentioned organization was banned in Andhra Pradesh. But Mr. Madhusudan Reddy testified before the tribunal that all those organizations mentioned are involved in anti-national activities and are inter-related and have links with SIMI which police have information from intelligence ‘secret reports’.

On the first day of the proceedings police presented cases from 2007 which were already been discussed in previous 2010 and 2012 tribunals.

On the second day of the hearing police tried to present the latest case to weight their argument that SIMI is still involved in unlawful activities while operating clandestinely. Inspector Koteshwara Rao of Madanapet police station deposed before the tribunal on Kurmaguda communal violence of 2012 of Cr.No 66 to 83/2012 and Cr.No. 126,128,132 and 133/ 2012 which were described in police affidavit as SIMI cases.

Local police which investigated the case before it was handed over to SIT did arrest three Muslim youths for allegedly participating in stone pelting during communal clashes. Those youngsters were described as SIMI members and whole incident was given a color of SIMI orchestrated plan.

Advocate Ashok Agarwal during his cross examination with Inspector Koteshwara Rao questioned whether any of those accused who are presented as SIMI members were charged with UAPA on which Inspector replied in negative.

During cross examination Mr. Rao was made to describe the events which led to violence in which he conceded that violence were conspire by Hindu right wing members by desecrating temple, he also accepted that charge-sheet has been filed against those Hindu youths involved in this case.

He also accepted that both communities indulged in stone pelting after communal clashes broke out. In spite of accepting the chronology of the events which pointed out towards the hand of Hindu Vahini in the violence police maintained its stand that three accused Muslim youths in this case has relations with SIMI and claim to have basis to connect those accused with the banned organization. Inspector Rao testified that information and antecedents of those accused were collected from the earlier police records.

Defense counsel Mr. Ashok Agarwal commenting on police stand told TCN, “Name of SIMI is interpolated to further the ban. Four cases were registered in 2012 pertaining to stone pelting, it was clear that it was communal tension and violence for which cases were registered and persons from both sides were charged. Those three Muslims were stated to be members of SIMI, even if we assume that it was correct it is not the basis of continuing the ban on SIMI, the Government has to show the activity about which they are reporting was done by SIMI or its members were part of conscious activity on behalf of organization.”

Source:http://twocircles.net/2014may29/hindu_vahini%E2%80%99s_involvement_case_thrown_simi%E2%80%99s_basket_further_ban.html#.U4n2qnKSx5u

HINDUTVA TERROR TAPES

THE UNTURNED STONE

The Malegaon blast probe threw up 37 audiotapes in which ultra-Hindu groups plot terror attacks. These tapes expose a shocking nexus between Military Intelligence men and the outfits. Two years later, why is this still unexplored, asks RANA AYYUB

Lt Col Shrikant Purohit Military Intelligence officer The man who procured the RDX that was used for the Malegaon blast. He is the first serving officer to be arrested in a terror case PHOTOS: DEEPAK SALVI

HATE IS one of the obvious and evident yields of the Hindutva worldview. But few had imagined it could spawn a terror network until investigations into the 2008 Malegaon blast led to a series of startling arrests that included Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Lt Col Shrikant Purohit of Abhinav Bharat, an ultra-right Hindu group. Since then, the issue of ‘saffron terror’ has entered national discourse as a fractious and heated debate.

Last week, the issue erupted once again, triggering livid responses across the political spectrum. First, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh claimed that Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare — who had been investigating the Malegaon blast — had called him hours before he died on the fateful night of 26/11, saying he was being threatened by those opposed to his probes. Singh was speaking at the launch of a book by Aziz Burney, controversially titled 26/11 — A RSS Controversy? and both sections of his own party and the BJP were dismayed that his “irresponsible” remarks would play into Pakistan’s hands.

Maj (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay Military Intelligence officer He is suspected of training those who assembled the bomb that went off in Malegaon. He also headed BJP’s ex-servicemen cell PHOTOS: DEEPAK SALVI

A few days later, in its ongoing exposé, WikiLeaks released a cable in which US Ambassador Timothy Roemer claimed that Rahul Gandhi had told him that ultra-Hindu terror was probably a greater threat to national security than Islamist terror. In all the furious exchanges that have followed, a crucial issue was overlooked. With the capture of Ajmal Kasab, it is undoubtedly an absurd stretch of imagination to believe 26/11 was engineered by ultra-Hindu groups, but the truth is the ‘saffron terror’ story is indeed far from being a closed book.

TEHELKA has found that, in the two years since the Malegaon blast, investigators have left many leads unexplored. Most alarmingly, they have failed to pin down eight Indian Army officers allegedly involved with the terror network. Why haven’t they been questioned by the army or sufficiently tracked? How far has the network penetrated sections of the army? To understand the full implication of this, it is important to recall the whole story.

