Time to end India’s isolation in OIC - Abdulaziz Sager - Arab News

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Letter to the Editor, The Arab News

Sager's article is timely. India's Brahmin oligarch is shy of dealing with the Muslim world in general and the neighboring Gulf Arabs in particular. They are afraid that Gulf oil wealth will undermine their 'unjustifiable' monopoly on power in India. It is time that Gulf countries should make a beginning by engendering trust and confidence in Indian establishment, that though they would remain committed to the international covenants to Human Rights and ‘real’ democratic norms, they are ready to proactively cooperate with India, to face the challenges of coming decades. Any move by the OIC will directly and indirectly impact the overall political, economic, social standing of 150 million Muslims, who have yet to make a mark of their existence as well as the potential for great contribution to world Muslim Ummah. Five Hundred million Muslims of Indian subcontinent cannot be relegated to ghetto existence, if the world has to live in peace.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com

http://ghulammuhammed.blogspot.com  

-----------------------------------------------------

 

http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=127258&d=11&m=10&y=2009&pix=opinion.jpg&category=Opinion

Time to end India’s isolation in OIC

Abdulaziz Sager | Arab News  

As the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) enters the fourth decade of its existence, it is an opportune moment to introspect on its continued isolation of India — a country that has the largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia.
With a membership of 57 countries spread over four continents, constituting 1.5 billion people and a combined GDP of about seven trillion dollars, the OIC is the second largest inter-governmental group after the United Nations.
The grouping identifies itself to be “the collective voice of the Muslim world” to “safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world”.
On the eve of his historic visit to India in 2006, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said that “India should have an observer status in the OIC” and it would be “beneficial” if Pakistan proposes India’s candidature.
Pakistan, however, objected that any country wishing to get observer status with the OIC, “should not be involved in any dispute with a member state.”
And, therein lies the reason that has hindered the OIC-India relationship since the Islamic Summit Conference in Rabat in 1969, which was held in the backdrop of the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied Jerusalem.
King Faisal played a key role in ensuring that India was invited to the conference because the issue being discussed was not a matter concerning only “Muslim countries”, but all Muslims. And, India, with its huge Muslim population, was seen as a stakeholder, apart from the fact that the Indian head of state at that time was a Muslim — Zakir Hussain.
The head of the Indian delegation even addressed the gathering. However, Indo-Pak differences led Islamabad to keep India out for the remaining sessions of the conference and all summits thereafter.
Since then, until as recently as the first week of October this year, when the OIC appointed a special envoy for Jammu and Kashmir, the politics of the subcontinent has drawn a wedge between the organization and India.
The OIC stresses that as long as the Indo-Pak tension over Kashmir remains unresolved, there is very little room for improvement in the organization’s relations with India.
While the OIC advocates the issue of self-determination and resolution of Kashmir in accordance with the UN resolutions of 1948 and 1949, India is firm about resolving the issue bilaterally with Pakistan.
This stand has been receiving increasing international acceptance, and appears to be the most viable option to resolve the Kashmir issue.
The debate here is not about Kashmir or about Pakistan. The larger concern is the Muslim world and what it stands to gain with India finding a foothold in the OIC. It is also natural that India would also gain reciprocal diplomatic benefits through such a move.
While the longstanding Kashmir issue is important enough to be resolved not only for the sake of the people therein, peace in the subcontinent and the Asian continent at large, it is equally important for the OIC to look beyond this issue and address more pressing concerns of the Muslim world. It must also be argued that while the OIC Charter stipulates that only Muslim countries willing to promote the objectives of the organization are eligible for membership, many non-Muslim countries have secured observer status and even full membership. The most recent is Russia, which came on board as an observer in 2005, two years after then President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia was a “Muslim power” that desired to play a role among Muslim countries. With less than 25 million Muslims in its ranks, the real reason may have well been Moscow’s attempt to assuage the Muslims over Chechnya and increase its influence in the Islamic world in order to tip the balance in its favor in its power politics with Washington.
Thailand — a predominantly Buddhist country — received the same recognition in 1998. It is also an irony of sorts that the Non-Aligned Movement, of which India is a founding member and has several non-Muslim countries, got observer status in 1977. Why not India, then?
India is making rapid progress in terms of its influence in the international arena, not just as a trillion-dollar economic powerhouse, but also as a military and technological giant, all combining to make it a political heavyweight.
Given the current buoyant state of the Indian economy amid a bleak world scenario, India’s formal association with the OIC could help forge mutually beneficial economic deals.
Equally important are factors that were highlighted by Hamid Ansari in 2006. The former diplomat and current Indian vice president said India deserves to be an OIC member, not just an observer, because though India is not a part of the Muslim world, “it is not away from it; not a Muslim majority state in statistical terms yet host to the second largest community of Muslims in the world; not a society focused on Muslim welfare only but one in which Muslims, as an integral part of a larger whole, get the attention that every other section does.”
As a result, a formal place for India in the OIC would add to the collective credibility and bargaining power of the organization. The OIC would be able to leverage India in relation to important issues of the Muslim world. This would help the OIC address the “state of disunity” among Muslims, which many see as one of the worst in 14 centuries of Islamic history.
In a post-9/11 21st century, the Muslim world faces numerous challenges — poverty, terrorism, calls for political reform and unemployment. In addressing these and implementing the Ten-Year Program of Action that was laid out at the OIC Summit in Makkah in 2005, India’s experiences would be more of an asset than a liability — especially envisaging joint action to promote tolerance and moderation, modernization, extensive reforms in all spheres of activities including science and technology, education, trade, and good governance and promotion of human rights.
With more than 150 million Muslims, most of them part of the world’s largest democratic process, India deserves to be associated with the OIC. It is also important to note that many OIC members are sympathetic to the idea.
At the same time, one needs to also see the issue from the angle that by denying India any role in the OIC, one is, in fact, abandoning the duty of promoting the interests of the Muslim population of India.
Thus, just like summits have been called in the past to search for common ground among members of the Muslim world on various issues, would it be too far-fetched to call another to find consensus over formalizing India’s OIC connection?
— Abdulaziz Sager is chairman of the Gulf Research Center. He can be contacted at: sager@grc.ae

