Raising “Hindu Suicide Squads”

Thackeray Calls For Hindu Bombs To Target Muslims

By Shahid Burney
Arab News
Friday 20 June 2008
(15 Jumada al-Thani 1429)
Courtesy Of ArabNews

MUMBAI: Taking strong exceptions to the editorial written by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in the party’s mouthpiece Saamana on Wednesday in which Thackeray has called for raising “Hindu suicide squads” to counter the growing “Islamic terrorism” in India, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil yesterday said the home department would examine the contents of the editorial and if any derogatory matter was found in the editorial, strong necessary action would be taken.

The state Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, also criticized Thackeray for the editorial and said that it was not just Muslims behind terrorism, but Hindus too were involved in it and cited the arrests of four Hindu militants involved in the recent twin blasts at auditoriums in Navi Mumbai and the adjoining Thane district.

“The arrest in the case had blown a hole in the popular perception that Muslims are to be suspected for all such acts,” he said.

In a statement released to the media on Wednesday, Deshmukh said the arrests of the Hindu militants for the blasts in Navi Mumbai and Thane were enough to point fingers at the possibility of Hindu groups being involved in subversive activities.

“Normally, when such incidents take place, the Muslim community is suspected. But the arrests of the four people belonging to a militant Hindu organization prove that such suspicions are baseless. Criminals do not belong to any religion,” Deshmukh said.

Thackeray’s remarks in the editorial immediately drew a nationwide condemnation even as the Maharashtra government assured to probe the matter. The Sena ally, Bharatiya Janata Party, also rapped Thackeray for the remark with party leader M. Venkiah Naidu asking Thackeray to keep restraint. In the editorial Thackeray pooh-poohed the Hindu militants arrested for planting bombs in Navi Mumbai and Thane auditoriums and said

“At a time when Islamic terrorism is increasing in India, there is a need to form Hindu suicide squads to save the country and Hindus.”

Thackeray urged the Hindus to make “powerful and strong bombs,” that are superior to those made by “Islamic terrorists” and explode them in Muslim populated areas in Thane, Navi Mumbai, Aurangabad and other cities in Maharashtra, to what he called as “mini-Pakistans” in India.