Sadhvi Pragya Thakur Self-styled godwoman Her cell phone call records proved to be a minefield of information about those involved in the Malegaon blast PHOTOS: DEEPAK SALVI

IT WAS a low-intensity bomb fitted in a motorbike, but its impact was powerful. It exploded in the small town of Malegaon in Nashik district, Maharashtra, on 29 September 2008, leaving six dead and several injured. The only clue was a mangled number-plate. Forensic lab officials used a 25 MP camera for a magnified view of the number-plate. They managed to get three sets of possible numbers. Then the ATS began the chase. The first combination took them to Badayun, Uttar Pradesh, where the vehicle bearing the number still existed. The second was tracked down to Gujarat. Here too the vehicle was still in use. In October 2008, the last number-plate took them to the bike owner, a self-styled godwoman called Sadhvi Pragya Thakur

Pragya’s interrogation and call information from her cell phone opened a pandora’s box. Shamlal Sahu, 42, a commerce graduate, was first to be arrested on charges of planting the bomb. Shivnarayan Kalangasara Singh, 36, a science graduate, was arrested for setting a timer device in the bomb. Another science graduate, Sameer Kulkarni, 32, was arrested for his role in procuring chemicals for the bomb.

PHOTOS: DEEPAK SALVI

But the story did not end with these arrests. Five days after Pragya’s arrest, the ATS caught a major fish: Maj (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, 64, a resident of Pune. He had worked in the Indian Army’s Military Intelligence (MI) unit and was suspected of training those who had assembled the bombs. He had also headed the BJP’s ex-servicemen’s cell in Mumbai.

On 2 November 2008, three more arrests were made — Ajay Rahirkar, 39, for raising funds for Abhinav Bharat; Rakesh Dhawde, 35, a weapon consultant in the movie The Rising; and Jagdish Mhatre, 40, who had paid money to Dhawde for buying weapons. All these men were from either Nashik or Pune. Then came the biggest arrest. On 5 November, the first ever serving army officer, Lt Col Purohit, 37, was arrested for procuring the RDX used in the blast. The MI officer was posted at the Army Education Corps Training Centre and College in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, where he was studying Arabic at the time of his arrest.

Terror on board The Samjhauta Express blast in 2007 killed 68 people PHOTO: SHAILENDRA PANDEY

Purohit’s role as a prime conspirator became clearer with the arrest of selfstyled seer Swami Dayanand Pandey alias Shankar Acharya alias Shukhakar Dwivedi, 40, on 14 November. Pandey had a habit of recording all his conversations with his co-conspirators on his laptop.

The ATS retrieved three videos and 37 audiotapes. These proved to be an unprecedented source of information. On 21 November, Karkare questioned Pune’s RSS leader Shyam Apte, named in the tapes.

Purohit himself wasn’t an easy case to crack. During his interrogation, he asserted that his job as an MI spy included interacting with both Hindu and Muslim extremists. At first, the army seemed to rally behind him. Soon after his arrest, the army spokesman claimed he had only been detained, not arrested. Pragya, however, disclosed that she had met Purohit in Pachmarhi, where Purohit had told her that he had executed two blasts in the past. The ATS officials suspected Purohit was hinting at the Samjhauta Express and Ajmer Sharif blasts, but this was not made public because of its diplomatic implications.

Cycle of violence The Malegaon blast in 2008 left six people dead PHOTO: REUTERS

THE AUDIOTAPES revealed a chilling landscape. A godwoman, a seer, political bigwigs and retired and serving army officers all seemed part of the conspiracy. They spilled vitriolic hate for Muslims and even Hindus who did not subscribe to their ultra right-wing communal vision. They had set up Abhinav Bharat with the intention of infiltrating and subverting every institution in the country. This, for instance, is an excerpt of what Purohit says on the tapes about the nation they dreamed of creating:

“We must aim for militarisation of the organisation (Abhinav Bharat). Every member at all levels must have a basic knowledge of weapons. We haven’t done it so far. We should indoctrinate them with our ideology. We should establish an academy for ideological indoctrination. At the end of the course, each member will be tested and only those who pass will be finally admitted to the organisation. The level of testing is when he will be tried in ‘action’. Then our organisation will propagate establishment of all-India Hindu rashtra called Abhinav Bharat. There will be a uniform code of conduct irrespective of any caste. Reporting channels like those in the armed forces will be established. This will ensure the smooth flow of information and passing of orders. An Honour Court Committee will exist at all levels. This will ensure strict adherence to moral and ethical behaviour as decided by the core group by all the members based on our Vedas.”

Ground zero Fourteen people died in the 2007 Mecca Masjid bombing PHOTO: AFP

The conversations were alarming. The then Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil was briefed by senior ATS officials. Other national agencies like the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and, later, the National Investigating Agency (NIA)were brought in. Initial investigations suggested that Purohit was an aberration. The investigators found it odd that despite their mentors in the army, the attackers behaved like novices. “They were so dumb they used their own motorcycle to plant the bomb. It took us just a month to catch all of them. The police have never taken such a short time to arrest terrorists,” says a senior home ministry official, requesting anonymity. How could anyone take them seriously? he asks.