HINDUTVA TERROR - In the words of a zealot… By Ashish Khetan - TEHELKA Magazine, New Delhi

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne150111Coverstory.asp

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 2, Dated January 15, 2011

CURRENT AFFAIRS   HINDUTVA TERROR

In the words of a zealot…

Swami Aseemanand’s chilling confession is the first legal evidence of RSS pracharaks’ involvement in the Samjhauta Express and 2006 Malegaon blasts. ASHISH KHETAN scoops the 42-page document that reveals a frightening story of hate and deliberate mayhem

Download a copy of Swami Aseemanand's confession letter to the Metropolitan Magistrate of Delhi (PDF, 15.3MB)

ON 18 DECEMBER 2010, a team of CBI sleuths escorted an elderly Bengali man Naba Kumar Sarkar, 59 — popularly known as Swami Aseemanand — from Tihar jail to the Tis Hazari court in Delhi, where he was produced before metropolitan magistrate Deepak Dabas. Aseemanand is the key accused in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast that killed nine people. This was his second court appearance in a span of little over 48 hours. On 16 December, Aseemanand had requested the magistrate to record his confession about his involvement in a string of terror attacks. He stated that he was making the confession without any fear, force, coercion or inducement.

In accordance with the law, the magistrate asked Aseemanand to reflect over his decision and sent him to judicial custody for two days — away from any police interference or influence.

On 18 December, Aseemanand returned, resolute. The magistrate asked everybody except his stenographer to leave his chamber. “I know I can be sentenced to the death penalty but I still want to make the confession,” Aseemanand said.

