Sunday, July 18, 2010

Crisis compounded by multiple sieges -By Shail Mayaram - TOI - Crest

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Crisis-compounded-by-multiple-sieges/articleshow/6180197.cms

The Times of India

Crisis compounded by multiple sieges

Shail Mayaram, Jul 17, 2010, 12.23pm IST


Shail Mayaram
Shail Mayaram
The siege of Gaza is only one kind of siege that is currently in operation in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Gaza, of course, represents one of the gravest humanitarian crises in the world. During my recent stay in Israel, conversations with a number of persons brought home the many ways in which it has been reduced to a slum — even water sources smell of ammunition! In effect, Israel’s actions against Gaza have created a wave of sympathy in world opinion overturning the initial revulsion to Hamas violence and this includes its particularly vicious bombing known as Operation Cast Lead and the subsequent siege that it has enforced along with Egypt. Later this month, 4,000 persons will be on aboard Freedom Flotilla no 2, representing an international coalition of 32 countries and will once again defy the siege.

Ironically, the siege is being enforced by a selfproclaimed Jewish democracy to protect Israeli Jews, who of all people in the world should know best what the experience of a siege is. President Nasser closed Israel’s own access to the Suez Canal in 1956 and in 1967 once again blocked Israel’s Red Sea port of Eilat denying its ships access to the Straits of Tiran. But there are older accounts in Jewish history and memory of Roman sieges.

The Roman Empire’s siege and fall of Jerusalem between 66 and 74 BCE is one of the most painful episodes of Jewish history. Jewish collective suicide at Masada is recounted by Josephus Flavius following the siege of the Romans and the breaching of the hitherto impregnable rock fortress. Josephus also tells the story of the siege of Jotpata, a city in the Galilee in which 40 notables had taken refuge in a cave till a woman gave them away to the Romans. He and another woman were the only survivors following collective death of the rest.

Masada has become iconic for contemporary Jewish nationalism , yet the Israeli state fails to comprehend that it is reproducing for Palestinians the imperialism of Rome multiplied manifold by modern technologies of violence. A series of sieges are identifiable in its post-1967 occupation policy.

The work of colonialism and nationalism thrives on boundaries and Israel is caught in the tragic-drama of its own line drawing exercise. Jerusalem, which is possibly the central issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is being suffocated as never before in its history and by a state for which Jerusalem is a founding myth. Studies conducted by the International Peace and Cooperation Center show the creation of a belt of settlements around Jerusalem, the coming to an end of the Moroccon Quarter, dispossession in the Muslim Quarter while the Jewish Quarter has been expanded sixfold from 20 dunums to 120 dunums. Since the mid-80 s Sharon had begun the policy of Judaising Muslim and Christian Quarters and began supporting the movement of extremist groups into these areas to fulfill the Zionist vision of the Old City.

The newer boundaries not only encircle but also build over. This is manifested in the way in which Jews have been given rights to build on the roofs of Palestinian homes both in Jaffa (the old city of Tel Aviv) and in the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem. As always, the new Jewish settlers work through Palestinian collaborator-tenants .

There is even a messianic hope to build a Third Temple over the Muslim holy site of Haram al-Sharif , where the Prophet Muhammad’s Ascension on the horse Burraq is said to have taken place. Archaeological excavations continue unabated and have led to countless protests but to no effect.

Jerusalem has been for the last 500 years a multi-ethnic , multi-religious city conserved by its Turko-Arab character. The mosaic character typifies the Muslim city and was a product of organic growth. State planning and housing have now become the twin instruments of sovereignty, added to which is the Judaicisation of the names of streets and neighbourhoods.

Even as Jerusalem is seemingly “united” under Israeli sovereignty, it has become the paradigmatic divided city, ethnically and nationally. In effect, international civil society became complicit in this by its endorsement of the Oslo Agreement of 1993 that was to have given autonomy to Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza Strip but excluded the Palestinian National Authority from East Jerusalem that had been the political centre both for the Jordanian State in the West Bank and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Since 1967, Israel has confiscated 25,000 dunns of Arab lands for Jewish settlements, prohibiting any Palestinian settlements in West Jerusalem.