After Purohit’s arrest, there was a lot of pressure to downplay the role of the army, reveals an ATS officer

So the sleuths deemed the Malegaon blast to be a freak incident. Over the next two years, however, a larger pattern began to emerge. First Malegaon. Then Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif. The Abhinav Bharat cell was found to have a hand in all these blasts. It obviously had deeper roots.

TEHELKA first scooped and wrote about the tapes in 2008. Subsequently, a few other media organisations accessed and published parts of the tapes. However, through all this, at no point has there been sufficient focus on the army officers who figure on the tapes. They remain the big unturned stone in the investigation.

There are a total of eight army officers, retired and serving, named in the tapes. At least four of them have an MI background. Apart from Lt Col Purohit and Maj Upadhyay, who are now in jail, topping the list is Col (retd) Hasmukh Patel. A JNU graduate, Patel was commissioned into the Infantry Jat Regiment and later detailed with the MI. After 25 years in service, he retired in 2007 and joined Reliance. His LinkedIn profile says he is a specialist in threat analysis, background checks, physical- electronic-aviation security, vigilance, investigations, disaster management, negotiation and loss prevention. The NIA is understood to have questioned him recently but let him off under surveillance.

Col Shailesh Raikar is a retired commandant. He is said to be a brilliant officer who belonged to the Maratha Regiment. According to the tapes, Raikar was commander of the Bhosla Military Academy in Nashik. He allegedly provided academy facilities to Purohit and other Abhinav Bharat members for weapons training. He too is under the NIA scanner.

Others named in the tapes are Col Aditya Bappaditya Dhar (Parachute Regiment, now retired); Brig Mathur (full name not known, but he was apparently posted at Deolali Cantonment near Nashik); Maj Nitin Joshi and Maj Prayag Modak (in both cases, regiment not known).

The NIA has reportedly established contact with Col Dhar; it is yet to initiate investigations against the rest. Apart from these men, there is a Brig Lajpat Prajwal, apparently posted with the Nepal Army. According to the tapes, Purohit and he had trained together at IMA and that Purohit was in constant touch with Prajwal for logistic support. In one of his conversations with Col Purohit on the tapes, Col Dhar asks: Did you see one of my messages?

LT COL PUROHIT: Yes... About how this country should be taken over by the army?
COL DHAR: Yes, yes. I have written three lakh letters... I distributed three lakh letters among the jawans... It is not a political stunt... And I distributed 20,000 maps of Akhand Bharat among the jawans on 26 January... It is my humble attempt to sow the seeds.

Given these alarming ambitions and self-confessed acts of sedition, why haven’t their roles been probed more seriously yet? Why has the army itself not acted on them?

Maharashtra ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi, who was accused of going slow on the Malegaon probe, says: “We acted on the basis of evidence. The case against these armymen was not watertight. We did call some of them in, including Col Dhar, for questioning but there was nothing on the basis of which we could detain or arrest them.”

‘I gave 20,000 maps of Akhand Bharat to the jawans. It is my humble bid to sow the seeds,’ says Col Dhar

Interestingly, Raghuvanshi admits to a major handicap while interrogating the officers. “A MI official was always around monitoring our questioning. In the beginning, in fact, it was difficult to get hold of Lt Col Purohit because even though we presented a dossier of evidence against him the army insisted it’s their internal matter and they’d look into it themselves,” he says.

Finally, pressure from the home ministry worked and Purohit wa arrested. The army, however, has still not initiated action against its officials and court martial proceedings against Lt Col Purohit are yet to take off. Sources say the proceedings have been postponed under Section 7 of the Indian Soldiers Litigation Act, 1925. Since Purohit was serving under ‘special conditions’, the Act says a postponement is necessary in the interests of justice.

ANOTHER ATS official says, “Most of what Purohit says on the tapes about sending people to Nepal and Israel for training wasn’t taken seriously. That is the biggest blunder. The job of a MI officer posted along the Jammu & Kashmir border is to spread his net of informers, spies and get crucial information. Imagine what damage Purohit has already done while posted there. The entire truth on Purohit is still not out.”

That seems a very disturbing probability. The armymen named on the tapes are not mentioned casually. Sample snatches of this conversation between Lt Col Purohit, Maj Ramesh Upadhyay, Col Dhar, Dayanand Pandey, BL Sharma Prem, a twotime BJP MP, and RP Singh, an endocrinologist at Apollo Hospital and president of the World Hindu Federation.

LT COL PUROHIT:We have done two operations which have been successful and I got material support for them. On 24 June 2007, Col Lajpat Prajwal, now a Brigadier, had arranged our meeting with King Gyanendra Nobody in this country will be able to figure who is doing the work. If Major Saheb (Upadhyay) has 20 people, we (read Prajwal) will train them.

