Yet India Refuses To Utter Its Name
By Smruti Koppikar, Debarshi Dasgupta, Snigdha Hasan
Source: "Outlook India"
Monday, Jul 19, 2010
Courtesy Of "Axis Of Logic"
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Scenes from 2000 Bajrang Dal training child recruits at a camp in Ayodhya |
The SIM-mobile phone-detonated bombs are similar in Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts, with RDX-TNT mix in proportion used by the Indian army. |
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May 18, 2007 Doom Friday Mecca Masjid was rocked by a pipe bomb |
The terror trail in India changed after the Maharashtra ATS’s investigations into the 2008 Malegaon blasts, which alerted them to Abhinav Bharat. |
Around the same time, officers of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) filed a chargesheet in a Panjim court accusing 11 people, all Hindus and members of the ultra-right-wing Sanathan Sanstha, of masterminding and executing the October 2009 Margao blasts that killed the two people ferrying the explosives to a local festival. Investigation in Pune’s German Bakery blast this February has run aground after the initial suspicion, detaining and interrogation of suspected Muslim men, some believed to be members of “sleeper cells of jehadi groups” or the Indian Mujahideen (IM). When Abdul Samad was arrested last month, the Maharashtra ATS actively encouraged the understanding that he was the man caught on CCTV cameras in the bakery that night. However, Samad was never charged with the blast and subsequently let off in other cases too.
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Malegaon Blasts II: September 29, 2008 Deadly Bike The bomb here was mounted on a Hero Honda (Reuters, From Outlook July 19, 2010 Issue) |
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Malegaon Blasts-ITerror trails in India dramatically changed with the Malegaon blasts investigation in September-October 2008. Led by then Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who was subsequently killed on the night of 26/11, the investigation pointed to Abhinav Bharat (AB), an ultra-right-wing Pune-based organisation established in 2005-06, and its members or affiliates.
September 8, 2006
37 dead
- Initial arrests: Arrested include Salman Farsi, Farooq Iqbal Makhdoomi, Raees Ahmed, Noorul Huda Samsudoha and Shabbir Batterywala.
- Later revelation: Suspicion now rests on Hindu terrorists because of the 2008 blasts.
Samjhauta Express Blasts
February 18, 2007
68 dead, mostly Pakistanis
Mecca Masjid Blast
- Initial suspicion: LeT and JeM were blamed. Those arrested included Pakistani national Azmat Ali.
- Later revelation: Police have seen the evidence trail lead to right-wing Hindu activists. Investigators claim the triggering mechanism for the Mecca masjid blast three months later was similar to the one used here. Police are looking for RSS pracharaks Sandeep Dange and Ramji.
May 18, 2007
14 dead
Ajmer Sharif Blast
- Initial arrests: Around 80 Muslims detained for questioning and 25 arrested. Several have now been acquitted, including Ibrahim Junaid, Shoaib Jagirdar, Imran Khan and Mohammed Adul Kaleem.
- Later revelation: In June 2010 the CBI announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for information on the two accused, Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra. Lokesh Sharma arrested.
October 11, 2007
3 dead
Thane Cinema Blast
- Initial arrests: HuJI, LeT blamed. Those arrested include Abdul Hafiz Shamim, Khushibur Rahman, Imran Ali.
- Later revelation: In 2010, Rajasthan ATS arrests Devendra Gupta, Chandrashekhar and Vishnu Prasad Patidar. Accused Sunil Joshi, who was killed weeks before the blast, is believed to have been a key planner.
June 4, 2008
Kanpur And Nanded Bomb Mishaps
- Affiliated to Hindu Janjagruti Samiti and Sanathan Sanstha, Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari and Mangesh Dinkar Nikam arrested. Blast planned to oppose the screening of Jodhaa Akbar.
August 2008
Malegaon Blasts II
- Two members of Bajrang Dal—Rajiv Mishra and Bhupinder Singh—were killed while assembling bombs in Kanpur. In April 2006, N. Rajkondwar and H. Panse from the same outfit died under similar circumstances in a bomb-making workshop in Nanded.
September 29, 2008
7 dead
Goa Blasts
- Initial suspicion: Groups like Indian Mujahideen involved
- Later revelation: Abhinav Bharat and Rashtriya Jagaran Manch accused of involvement. Arrested include Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Srikant Purohit and Swami Amritanand Dev Tirth, also known as Dayanand Pandey.
October 16, 2009
- 2 dead Both accused are members of the Sanathan Sanstha. Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik were riding a scooter laden with explosives, which accidentally went off.
What Karkare’s teams managed to uncover is part of recent history and should have become the basis of examining and monitoring the new phenomenon of Hindutva terror but didn’t.
“For a decade, stories of Hindu terror have been trickling in. Instead of a systematic investigation, it’s been an event-to-event probe so far.” |
However, till May-June this year, the establishment did not either see these warning signals or chose to ignore them—except for a brief two-month period in 2008 when Karkare led the Malegaon probe. Now, it may be difficult to sustain the denial. “For the last 10 years, stories about Hindu right-wing violence have been trickling out. Instead of a systematic investigation, there has been an event-to-event investigation. The larger story has remained underinvestigated and under-reported,” says Mumbai advocate and human rights campaigner Mihir Desai. The CBI is only now seeking directions from the Union home ministry to see the Ajmer, Mecca Masjid, Malegaon and other blasts in conjunction after there has been no conclusive evidence of the involvement of Islamic groups.
Purohit had provided a link between Malegaon and Mecca Masjid blasts. But the police was chasing HuJI. |
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Malegaon I - September 8, 2006 two bombs attached to cycles went off in a cemetary |
The one crucial missing link, who has been named by all accused in custody as “the man”, is Ramnarayan Kalsangra, an expert at assembling bombs. |
The Rajasthan ATS now believes that Devendra Gupta, linked to the Ajmer blasts, was in touch with AB members through RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi. Providing the other end of the link, the Maharashtra ATS says the Sadhvi, enraged when Joshi was killed by suspected SIMI activists in September 2007, ordered the 2008 Malegaon blast. Joshi has also been linked to the Samjhauta Express blasts which killed 68 people, all Pakistanis. The evidence has come from Purohit’s reported phone conversation as narrated by an unnamed witness.
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Unholy deed A bomb in a schoolbag exploded during iftaar at the Ajmer Sharif - October 11, 2007 |
Source: Outlook India
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