Over the next five hours, in an unprecedented move, Aseemanand laid bare an explosive story about the involvement of a few Hindutva leaders, including himself, in planning and executing a series of gruesome terror attacks. Over the past few years, several pieces of the Hindutva terror puzzle have slowly been falling into place — each piece corroborating and validating what has gone before. First, the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Dayanand Pandey, Lt Col Shrikant Purohit and others in 2008. The seizure of 37 audio tapes from Pandey’s laptop that featured all these people discussing their terror activities. And most recently, the Rajasthan ATS’ chargesheet on the 2007 Ajmer Sharif blast. Aseemanand’s confession, however, is likely to prove one of the most crucial pieces for investigative agencies.

Unlike police interrogation reports or confessions, under clause 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), confessions before a magistrate are considered legally admissible evidence. Aseemanand’s statement, therefore, is extremely crucial and will have serious ramifications.

HINDUTVA’S DEADLY PLATOON The men who allegedly vowed to match Islamist terror with Hindutva terror: bomb for bomb INDRESH KUMAR, a member of the RSS Central Committee. Three accused, Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma and Shivam Dhakad, and one witness, Bharat Riteshwar, have stated before the CBI that Indresh had mentored and financed the RSS pracharaks behind Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid terror strikes. SWAMI ASEEMANAND, the head of the RSS-affiliated Van Vasi Kalyan Ashram, Shabri Dham in Dangs, Gujarat. He has confessed to playing the role of an ideologue to the terrorists. Besides presiding over terror meetings held in Dangs and Valsad in Gujarat, he also selected Malgeaon, Ajmer Sharif and Hyderabad as terror targets. SUNIL JOSHI, a former RSS pracharak of Mhow district. He was expelled from the RSS after being accused in the murder of two Congress activists in Madhya Pradesh in 2006. Along with a few RSS pracharaks and Hindu radicals from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jammu and Jharkhand, he formed an inter-state terror infrastructure. SANDEEP DANGE, a senior RSS pracharak from Shajapur district near Indore. Along with Joshi and Ramchandra Kalsangra, he was a key figure in the longrunning conspiracy to bomb Muslim places of worship and Muslim neigbourhoods. He is currently absconding. RAM CHANDRA KALSANGRA ALIAS RAMJI, an RSS pracharak from Madhya Pradesh. He carried out terror strikes in different places between December 2002 and 29 September 2008 (when bombs went off simultaneously in Malegaon and Modasa. He has been absconding since October 2008. SHIVAM DHAKHAD, an RSS activist and associate of accused Joshi and Ramji Kalsangra. Along with other RSS pracharaks, he allegedly took training in bomb-making in 2005. He also did a reconnaissance of Aligarh Muslim University and residence of Justice UC Banerjee (chairman of the Godhra commission) for terror strikes. LT COL SHRIKANT PUROHIT, a founding member of terror outfit Abhinav Bharat. He was posted with the military intelligence unit at Nashik. He allegedly tried to draft in other army officers in his terror outfit. He is accused of supplying RDX for the 2008 Malegaon blasts. DEVENDRA GUPTA, the RSS vibhag pracharak of Muzaffarnagar, Bihar. He provided logistics to Joshi, Kalsangra and Dange for terror strikes. He also harboured Kalsangra and Dange in RSS offices while they were on the run. LOKESH SHARMA, an RSS worker and close associate of Joshi, Dange and Kalsangra. He purchased the two Nokia handsets that were used to trigger the bombs at Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif. BHARAT RATESWAR ALIAS BHARATBHAI, the head of Sri Vivekananda Kendra Sansthan in Valsad district, Gujarat. As a close associate of Aseemanand, he participated in several terror meetings held at his residence and also at Shabri Dham ashram. He also travelled with Joshi to Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh providing logistics for the blasts. YOGI ADITYANATH, BJP MP from Gorakhpur. He was contacted by Aseemanand to provide funds for terrorist activities. Joshi held a hush-hush meeting with him at his Gorakhpur residence in 2006, at the time when the conspiracy to carry out multiple blasts was underway. According to Aseemanand, he didn’t give much support. But he continues to be under suspicion. DR ASHOK VARSHNAY, RSS prant pracharak of Kanpur. He sheltered key terror accused and RSS pracharak Devendra Gupta at Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Vishwa Mangal Gau Gram Yatra in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, while Gupta was on the run. Varshnay has told investigators that he had shielded Gupta at the behest of Indresh Kumar.