Terror taint RSS’ Indresh Kumar was linked to Ajmer blast PHOTO: SHAILENDRA PANDEY

RP SINGH: King Gyanendra’s close relative sat with us in Gorakhpur... We are constantly in touch with them... Maj Prayag Modak was the one who came to our meeting. There are Col Raikar and Col Hasmukh Patel, who are helping us in the training. Prajwal is from the side of Rani Aishwarya.

Col Dhar enters the room…

LT COL PUROHIT: Namaskar Dharji… (To the others) He has been in the army since 23 years and has been with me. He’s with the Parachute Regiment. I was also posted with him. Dhar sahib, let me introduce you to the people here. We are all on the same plane, Hindu rashtra…

LT COL PUROHIT:We also have General JJ Singh, he’s from the Maratha Regiment. As you know I have also been part of the Maratha regiment…

PANDEY: Ok…

LT COL PUROHIT: Swamiji, we haven’t spoken about certain things, but two operations have been done by us. One of our own captains has visited Israel for training and meeting and there was a very positive response… We demanded four things from Israel — continuous and uninterrupted supply of arms and training, our office with a saffron flag in Tel Aviv, political asylum and support for our cause of a Hindu Nation in the UN. Israel has asked us to show something on the ground and have promised at least a supply of arms and political asylum... I have a state-wise population of Muslims in each state but I have only three AK-47s. We couldn’t buy much earlier because we didn’t have funds.

MAJ UPADHYAY: AK-47 is available at Cox Bazaar in Gorakhpur, but mostly jihadis sell the weapons…

LT COL PUROHIT: You will get very expensive AKs…

PANDEY: Arrey, you get many AK guns.

LT COL PUROHIT: The Israelis ask us to give them proof of our involvement. What more proof do they need? We have completed two successful operations.

MAJ UPADHYAY: The Hyderabad blasts were executed by our man. Colonel will tell you about that.

PANDEY: What if this organisation is banned?

APTE: We will give it an international aspect... and a covert name. We have to fight. See, if you aren’t a Hindu, you are my enemy. I will be unsafe if you are alive…

Obviously, this was not just empty bragging. Purohit goes on to talk of Khetomi Sema, a leader of the banned insurgent group, Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland. Purohit says he had saved his life and Sema has issued a letter to all his generals to support Purohit’s cause. “He has promised to give us seven years of logistic support,” Purohit tells Pandey.

Purohit’s conversations further reveal that he had been using the army machinery to serve Abhinav Bharat. He says he was in the process of indoctrinating like-minded army officers who could serve in Abhinav Bharat. He also admits to catching and killing two Maoists in cold blood in Delhi.

LT COL PUROHIT: “I bought weapons worth Rs. 4 lakh in Assam. A police officer got me the weapons. It costs a lot. I had 3 lakh and I borrowed one more. I kept one pistol with me. I sent some weapons to Nepal. Our study is on… We will soon start action. We have got a list of top 5-6 Maoist financers. We’ll kill them first…You know one Assam DIG had informed me about two Maoists who had arrived in Delhi to kill me. We caught them at the Vasant Kunj Civic Centre. We kept them in a place at Munirka through the night. You know we have encroached upon a property in Munirka that has sewer lid inside the house. We got the information out of them, then killed them and threw them in the gutter.”

PUROHIT’S CONVERSATIONS also suggest an alarming shared mindset among sections of the army. At one point he tells Pandey, “There was a captain and a major posted in Delhi. I managed to do my work with them over the phone. This work otherwise would have taken more than three months. It happened because I belong to Sangh and he was also from Sangh. I didn’t even know him. He was from UP and he did the work in one day. Tapping such people (with Sangh background) is important.”

Sample another chat between them:

PANDEY: I have to attend a programme organised by one editor of Organiser, Deepak Rath, in Orissa on 17 February. This is his personal function.

LT COL PUROHIT: Is it in Bhubaneshwar city? Let me know, I will arrange my Orissa commander to receive you…

PANDEY: Do you know Narendra Modi?

LT COL PUROHIT: I have met him once or twice, but I don’t know him well.

PANDEY:Will you be interested if I arrange your meeting with him?

LT COL PUROHIT: Why not!

PANDEY: In fact, there is one Swami Aseemanandji....
He has good relations with Narendra Modi… I can arrange your meeting through him.

(Swami Aseemanand, a Kolkata native known as Jatin Chatterjee before he donned his ochre robes, came to the Dangs district of Gujarat to start a campaign to bring Christian converts back into the Hindu fold. A RSS man, he is said to be very close to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Aseemanand was arrested recently but the police have not shared any information gleaned from his interrogation.)

Elsewhere in the tapes, Purohit elaborates on other sinister strategies the Abhinav Bharat group plans on adopting against Muslims — including shooting people under false identities to create mayhem.