East Jerusalem has been cut off from the West Bank, yet another siege symbolised by a regime of checkpoints and permits. A 700-km wall built in violation of international law according to the International Court of Justice extends Israeli sovereignty and severs Palestinians from Israeli Arabs. As observers point out, the wall had been planned prior to the suicide bombings that were later used to justify it and came about when fears were expressed of a growing Palestinian population.

The very suburbs of Jerusalem have been wrenched from it. My drive to the Al Quds campus at Abu Dis now takes almost half an hour instead of the 5-10 minutes it would normally take from the German Colony in Jerusalem. Like many other suburbs, it has been separated from East Jerusalem. Indeed, all three Palestinian universities , including those of Bir Zeit and Bethlehem, have been affected (in the case of Al Quds, the wall was to go through its football field until its President, Sari Nusseibeh, interceded with Condoleeza Rice) as students from East Jerusalem are no longer able to access these institutions.

And then there are the less visible lines — the ways in which an invisible boundary has been drawn around Gaza and farmers have been forced out of the buffer zone surrounding it. The Al Jahaleen Bedouins who have been uprooted from their environment in Abu Dis and resettled along the outer wall.

The Israelis have to understand that Israel was the gift of the Arabs to them. No western country would have allowed the creation of a Jewish state on its territory. Unknowingly the Arabs abetted in its making by selling them their land. What is going to be Israel’s gift to the Arabs? Surely not imperialism’s gift of lines, borders and sieges.


The writer is Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Cracking the terror code - By Smita Nair - Sunday Indian Express

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cracking-the-terror-code/648005/0