RAJESH MISHRA, an RSS activist and owner of a foundry in Pithampura, near Mhow. He gave 15 cast iron shells in 2001 to Joshi, who used them during failed bomb blasts at Ijtema (a Muslim gathering) in Bhopal in 2002. He was also a co-accused along with Joshi in the murder of local Congress workers. SUDHAKAR DHAR DWIVEDI ALIAS DAYANAND PANDEY, he ran an ashram named Shardapeeth in Jammu. He played the role of an ideologue to those involved in the 2008 Malegaon blasts. He was in the habit of recording the meetings he would have with Abhinav Bharat members on his laptop.

For years, since the first horrific blasts in Mumbai in 1992, there has been an automatic and damaging perception amongst most Indians that there is a Muslim hand behind every terror blast. To some degree, this bias was shared by the police and intelligence agencies. 

Every time there was a blast, under intense pressure from both media and government to show results, instead of going in for painstaking and meticulous investigations to catch the real culprits, the security agencies would routinely round up Muslim boys linked with radical organisations and declare them to be terror masterminds. A frenzied media would swallow the story whole. Though a dangerous cocktail of anger, despair and frustration grew within the Muslim community, few Indians — except members of civil society and media organisations like TEHELKA — dared to take stands and question the status quo. 

The arrest of Sadhvi Pragya and Lt Col Purohit dented this perception slightly, but they were mostly written off as a small and lunatic fringe. Now, Aseemanand’s confession tears much deeper through this prejudice.

‘I know I can be sentenced with the death penalty but I still want to make this confession,’ Swami Aseemanand told the magistrate

According to him, it was not Muslim boys but a team of RSS pracharaks who exploded bombs in Malegaon in 2006 and 2008, on the Samjhauta Express in 2007, in Ajmer Sharif in 2007 and Mecca Masjid in 2007. Apart from the tragic loss of innocent lives in these blasts, what makes this admission doubly disturbing is that, in keeping with their habitual practice, scores of Muslim boys were wrongly picked up by the Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra Police, in collusion with sections of the Intelligence Bureau, and tortured and jailed for these blasts — accentuating the shrill paranoia about a vast and homegrown Islamist terror network. Many of these boys were acquitted after years in jail; some are still languishing inside, their youth and future destroyed, their families reduced to penury.

In a curious twist, however, in one of those inexplicable human experiences that no one can account for, according to Aseemanand, it was an encounter with one of these jailed Muslim boys that triggered a momentous emotional transformation in him, forcing him to confront his conscience and make amends. This is what Aseemanand told the judge: “Sir, when I was lodged in Chanchalguda district jail in Hyderabad, one of my co-inmates was Kaleem. During my interaction with Kaleem I learnt that he was previously arrested in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case and he had to spend about oneand- a-half years in prison. During my stay in jail, Kaleem helped me a lot and used to serve me by bringing water, food, etc for me. I was very moved by Kaleem’s good conduct and my conscience asked me to do prayschit (penance) by making a confessional statement so that real culprits can be punished and no innocent has to suffer.”

At this point, the magistrate asked his stenographer to leave so the confession could continue without restraint.