“I know that the army and the BSF don’t complement each other’s action,” says Purohit. “Nor there is any coordination between the BSF, CRPF and state police. So if I buy two army vehicles from the scrap and paint them with army colours and send them along with our people in army uniform into Meerut, they can just fire and come out of the situation easily. There is so much confusion in this country.”

The conversations on these tapes demand extreme vigilance. These statements were not recorded under police custody or during interrogation. They were voluntarily recorded by Pandey. Therefore, there can be no accusation of coercion or manipulation with regard to them. So the question is, how far did Lt Col Purohit’s influence run in the army? How vast was the network he had succeeded in building? Was he only a small link in a bigger, more dangerous, chain within the army?

In the Mecca Masjid blast, which brought the Abhinav Bharat under the scanner, the accused had used a combination of TNT and RDX. An IB official based in Mumbai raises a pertinent question: “Do you think Purohit can smuggle RDX and weapons from Jammu Army depot on his own? Can he alone sponsor sending men for military training to Nepal and Israel?”

This question has even more alarming implications when one recalls that in the narco reports of Nanded blasts accused, Himanshu Panse and Sanjay Bhaurao Chaudhury, first published by TEHELKA in 2006, the men clearly talk of how an army man named Mithun Chakrabarty had trained them to make the IEDs for the blasts at the Sinhagad Fort. The identity of this army man is yet to be established.

Going slow? ATS’ Raghuvanshi says the army tried to meddle PHOTO: SHAILENDRA PANDEY

A senior ATS Official told this reporter that after Lt Col Purohit’s arrest, there was a lot of pressure on them to downplay the role of the army. “We were told we couldn’t lower the morale of officers posted in sensitive positions. It could have a backlash. But with more cases involving military intelligence officials coming out, we could be overlooking a dangerous trend.”

The MI is a small but important corps, and a relatively new addition to the army structure. It is currently headed by Gen Lumba. MI officers are tasked to track spies and other security threats and, outside the country, are mostly active in China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Japan, USA and Russia. Many MI cadre officers (Lt Col Purohit was one of them) do not wear uniforms and work in conjunction with the IB, BSF (‘G’ Force) and other intelligence agencies. MI officials work in field formations and report to their respective commanders. Nobody, except the commander, would know they are part of MI.

What makes the story of Lt Col Purohit so dark is that the Indian Army has never been suspected of any communal overtones. But as an IB official says: “There was a time when the army would not think twice about religious identity when they entered the Golden Temple to arrest the terrorists holed inside. But after the 1992 Ayodhya movement, things have changed. The political climate has affected the army too in a big way, especially among officers posted along the border. Look at Lt Col Purohit. His indoctrination happened during his posting in Kashmir.”

THE UNMAPPED SCALE of the army connection, however, is not the only missing piece in the ultra-Hindu terror puzzle. In December 2007, Sunil Joshi, an RSS man suspected of a key role in the Ajmer blast and of being a link between several ultra-right groups like Abhinav Bharat, Vande Mataram and other fringe elements was mysteriously murdered. His family said he had been bumped off by his own organisation. Sadhvi Pragya confirmed this. According to her, a man named Mayank had probably killed Joshi. Despite these clues, the MP Police closed the case.

Clued in Hemant Karkare pursued the ‘saffron terror’ angle PHOTO: DEEPAK SALVI

Earlier this week, however, the MP Police finally accepted that Joshi was murdered by his own friends in the RSS. They charged Mayank, Harshad Solanki, Mehul and Mohan from Gujarat, Anand Raj Katare from Indore and Vasudev Parmar from Dewas with Joshi’s murder. While Mehul and Mohan are still on the run, Solanki was brought before the Dewas court last week and confessed to the murder. (Solanki is also an accused in the infamous Best Bakery case, Gujarat 2002.) This development validates what TEHELKA had reported back in 2008.

However, even these arrests don’t join all the dots. The MP Police have claimed internal rivalry as the motive for the murder. The CBI though believes the real culprits in the RSS behind Joshi’s murder are also the men responsible for the blasts. Their hunch is, if Joshi were alive today, most of the masterminds would have been unmasked. Joshi was known to be close to senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar. Their question is why did the two fall out?

The MP Police, Rajasthan ATS and CBI are all looking into the Ajmer, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta blasts. However, their investigations do not have the same conclusions.

This October, the Rajasthan ATS filed a chargesheet linking Indresh to the Ajmer blasts. They said he attended a secret meeting in Jaipur on October 25, 2005 in which the conspiracy for the Ajmer blast was drawn up. The meeting was allegedly attended by Indresh, Pragya Thakur, Sunil Joshi, Ramji Kalsangra, Devendra Gupta, Lokesh Sharma and Sandeep Dange. The chargesheet hinted the same people were responsible for the Samjhauta blast. The chargesheet, however, did not list Indresh as an accused. And Dange and Kalsangra are still on the run.