Cracking the terror code





The alleged links emerging between some leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and suspects of the bomb blasts in Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid and Ajmer in 2007 and Malegaon in 2008, have been greeted with an element of surprise—as well as denial.
But investigators probing these acts of terror consider the findings a major milestone in a journey they began in the aftermath of the Malegaon blast, the first major attack in the country blamed on Hindu extremists. Within days of making the first breakthrough in the case and arresting Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in connection with Malegaon, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) got their hands on Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit, a serving army military intelligence officer who was eventually accused of being a key conspirator.
During his interrogation in November 2008, Purohit is alleged to have claimed that he not only supplied RDX explosives used in the Samjhauta Express bombing in February 2007, but also to a “cell” he said was behind “two other blasts”. Soon, investigating teams from Haryana, Hyderabad and Ajmer, and finally CBI Director Ashwani Kumar, landed in Mumbai where Purohit was being interrogated.
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Purohit’s claims did not surprise many though. While the investigation of the Samjhauta bombing had got stuck after the trail of the suitcases in which the bombs were planted led to a village near Indore from where the suitcases were purchased, the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer trail also eventually reached Madhya Pradesh.
Investigators say that links between the Mecca Masjid and the Ajmer blasts were already there on paper as forensic experts had established that the same group was behind the blasts. But they suspected it to be Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami (HUJI), the Bangladeshi terror group blamed for attacks elsewhere in India in the past.
A SIM card from one of the unexploded bombs at the exit gate of Mecca Masjid was the first crucial evidence. The Andhra Pradesh police found that the SIM card inside the Nokia 6030 phone belonged to a person named Babulal Yadav. But it was a fictitious name.
The CBI, which took over the case in June 2007, continued the SIM card probe. The joint probe—with inputs collected by the Andhra police and CBI—found that while the SIM card was bought using a fictitious identity, the photograph belonged to a yoga instructor called Tarak Nath Pramanik. The probe, which would continue at a slow pace for another three and half months, was about to unravel a “very calculated and a very strategic operation”.
“Unlike other blasts where terror outfits cry out loud and own up the act, the evidence” had convinced investigators that “this was something new, something far more real than what we see and hear,” says a senior officer.
Call logs were tracked, a million subscriber databases of various cell phone providers cross-checked, and it was found that the SIM card had been used in other phones and those phones had also used other SIM cards. “This was the first indication that it was an organised crime. The motive was still difficult to track,” recalled a forensic expert.
It took investigators some time to find out that the picture of Pramanik had been plucked out of a national news weekly in which it was published alongside a column on yoga he wrote for in 2005 and 2006. The details of the picture were sent around and it was found that the same photograph had been used to buy nine SIM cards in Babulal Yadav’s name. Two more SIM cards had been bought using the picture but under the fictitious name of Ramesh Agrawal.
By September 2007, investigating agencies had tracked shops in Jamtara and Mihijam in Jharkhand, Asansol and Chittaranjan in West Bengal and Roopnarayanpur in Bihar from where the SIM cards had been bought. The handsets had similarly been bought from New Delhi, Faridabad, Mihijam, Asansol and Chittaranjan. Barely three to five calls were made from each SIM card to “confirm the phone connection” and ensure that they remain active.
“All this convinced us that “extreme caution” had been taken to ensure that even an accidental leak of information would not expose the brains behind the operation. And as expected, the phones and SIMs went dead after the blast,” said an investigating officer.
But sleuths operating across states were also suspicious that the perpetrators would not have mounted such a large operation for just one blast in Hyderabad. And they were proved right when Khwaja Mohinuddin Chishti’s dargah in Ajmer was hit by a bomb in October 2007, five months after the Mecca Masjid blasts.