Tell-all evidence? A photocopy of Swami Aseemanand’s 42-page confession before the magistrate

In a signed statement written in Hindi that runs into 42 pages — and which is in TEHELKA’s possession — Aseemanand then proceeded to unravel the inner workings of the Hindutva terror network. According to him, it was not just a rump group like the ultra-right wing organisation Abhinav Bharat that engineered blasts but, shockingly, RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar who allegedly handpicked and financed some RSS pracharaks to carry out terror attacks.

“Indreshji met me at Shabri Dham (Aseemanand’s ashram in the Dangs district of Gujarat) sometime in 2005,” Aseemanand told the magistrate. “He was accompanied by many top RSS functionaries. He told me that exploding bombs was not my job and instead told me to focus on the tribal welfare work assigned to me by the RSS. He said he had deputed Sunil Joshi for this job (terror attacks) and he would extend Joshi whatever help was required.” Aseemanand further narrated how Indresh financed Joshi for his terror activities and provided him men to plant bombs. Aseemanand also confessed to his own role in the terror plots and how he had motivated a bunch of RSS pracharaks and other Hindu radicals to carry out terror strikes at Malegaon, Hyderabad and Ajmer. (TEHELKA tried contacting Indresh several times for his side of the story. He said he would call back but didn’t.)

While evidence of the involvement of RSS pracharaks in the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer blasts has been growing with every new arrest, Aseemanand’s confession is the first direct evidence of the involvement of Hindutva extremists in the 2006 Malegaon blasts and the Samjhauta Express blast. The evidence — both, direct and indirect — pieced together by the CBI shows that the broad terror conspiracy to target Muslims and their places of religious worship was hatched around 2001.

Three RSS pracharaks from Madhya Pradesh — Sunil Joshi, Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange — were apparently at the core of this conspiracy. As the three became more audacious in their terror ambitions they started inducting like-minded Hindutva radicals from other states, mainly Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. While the new entrants were mostly from the RSS, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, some members of fringe saffron groups like Abhinav Bharat, Jai Vande Matram and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram also joined the fray.

However, Joshi, Kalsangra and Dange took the precaution of not sharing too many details with members outside the core group. Joshi strictly followed the doctrine of division of work on a ‘need-tok-now’ basis, with each member knowing only his part of the job.

Aseemanand, who ran a Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Dang, first came in contact with Sunil Joshi in 2003 but it was only in March 2006 that he became actively involved in the terror plot.

It was the spirited investigation into the 2008 Malegaon blast by Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare that first blew the lid off this broad Hindutva terror conspiracy. Karkare arrested 11 Hindutva radicals, including Lt Col Purohit, who was attached with the military intelligence unit at Nashik; Dayanand Pandey, a self-styled religious guru who ran an ashram named Sharda Peeth in Jammu and Sadhvi Pragya, an ABVP leader turned into an ascetic, for their role in the 2008 Malegaon blast.

But Karkare’s sudden and ironic killing at the hands of Islamist jihadis in the Mumbai 26/11 attack derailed the saffron terror investigation. The Maharashtra ATS under its new chief KP Raghuvanshi failed to arrest Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange and instead passed them off as minor players in the chargesheet.

The investigation picked up pace again in May 2010 with the arrest of two RSS pracharaks — Devendra Gupta and Lokesh Sharma — by the Rajasthan ATS which was probing the Ajmer blast case. Gupta was the RSS Vibagh Pracharak of Muzaffarnagar, Bihar. He provided logistical support to Joshi, Kalsangra and Dange and harboured the latter two in RSS offices while they were on the run from agencies.

Lokesh Sharma was a RSS worker close to Joshi. He purchased the two Nokia phones that were used to trigger bombs at Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif. It is Sharma’s interrogation that revealed for the first time that RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar was a key figure in the terror conspiracy. The joint investigation of the Rajasthan ATS and CBI, in fact, went on to reveal that, except Pragya Singh Thakur, all those who were arrested by the Maharashtra ATS in 2008 were actually fringe players while the core group comprising Indresh Kumar, Kalsangra and Dange allegedly held the key to the full terror plot.