The CBI, which is also probing the case, blames the Rajasthan ATS for not making sufficient headway in pinning down the role of the RSS. “They have helped RSS men like Indresh create an alibi by alerting them with witness statements that are not credible evidence in the court of law. This has allowed him time to concoct documents to prove he was not physically present at various places,” says an investigating official.

Confusingly, however, Lt Col Purohit and his co-conspirators on the tapes also curse Indresh as a sell-out and wish they could kill him.

Source: http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne010111The_unturned.asp

Gujarat HC raps Modi govt. for ‘inaction’ during post-Godhra riots

Ahmedabad, February 8, 2012

PTI Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Gujarat High Court rapped the Modi government for "negligence” during the 2002 post-Godhra riots. File photo

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The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Narendra Modi government for “inaction and negligence” on its part during the 2002 post-Godhra riots that led to large-scale destruction of religious structures.

A division bench of acting chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala made these observations, while ordering compensation for over 500 religious structures in the state.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat (IRCG).

Inadequacy, inaction and negligence on the part of the State government to prevent riots resulted in large-scale destruction of religious structures across the State, the court observed.

The government was responsible for repair and compensation for such places, it further said.

The court said that when the government had paid compensation for destruction of houses and commercial establishments, it should also pay compensation for religious structures.

The court also ordered that principal judges of 26 districts of the state will receive the applications for compensation of religious structures in their respective districts and decide on it. They have been asked to send their decisions to HC within six months.

IRCG’s petition in 2003 had sought court’s directions to the government to pay compensation towards damage of religious places during riots on the ground that the National Human Rights Commission, too, had recommended and the state government had in principle accepted the suggestion.

The state government had opposed the IRCG petition, saying it was a violation of article 27 of the Constitution.

The government further said that there was no policy with regards to compensation for restoration/repair of religious places damaged or destroyed during the riots.

Lawyer for IRCG, M.T.M. Hakim hailed it as a “landmark judgement” in the country, in which compensation has been ordered for destruction of religious structures.

“This is also probably for the first time that a court has held the State government responsible for inaction and negligence during the 2002 riots,” Mr. Hakim said.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2871891.ece

Manufacturing 'terrorists' the Indian way!!

Manufacturing 'terrorists' the Indian way!!

Almost every other day, newspapers are agog with stories about 'dreaded Muslim terrorists' being nabbed across the country. At the same time, savage violence unleashed by Hindutva groups continues unabated without any effective steps being taken against them. In the ongoing 'war on terror', globally as well as within India [ Images ], Muslims have come to be framed collectively as 'terrorists', while terrorism engaged in by people belonging to other communities is generally condoned or ignored altogether or, at least, is not described in the same terms. In India today, Muslim youths are being indiscriminately picked up and tortured by the police, in many cases falsely accused of being terrorists. Many of them have been languishing in jails for years now and yet no one ever seems to care.