The Ajmer blast only added more clues to the ones investigators already had from their probe in Hyderabad. Both bombs had been wrapped and stuffed with paper from the same Telugu newspaper—the May 4, 2007, copy of Andhra Jyoti—indicating the scope of the operation. Moreover, at both places, the attackers placed two bombs to be activated by mobile phones and at both places only one of them exploded, leaving the other behind for investigators to establish their links.
But progress was once again slow as the groups behind the two blasts were apparently lying low until Malegaon was attacked in September 2008 and Purohit was questioned. Picking up the strands from there, investigators found that some of the SIM cards that had been bought from various parts of eastern India and had not been accounted for in the two blasts, had become active in June 2009 in two villages near Indore—Chapri and Kala Peepal.
Investigations found that the SIMs were being used by RSS officer bearers. One was with Sharda Bharot, the wife of an RSS worker, Chandrashekar Barot. The others were with Vishnu Patidar and his brothers Vinod and Santosh. All of them reported to Devendra Gupta who was the head of the propaganda team for the district. Gupta is now in the custody of the CBI after the Rajasthan police arrested him for his alleged role in the the Ajmer blast.
The probe found that Bharot, Sandeep Dange, who is still absconding, and Sunil Joshi, who was mysteriously killed while he was out on a walk in a village near Indore after the Ajmer blast, and Ramchandra Kalsangra, a much wanted fugitive, constituted the primary group which was allegedly in charge of logistics, making and planting the bombs in Hyderabad and Ajmer. Sandeep Dange, who allegedly planted the bomb in Malegaon as well and who is wanted for the Mecca Masjid blast, is the RSS Vibhag Pracharak for Indore and was the “controller” for Sunil Joshi and Lokesh Sharma, another RSS worker wanted in connection with both Mecca Masjid and Ajmer blasts.
With the alleged plot unravelling now, police in Ajmer, Hyderabad and the CBI suspect that Dange and Kalsangra were partners in buying the eight phones and nine SIM cards that have been traced so far. While a hunt is on for both of them, the CBI has questioned two senior RSS leaders from Uttar Pradesh, Ashok Varshney and Ashok Beri, on suspicion that they may have sheltered Gupta and even provided logistics to the perpetrators of the blasts.
But crucial to any substantial progress in the case would be to find Kalsangra and Dange, the two who are suspected to be the common factors in the blasts that shook Mecca Masjid, Ajmer and Malegaon.
Sadhvi Pragya singh Thakur
Former ABVP member and founder of Jai Vande Mataram Jankalyan Samiti, the Sadhvi was arrested on October 23 last year. Her bike was used by her “two confidantes”, Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, for planting a bomb in Malegaon.
Lt Col Prasad Shrikanth Purohit
Was serving at Panchmarhi at the time of his arrest. Said to be the founder of Abhinav Bharat, the organisation that propagated a separate Hindu Rashtra, the ATS calls him the face behind the "fundamental ideology". Was responsible for procuring explosives.
Sudhakar Udayaban Dhar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey, Swami Amrutanand Devoir, Shankaracharya Sharada Sarvagya Peeth,
is charged with attending conspiracy meetings where he spoke of seeking revenge for atrocities against Kashmiri Pandits.
Rakesh Dattatraya Dhawade
Arms curator and antique arms collector in Pune. Associated with the Abhinav Bharat group, he is charged with sourcing explosives.
Sameer Sharad Kulkarni
Media publicist for Abhinav Bharat, was one of the two “thinkers” of the group.
Sudhakar Omkarnath Chaturvedi
The other ‘Chanakya’, his house was allegedly used for assembling the IED used in the Malegaon blast.
Shivnarayan Gopalsingh Kalsangra
Related to the ‘planter’ Ramji Kalsangra. The ATS found two timers at his residence given to him by his brother.
Shyam Bavarlal Sahu
The owner of a mobile store, he’s charged with supplying Ramji with SIM cards.
Ramesh Shivji Upadhyay
Retired Army Major and the working president of Abhinav Bharat. Charged with attending conspiracy meetings.
Ajay Raja Eknath Rahirkar
Treasurer of Abhinav Bharat. Is charged with controlling the finances and disbursing the amount for procuring explosives and hand grenades.
Jagdish Chintaman Mhatre
He was the last in the chain for sourcing weapons; the ATS recovered two imported firearms with 15 live cartridges from the Dombivali resident.