In June 2010, the CBI examined a witness named Bharat Riteshwar, a resident of district Valsad in Gujarat and a close associate of Swami Aseemanand. Riteshwar told the CBI that Sunil Joshi was a protégé of Indresh and had his approval and logistical support for carrying out terror attacks.

On 19 November 2010 the CBI cracked down on a hideout in Haridwar and arrested Swami Aseemanand, who had been a fugitive for over two years since Sadhvi Pragya’s arrest in October 2008. His arrest unlocked many more pieces.

NABA KUMAR — alias Swami Aseemanand — was originally from Kamaarpukar village in Hooghly district in West Bengal — the birthplace of Ramakrishna Paramhansa. In 1971, after completing his BSc (honours) from Hooghly, Naba Kumar went to Bardman district to pursue a master’s degree in science. 

Though he was involved with RSS activities from school, it was during his post-graduation years that Naba Kumar became an active RSS member. In 1977, he started working full-time with the RSS-run Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Purulia and Bankura districts. In 1981, his guru Swami Parmanand rechristened him as Swami Aseemanand.

From 1988 to 1993, he served with the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram at Andaman and Nicobar islands. Between 1993 and 1997, he toured across India to deliver sermons on Hindu religion among the tribals. In 1997, he settled down in the Dangs district in Gujarat and started a tribal welfare organisation called Shabri Dham. Aseemanand was known in the area for his rabid anti-minority speeches and his relentless campaign against Christian missionaries.

Aseemanand is seen as being close to the RSS leadership. In the past, leaders like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, former RSS chief KS Sudarshan and current chief Mohan Bhagwat have attended religious functions organised by him at Shabri Dham.

While Aseemanand was known for his vitriolic anti-minority positions, according to his confession, it was the heinous massacre of Hindu devotees at Akshardham temple by Islamist suicide bombers in 2002 that was the first real kindle for their retaliatory terror attacks.

“The Muslim terrorists started attacking Hindu temples in 2002,” Aseemanand said. “This caused great concern and anger in me. I used to share my concerns about the growing menace of Islamic terrorism with Bharat Riteshwar of Valsad.”

In 2003, Aseemanand came in contact with Sunil Joshi and Pragya Singh Thakur. He would often discuss Islamist terrorism with them as well. Finally, according to him, it was the terror attack on Sankatmochan temple in Varanasi in March 2006 which was the real flashpoint for them.

“In March 2006, Pragya Thakur, Sunil Joshi, Bharat Riteshwar and I decided to give a befitting reply to the Sankatmochan blasts,” Aseemanand told the magistrate.

Aseemanand gave Rs. 25,000 to Joshi to arrange the necessary logistics for the blasts. He also sent Joshi and Riteshwar to Gorakhpur to seek assistance from firebrand BJP MP Yogi Adityanath. In April 2006, Joshi apparently held a hush-hush meeting with the Adityanath, infamous for his rabid anti-Muslim speeches. But Aseemanand says, “Joshi came back and told me that Adityanath was not of much help.”

However, this did not deter Aseemanand. He went ahead with his plans.

In June 2006, Aseemanand, Riteshwar, Sadhvi Pragya and Joshi again met at Riteshwar’s house in Valsad. It proved to be a chilling one, with far-reaching consequences. Joshi, for the first time, brought four associates with him — Dange, Kalsangra, Lokesh Sharma and Ashok alias Amit.

“I told everybody that bomb ka jawab bomb se dena chahiye, (I told everyone we should answer bombs with bombs),” says Aseemanand. “At that meeting I realised Joshi and his group were already doing something on the subject,” he adds.

“After the combined meeting,” Aseemanand says, “Joshi, Pragya, Riteshwar and I huddled together for a separate meeting. I suggested that 80 percent of the people of Malegaon were Muslims and we should explode the first bomb in Malegaon itself. I also said that during the Partition, the Nizam of Hyderabad had wanted to go with Pakistan so Hyderabad was also a fair target. Then I said that since Hindus also throng the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in large numbers we should also explode a bomb in Ajmer which would deter the Hindus from going there. I also suggested the Aligarh Muslim University as a terror target.”