Take the case of Muhammad Parvez Abdul Qayyum Shaikh of Gujarat. According to his aunt, Qamar Jahan, on April 2, 2003, while he was on his way to fit a water appliance, he was arrested by CBI officer Tarun Barot and others. For three days his family knew nothing of his whereabouts. On the fourth day, she says, 'We saw the news and realised that Parvez had been arrested under allegations of having a Chinese-made pistol and some gun powder. However, this powder is used for cleaning the Aqua Guard machines.'
Parvez, she says, was brutally beaten and tortured by the officers, with Officer Vanzara allegedly asking Parvez to refer to him as Khuda (God) and beating him ruthlessly. While in jail they forced him to sign on blank papers. He was reportedly taken by the CBI officers to Gandhinagar where he was further tortured for 21 days. He was then charged in the DCP-6 case, tiffin bomb blast case and in the Haren Pandya murder case (the last mentioned of which, incidentally, Pandya's own father accuses Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi [ Images ] as having instigated). He was sentenced to 14 years in jail for the last-mentioned case, although his aunt maintains that he is innocent.
27 year-old Sardar, a Muslim youth, works as a plumber in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He was arrested at the age of 17, some months after the February 1998 Chennai bomb blasts. The initial accusation against Sardar was that he had been involved in a street fight. He was apparently kept illegally imprisoned for a month, and only after that was an FIR was lodged against him. This time he was accused of carrying two pipe bombs and rioting. The offence was non-bailable. He was remanded and kept in the Vellore Jail for first 15 months, even though there were no witnesses against him. The special court set up for the bomb blasts refused to let him be tried as he was a minor.
Eventually, nine and a half years later, in the final judgment the court apparently found him not guilty of any of the charges put on him and he was acquitted, but only after having spent almost a decade languishing in jail, where he was brutally tortured. Even after his acquittal the police have allegedly not stopped harassing and hounding him, and they still restrict his movements.
Noor ul-Hoda, the son of a desperately poor daily-wage labourer from Malegaon in Maharashtra [ Images ], is yet another hapless Muslim man who has, so he insists, been falsely implicated as a terrorist by the police. In September 2006, he was picked up by the police from his home. On the same day, they brought him back, searched the house (without producing a search warrant), and, finding nothing, took him back into police custody. The next day the police charged Noor with possession of 20 books considered as 'illegal literature'.
While in police custody, he is said to have been forced, through torture and threats by his interrogators that they would kill his family, to sign a blank piece of paper, which was later used as evidence of a 'confession'. This was, it is claimed, used to charge him under the draconian MCOCA for allegedly being a member of the team that carried out the Malegaon bombings. This, he says, is completely false as he was at the local mosque on the day of the bomb blasts. The local special executive officer has given an affidavit validating this. Noor claims that Police Inspector Sachin Kadum had threatened him thus: 'Although I am aware of the fact that you are not involved in the bomb blast, we will still capture you and we will see if you can get out of this situation.'
In October 2006 Noor was taken to Bangalore for brain mapping and narco-tests. These proved negative, but the experience was harrowing. During the narco-test he was given powerful electric shocks and was badly beaten. His ribs were also battered. The doctor, Malti, asked him to say what the police wanted him to say or else he would be more deeply implicated in the bomb blast case. 'When I did not repeat the words electric shocks were given to my ear', he says. While he was in the custody of the Nasik police, they tortured him severely at the ATS office, saying that he should state what the police wanted him to -- in other words, to give a false 'confession'. 
'In the month of Ramzan while I was fasting I was beaten so much that I fainted', he says. 'Inspector Sachin Kadum and Inspector Khan Gekar used to abuse me and say that if you do not confess we will bring all your sisters here. We will make them naked and photographs will be taken and they will also be beaten,' he adds. They also threatened to implicate Noor's brother in the case. Finally, they were able to force him to make a false 'confession' by taking his signature on a blank piece of paper, but he later retracted this 'confession'.
Muhammad Hanif Adul Razzak Shaikh from Gujarat is yet another victim of state terrorism. On April 28, 2003, around two dozen men rushed into Hanif's house, but since Hanif was said to have been away attending a friend's funeral in Himmatnagar, they dragged his brother, Yasin, to the police station where he was beaten up. They picked him up without an arrest warrant and detained him for 12 days until May 3, when Hanif came back and presented himself at the Crime Branch. He was immediately put into detention and the CBI searched his factory but recovered nothing.
Mohammad Hanif was in the business of making bags. The police claimed that the bomb which was used in the tiffin bomb blast and in another such blast had been made in his factory. But when Hanif refused to accept these allegations, the police tortured him severely and even threatened to arrest his brother Yasin if he did not comply with their orders. After this, they allegedly forced a false 'confession' out of him to implicate him in the blasts. His interrogators tortured him mercilessly and he was then presented in court on May 10, 2003. There, Hanif refused to accept the charges against him, which allegedly prompted the magistrate to say that the police should take Hanif in for some more khatirdari ('hospitality'), by which was meant even greater torture.
During this remand, Hanif was said to have been subjected to third degree torture, brutally beaten and forced to sign numerous false statements. The forced 'confession' was apparently used as evidence to prolong his remand stay. He retracted his statement in the court but after appearing in court for the second time the judge ordered that he should be treated to some more 'hospitality'. After this, he is said to have been compelled to sign another 'confession', on the basis of which he was sentenced to 10 years in jail. During the five years he has spent in jail so far Hanif's wife as well as his mother died. A father of four, one of his daughters has tuberculosis. His small bag-making unit has been closed ever since he was put into jail and his family now lives in abject penury.
Maulana Mohammad Naseerudin of Hyderabad was arrested in August 2004 immediately after addressing a meeting of fellow Muslims at a local mosque. The Anti-Terrorism Squad accused him of conspiring to blow up a Hindu temple in Hyderabad, a charge that he denied. The next month he was released on bail, but on the condition that he would report to the CID office on a weekly basis.
On September 31, 2004, when the Maulana reached the CID office he found the Gujarat police waiting for him. They took him into custody, accusing him of incitement violence in Gujarat in his speeches in the mosque. In actual fact, so it is said, he had preached for relief and aid for Muslims in Gujarat who had been brutalised by the state, the police and Hindutva forces. The police failed to give any evidence at the time of his detention and subsequent trial, simply claiming that he was inciting communal hatred during his sermons.
The news of the Maulana's arrest spread quickly and he was put into a bus and given a drug to incapacitate him. The protestors asked the police for the arrest warrant. 23 year-old Mujahid Saleem Azmi, a friend of the family, started questioning the procedures during the arrest, and, after some prompting by the expanding crowd, the police released the Maulana. A heated exchange between Police Officer Narendra and Mujahid began. The officer shamelessly shouted at Mujahid, 'Have you people forgotten Gujarat? I will finish you all off.'  Mujahid replied that he was not scared of his threats and that the officer should conduct himself on the basis of the law. The police officer then said that if he was looking for a warrant he would show him a warrant and took out his gun and fired point blank at Mujahid. The rest of the police officers started firing in the air. They pushed the Maulana back into the van and drove off. The ATS provided safe passage for the police to flee Hyderabad. Meanwhile, Mujahid, 23, was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Thousands of people collected outside the hospital and they asked for a case to be filed against the police. Several different Hindutva organisations came together to try and disrupt the funeral procession the following day. The police used their special division -- the Greyhound Task Force – normally used to combat Naxalism to beat and tear gas the processionists. The Greyhound Task Force forced their way into Mujahid's house and attacked the family with sticks.
Meanwhile, the Maulana was transferred to a prison in Ahmedabad [ Images ], where, it is said, he was forced to make a 'confession'. He appealed against it, but the special POTA court denied the appeal and accepted the 'confession' of Maulana produced by the Gujarat police. His first bail application took four long months to be heard from the day of his judicial custody. A judgment on the bail application took another year. The application was rejected on the grounds that he was 'anti-American and pro Osama bin Laden' [ Images ]. Another year passed and the high court upheld the POTA court's order. Six months later, the Supreme Court asked for a swift trial, but rejected bail.
Two years have passed since the Supreme Court's order and yet nothing has happened. The Maulana continues to languish in jail and is presently seriously ill. He has only one kidney, a thyroid problem, and early signs of arthritis, none of which has been taken into consideration during his time in prison. His illnesses have worsened. He cannot walk or handle food that he has to chew, but yet, despite several appeals, the authorities continue to refuse to send him to hospital. In the meantime, the police have also arrested two of his sons for allegedly conspiring to take revenge for his arrest.
Scores of cases of innocent Muslims being deliberately targeted by agencies of the State, in addition to Hindutva forces, abound across the country, and the situation seems to be getting worse with every passing day. This is not to say that none of the several blasts that have occurred in India in the last several years could have been the handiwork of Muslims. Sympathisers of some fringe radical Islamist outfits or Muslims seeking to take revenge for the atrocities and large-scale slaughter of their co-religionists, as in Gujarat, might well have planned some of these, and Muslim leaders themselves have rightly called for stern punishment for their perpetrators.
However, the mounting indiscriminate arrests, torture and detention of vast numbers of innocent Muslim youth across the country in the name of countering terrorism not only makes a complete mockery of our claims to secularism and democracy but is a perfect recipe for making Muslim terrorism a self-fulfilling prophecy. And, to make matters worse, at the same time as the hounding of innocent Muslims continues, Hindu mobs are allowed to operate free of any effective restraint, lionised as ardent 'nationalists' as they continue to wreak murder, mayhem and naked terror on Muslims, and now, as in Orissa and Karnataka [ Images ], Christians. That, surely, is no way to combat terrorism. Far from it, it can only further exacerbate the problem.
Note: The details of the above-mentioned cases have been procured from the testimonies submitted to the jury of the People's Tribunal on the Atrocities Committed Against Minorities in the Name of Fighting Terrorism [ Images ] organised by Anhad and the Human Rights Law Network in Hyderabad, August 22-24, 2008.
Dr Yoginder Sikand is the editor of Qalandar, an electronic magazine on Islam-related issues, and also an author of several books on the subject.