Friday, July 16, 2010

One ‘Muslim’ minister’s lonely fight against entire 200 million strong Indian Muslim community - By Ghulam Muhammed

Friday, July 16, 2010

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

One ‘Muslim’ minister’s lonely fight against entire 200 million strong Indian Muslim community

The man is not a visionary. He is just a government minister. But he thinks he knows best. The giant size confidence that Salman Khurshid nurses, comes from being very near to power center for long long years and thus being far and very far from the Muslim community itself; which he is now being entrusted to represent. It is reported that such an important bill, which has Muslim community’s stakes worth millions of Crores, is being claimed by the minister to be not even read by him. If the report is correct, such a minister should be sacked immediately. The bureaucrat, who was specially transferred to advise and help him in this grossly anti-Muslim enterprise, was known to have his own ideas of how Awqaf should be handled and woe to Indian democracy, that the community whose votes make the real difference between victory or defeat in Indian elections, has nary a say in such a monumental issue. But all is not lost. Muslims have been awaked at the eleventh hour. Salman Khurshid has been hobnobbing with individuals across the country, lobbying with promises, to help him see the bill through. And come Sunday, he has planned a grand meeting of a cross section of Muslim opinion makers with a view to get a consensus. One hope that Sunday meet does not end as the circus of the absurd. The real test of power, will be not be this Sunday, but the next assembly election in the by-lanes of the poverty ridden Uttar Pradesh. Congress writ does not run in that state which elects maximum number of Lok Sabha seats and this Awqaf bill will not make the situation any better; unless all the recommendations of the Muslim community are incorporated to their entire satisfaction without any overt or covert treachery.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
  

Run Rupee Run - The new Rupee symbol - By Ghulam Muhammed

Friday, July 16, 2010

Run Rupee Run

The new Rupee symbol is something to write home about. The IIT graduate has proved that the institution is full of talent and can be relied upon for ideas. The new Rupee symbol is simple, clean, chiseled and still so entwined with India’s own cultural heritage of the script that dominates its public discourse, as if it is part and parcel of our old devnagari alphabet.

However this symbol is to be standing next to other globally recognized symbols and there are some aesthetic angles that could work on the subconscious mind of the beholder. Take $ or € or ₤ or ¥ ; all have solid base.  
On the other hand, the new Rupee symbol conjures up a caricature of Dada’s langot hanging on the clothes line, or a kati Patang ravaged by wind, dangling on power-lines or the image of small girl playing langdi, the one-legged skip and jump game. The symbolism of run rupee run, smacks of an Indian version of American cartoon, the Road Runner. The base is missing. We do not want a run on the Rupee. Ever.