According to Aseemanand everybody agreed to target these places.

“In the meeting,” Aseemanand continues, “Joshi suggested that it was basically Pakistanis who travel on the Samjhauta Express train that runs between India and Pakistan and therefore we should attack the train as well. Joshi took the responsibility of targeting Samjhauta himself and said that the chemicals required for the blasts would be arranged by Dange.”

Aseemanand’s confession goes on in grave detail. “Joshi said three teams would be constituted to execute the blasts. One team would arrange finance and logistics. The second team would arrange for the explosives. And the third team would plant the bombs. He also said that the members of one team should not know members from the other two teams. So even if one gets arrested the others would remain safe,” Aseemanand told the magistrate.

Hate and anger had slipped off the edge into mayhem.

‘Since Hindus throng the Ajmer Sharif Dargah we thought a bomb blast in Ajmer would deter Hindus from going there,’ the Swami said

ON 8 SEPTEMBER 2006, at 1.30 pm, four bombs exploded in the communally tense town of Malegaon in Maharashtra. Besides being a Friday, the Muslim festival Shab-e-barat was being observed. Three bombs went off in the compound of the Hamidiya Masjid and Bada Kabrastan. A fourth bomb exploded at Mushawart Chowk.

Out of three bombs, one was placed at the entrance gate of Hamidiya Masjid and Bada Kabrastan, the second on a bicycle parked in the parking lot situated inside the compound and the third was hung on the wall of the power supply room situated in front of Vaju Khana, inside the compound. The fourth bomb went off in the crowded junction of Mushawart Chowk, which was placed on a bicycle, near an electric pole. The attack was meticulously planned; the bombs exploded in quick succession. Thirty one Muslims were killed; over 312 were injured.

In a suspiciously swift investigation, the Maharashtra ATS arraigned nine Malegaon Muslims within 90 days. Eight of these were members of the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the outlawed radical Muslim outfit. Another three Malegaon Muslims were shown absconding. Stringent provisions of the draconian Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were invoked.

On 21 December 2006, the same day that the ATS filed the chargesheet against the nine Malegaon Muslims, the Maharashtra government asked the CBI to take over the probe. In effect, the CBI was presented with a fait accompli: the case had already been so-called solved and the accused had been chargesheeted.

A year ago, the CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet but failed to produce any material evidence. For over four years, these nine Malegaon Muslims have been languishing in prison. Aseemanand’s confession now seems proof that the boys were innocent and had been arrested merely to deflect criticism and create a false sense of security among Indian citizens that the blast cases were being “solved”. The real mastermind, according to Aseemanand, was Sunil Joshi. And it was Aseemanand himself who had persuaded Joshi to explode bombs in Malegaon.

This is what he told the magistrate. “Joshi came to see me at Shabri Dham on Diwali in 2006. The Malegaon blasts had already happened. Sunil told me the blasts were carried out by our men. I said the newspaper reports had mentioned that Muslims were behind the blasts and a few Muslims had also been arrested. Sunil assured me the blasts were carried out by him but he refused to reveal the identity of our men who had executed the blasts.”

ON 18 February 2007, on the eve of the then Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri’s visit to India to carry forward the peace dialogue, two powerful bombs went off around midnight in two coaches of the cross-border Samjhauta Express, running between Delhi and Lahore. The train had reached Diwana near Panipat, 80 km north of Delhi. The coaches turned into an inferno. The third bomb placed in another coach failed to detonate. Sixty eight people were killed. Dozens were injured. The peace dialogue received a big setback.

Investigation revealed that three suitcases filled with detonators, timers, iron pipes containing explosives and bottles filled with petrol and kerosene had been smuggled into the three coaches.