Source: http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/22yogi.htm

Gujarat HC raps Modi govt. for ‘inaction’ during post-Godhra riots

Ahmedabad, February 8, 2012

PTI Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Gujarat High Court rapped the Modi government for "negligence” during the 2002 post-Godhra riots. File photo

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The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Narendra Modi government for “inaction and negligence” on its part during the 2002 post-Godhra riots that led to large-scale destruction of religious structures.

A division bench of acting chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala made these observations, while ordering compensation for over 500 religious structures in the state.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat (IRCG).

Inadequacy, inaction and negligence on the part of the State government to prevent riots resulted in large-scale destruction of religious structures across the State, the court observed.

The government was responsible for repair and compensation for such places, it further said.

The court said that when the government had paid compensation for destruction of houses and commercial establishments, it should also pay compensation for religious structures.

The court also ordered that principal judges of 26 districts of the state will receive the applications for compensation of religious structures in their respective districts and decide on it. They have been asked to send their decisions to HC within six months.

IRCG’s petition in 2003 had sought court’s directions to the government to pay compensation towards damage of religious places during riots on the ground that the National Human Rights Commission, too, had recommended and the state government had in principle accepted the suggestion.

The state government had opposed the IRCG petition, saying it was a violation of article 27 of the Constitution.

The government further said that there was no policy with regards to compensation for restoration/repair of religious places damaged or destroyed during the riots.

Lawyer for IRCG, M.T.M. Hakim hailed it as a “landmark judgement” in the country, in which compensation has been ordered for destruction of religious structures.

“This is also probably for the first time that a court has held the State government responsible for inaction and negligence during the 2002 riots,” Mr. Hakim said.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2871891.ece

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

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

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........:(