Now that we are choosing a symbol that would become the permanent fixture of our very economic pomp and pride, why not invite more ideas from the public space and find out if a better symbol with more character of stability, dignity, immediate global recognizance, ease in writing, could still be creeping out from some ingenious minds of our scattered millions.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

Monday, July 12, 2010

Hindu terror: The Malwa Connection - By Krishnakumar Padmanabhan - Rediff.com

http://news.rediff.com/special/2010/jul/12/hindu-terror-the-malwa-connection.htm

News
RediffRediff
Rediff
Rediff

Hindu terror: The Malwa Connection

July 12, 2010 11:08 IST
Most names figuring in the investigations of the 2007 bomb blasts in Ajmer, at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid, and in Malegaon hail from Madhya Pradesh's [ Images ] Malwa region. Rediff.com's Krishnakumar Padmanabhan traces the common thread that could have brought these men together.

What started as minor skirmishes between two groups vying for power seven years ago in a small Madhya Pradesh cantonment town was the beginning of the phenomenon that is now spoken about as Hindu terrorism.
Recently, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Rajasthan [ Images ] Anti-Terror Squad made a string of arrests from in and around Indore and established that the 2007 bomb blasts in Ajmer and Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid were the handiwork of the same group of people.
At least three of the accused in the bomb blast case were charged with the murder of a tribal leader from the Congress party in 2003.
As like-minded men began coming together and plotting heinous attacks, the Madhya Pradesh establishment turned a blind eye. Investigators now say the perpetrators found haven in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, as they wreaked havoc in other parts of the country.
In 2003, towards the end of Digvijay Singh's [ Images ] tenure as chief minister in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress party had strengthened its hold in its traditional areas — the party base, the minorities, and the Adivasis.
In Malwa's tribal belt, Pyar Singh Ninama, a local tribal strongman, was the party's face among the Adivasi population. Around that time, accusations began to trickle that Christian missionaries were stepping up efforts to get more Adivasis into their fold. Around that time a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Sunil Joshi, was 'sent' as the Mhow pracharak from Gujarat, where it was said the heat was on him following the 2002 riots.
In Mhow -- an acronym for Military Headquarters of War -- the Sangh Parivar was virtually a family. The most active among them were Lokesh Sharma, his cousin Jitender Sharma -- from the RSS and Bajrang Dal respectively -- and Devendra Pandya, who were working to spread Hinduism in adjoining tribal areas.
On the other hand, Ninama, a converted Christian, was seen as nudging his fellow tribals towards Christianity. The two groups were soon at loggerheads and in one of the ensuing clashes, Pandey's choti (tuft) was allegedly cut off. In apparent revenge, three people including Ninama and his son, were brutally killed.
Cases were filed against Lokesh Sharma, Sunil Joshi, Ramesh Sharma, a businessman from neighbouring Pithampur, and 10 others. While most of them are still in jail and the case is before the court, Lokesh Sharma and Joshi were never caught.
Here is where the seeds of what is now seen as Hindu terror were sown.
Investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Anti-Terror Squads of Rajasthan and Maharashtra [ Images ] have revealed that the lynchpin was Sunil Joshi, who was murdered in December 2007.
That case is still unsolved. While initially, the Students Islamic Movement of India [Images ] was suspected, later, there were murmurs that his Hindu rivals could have murdered him.
Lokesh Sharma is accused of planting the bomb in Ajmer.
Locals say soon after the Ninama murder case, Joshi's stock rose among hotheaded youngsters.
In the assembly election that followed a couple of months after Ninama's murder, the Congress party was voted out, and the Bharatiya Janata Party [ Images ] came to power.
Around this time, some local residents claim Joshi and Lokesh Sharma began to be seen in public quite often.
"Digvijay Singh had often spoken about how the violent activities of the Hindu groups was fast turning to 'terrorism'. He said he had evidence that they were gaining bomb-making capabilities. But then he was voted out at a crucial juncture," says Manohar Limbodia, a veteran journalist.
With what was seen as a friendly BJP government, Joshi began to operate quite openly, mobilising support.
"Joshiji was someone who would say one death from our side should be avenged with five from the other side. The youngsters liked him and his approach a lot," a Bajrang Dal activist in Mhow recalls, speaking on condition that he would not be identified for this report.
As it was becoming evident that Joshi was going down an aggressive path, the RSS publicly distanced itself from him.
"Though the RSS distanced itself from the likes of Joshi, we could see that he had the support from within the organisation and also local BJP leaders. Joshi and his group could not have operated without strong support," a businessman, familiar with the Sangh Parivar in Dewas, where Joshi was murdered, says, again speaking on condition that he would not be identified for this report.
Soon after the Ninama murder case, the police defused a bomb at the venue of a Muslim congregation in Ghansipura, Bhopal, which they now allege was planted by the same group behind the terror attacks.
It was an improvised device with explosive material stuffed in metal pipes, connected to a mobile phone. The bomb was set to explode when the mobile rang, but the police defused it in time.
Had that bomb exploded it would have been the first attack of Hindu terror in the country.
How did those who came together in Mhow establish contact with foot soldiers like Ramji Kalasangra (who allegedly made the bombs used in the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid attacks) and Sandeep Dange (who is alleged to have 'facilitated' the others in executing the blasts) on the one hand and alleged masterminds like Colonel Prasad Purohit and sadhvi Pragya Thakur on the other hand?
"The RSS has many organisations," says Deepak Joshi, son of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kailash Joshi and the BJP legislator from Hatpipliya, Dewas. "There are also different kinds of people. First, there are the RSS members. Then there are people who might be involved in the RSS's activities without being members. Then, there are people from sister organisations like the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), Bajrang Dal, etc. Finally, there are people who believe in the ideology but are not associated in any way with any organisation. There are about five or six RSS events in a year where all the four kinds of people come together. Since they are all from the region and had extremist leanings, that is how these people must have met."
Explaining how various people could have gotten to know each other, he says he had met Pragya Thakur about 10 times. "She has sat in the exact place where you are sitting. The connection between her and me is that we are both from the ABVP. She was very aggressive from those days, and I did not make any efforts to know her better," he adds.
But he shies away from dubbing the phenomenon as Hindu terrorism.
"It is not organised to begin with," he says, "And it does not have the sanction or approval of an organisation like the RSS."
He accepts that the likes of Sunil Joshi did have support at the local level.
"When the police said Sunil Joshi was in hiding, I had met him at an event. He told me he was being framed," says the BJP MLA. "In small places, it is not difficult to meet and get to know people. In Madhya Pradesh, a lot of BJP politicians owe their career to the RSS. And some of them may have shared beliefs with people like Sunil Joshi. In the end, such politicians end up using these people for their personal gains."
How did the Malwa region become the hotbed for Hindu terror?
The Malwa region is predominantly tribal. Indore, which is the biggest city in the region, does not have much of an Adivasi presence. But Dhar is 75 percent Adivasi, Jhabua is nearly 100 percent Adivasi. Balwani, Khargon and Khandwa are 50 percent Adivasi.
The Hindus form the second biggest community. They comprise Malis from Rajasthan, Jats, Thakurs, Baniyas and Brahmins.
"More than the composition, the reason the region has been the hotbed of radical Hinduism is because of the leaders," says Limbodia. "Nagpur may be the seat of power for the RSS, but Malwa is the front. RSS stalwarts like Khushabhau Thakre, Pyarelal Khandelwal and Suresh Soni hailed from the Malwa region and shaped the RSS philosophy. That way, this region is the cradle of the RSS."
"It is not just Hindu terror," says Kamil Seher, a hotel owner in Pithampur, an industrial area. "The Pithampur-Dhar region was the base for SIMI [ Images ]. They used to train there. Before that, the Dawood Ibrahim [ Images ] gang used to be active here. Now the Maoists are also entering this region. Why, some time ago, even an LTTE [ Images ] (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) soldier was arrested from a Pithampur factory, where he was working as a gunman for the owner."
"If you are working in a factory, and you bring in someone from your village to stay with you, how would we know if he is a criminal or not?" asks Seher.
He alleges that though the likes of SIMI leader Safdar Nagori were arrested, those who were pumping money and were the brains of the outlawed organisation got away.
"If with an organisation like SIMI, money power and clout could work, how will anyone be able to get close to the top of the Hindu terror hierarchy, if it exists?" he asks.
While the official RSS line is that those arrested are not part of the organisation, it is reported to be helping the accused's families and has arranged for lawyers to fight their cases.
"The RSS arranged for lawyers in Ajmer and Hyderabad to take up my brother's case," confirms Jitender Sharma, Lokesh Sharma's cousin. "I am thankful to the organisation. But at the same time I understand why they want to distance themselves in public. There is a Congress government at the Centre, and all the three states where the terror charges have been filed are also ruled by the Congress, which wants to link the RSS with terrorism. For the Congress, the RSS is the biggest enemy, not the BJP. They want to finish off the RSS."
Jitender's version of what happened is different.
"I was with the Bajrang Dal and Lokesh was with the RSS. Under Digvijay Singh, Hinduism was under attack. So we tried to get a case filed against him. But it is not easy to get the police to file a first information report against the state's chief minister. So we indulged in chakka jams (blockades), and jail bharo protests on a small scale. The state police had marked us from that time. There were a lot of small cases (filed) against us. But we are not people who will get into hardcore criminal activities. At the most we would have stoned a few shops during bandhs," he says.
Though he does not criticise the RSS, Jitender does not have the same feelings about the BJP and its local leaders.
"Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is the BJP MLA for Mhow, has done nothing. He used Lokesh during elections and after that has turned a blind eye," he alleges.
Jitender is now fighting a lone battle to save his cousin.
"First he was implicated in the Ninama murder case. He lost five years of his life hiding from the police. Only last year he got married and his son was born this year. But he hasn't been able to see his son. We are poor people and now his family is struggling to make ends meet and also spend on the legal proceedings."
Though others do not buy the witch hunt theory, they agreed that the Congress party being in power at the Centre and the three states involved is the prime reason the case is moving at this pace.
"These people first surfaced in 2003," says journalist Manohar Limbodia. "After a few failed attempts, they executed their first attack in 2007. Wasn't four years enough for the state police to act? In fact, had any party but the BJP been in power in Madhya Pradesh, you might not be talking about a phenomenon called Hindu terror today."
"Even before the Ajmer blasts, they all met in a temple in Bhopal. What did the police do? After the blasts too, the Vasundhara Raje government (in Rajasthan) did not do anything," says Naveen Mali, a businessman and community leader in Mhow. "Only after (Congress Chief Minister) Ashok Gehlot [ Images ] took over did things start moving. True, it smacks of politics, but then something happened and something had to be done."
The Dewas-Indore belt was home for those accused in the terror cases.
"They thought they would be safe as long as they could strike in other states and hide here. They thought they were untouchable. They never expected the police from other states to come looking for them," says Limbodia.
Though Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare [ Images ] blew the lid off the Hindu terror phenomenon when he cracked the Malegaon blast case, it is the Rajasthan ATS, with its sweeps into border towns and midnight arrests, that has struck terror in the hearts of those hiding in the region.
"The Rajasthan ATS comes and picks up people for questioning and drops them back whenever it wants to. The local police is clueless. They come to know only when the Rajasthan ATS informs them as a formality about who they are taking away with them. Sometimes they don't even do that," says Seher about the arrests that the neighbouring state's police have made in Pithampur.
"The Shivraj Singh Chauhan government (in Madhya Pradesh) is not very strong," says Jitender Sharma. "In Gujarat, (Chief Minister) Narendra Modi [ Images ] doesn't allow the ATS to touch anyone. But here, the ATS from other states walk in freely and pick up whoever they want to whenever they want."