The needle of suspicion veered immediately to Pakistani extremists. Depending upon which investigating agency you were speaking to, Pakistan-based terror outfits mainly Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)were blamed for the blasts. Even the US State Department called the terror attack a joint operation of the LeT and HUJI. The Haryana Police tracked down some of the material used in the blasts as being procured from a market in Indore but the trail soon went cold.

In November 2008, the Maharashtra ATS told a court in Nashik that Lt Col Purohit had procured 60 kg of RDX from Jammu & Kashmir in 2006 and a part of it was suspected to have been used in the Samjhauta Express blasts. But the ATS subsequently failed to back its claims with any evidence and was forced to retract. The Haryana cops travelled to Mumbai and interrogated Purohit and other Malegaon accused but could not find any evidence that could link them to the Samjhauta blasts.

In July 2010, the Samjhauta blast probe was handed over to the National Investigating Agency (NIA). Though it still leaves some questions and loose ends, Aseemanand’s confession now joins many other dots in relation to the Samjhauta Express.

The massacre of Hindu devotees at the Akshardham temple by Islamist bombers in 2002 was the first real kindle for the retaliatory attacks

“In February 2007,” Aseemanand told the magistrate, “Riteshwar and Joshi came on a motorbike to a Lord Shiva temple in a place called Balpur. As we had fixed this place for our meeting, I was already there, waiting for the two. Joshi told me in the next two days there would be a piece of good news and I should keep a tab on the newspapers. After the meeting I came back to Shabri Dham and Joshi and Riteshwar went their way. After a couple of days I went to meet Riteshwar at his Valsad residence. Joshi and Pragya were already present there. The Samjhauta Express blasts had happened. I asked Joshi how he was present there while Samjhauta had already happened in Haryana. Joshi replied that the blasts were done by his men.”

“In the same meeting,” Aseemanand continues, “Joshi took Rs. 40,000 from me to carry out the blasts in Hyderabad. A few months later, Joshi telephoned me and told me to keep a tab on the newspapers as some good news was in the offing. In a few days the news of the Mecca Masjid blast appeared in the papers. After 7-8 days, Joshi came to Shabri Dham and brought a Telegu newspaper with him. It had a picture of the blast. I told Joshi that in the papers it had appeared that some Muslim boys had been rounded up for the blast. But Joshi replied it was done by our people.”

LIKE IN the case of the 2006 Malegaon blast, 17 May 2007 was a Friday. At 1.30 pm, as over 4,000 Muslims assembled to offer their Friday prayers at the iconic Mecca Masjid, situated near the Charminar in the old city of Hyderabad, a bomb went off near the Wazu Khana (fountain) meant for doing wazu (ablution before prayers) inside the mosque.

Another IED contained in a blue rexine bag was found hanging near the door-way at the northern end of the mosque. Miraculously, this bomb had not exploded. With no substantive clue emerging from the blast investigation, in a cynical move, the Hyderabad police launched a mop-up operation against local Muslim boys, who were associated with Ahle Hadess, the doggedly fundamentalist sect among Sunni Muslims.

Friends and family members of some known local Muslim extremists like Shahid Bilal, who had fled to Pakistan, were also rounded up. In a span of two weeks, over three dozen boys from Malakpet and Saidabaad were picked up and tortured. However, when the police failed to link them to the Mecca Masjid case, they registered three separate bogus cases and implicated the detainees in these cases.

On 9 June 2007, the CBI took over the investigation into the Mecca Masjid case.

A few months later, on 11 October 2007, during the month of Ramzan, at 6.15 pm, as Muslim devotees had begun their iftaar at Ajmer Sharif dargah, a powerful bomb went off near a tree in the compound, killing three people and injuring over a dozen. Investigators found one more unexploded IED at the site.

Swami says, ‘Joshi told me to keep a tab on the papers as some good news was in the offing. Soon after, news of the Mecca Masjid blast appeared’

According to Aseemanand, this blast had been executed by Muslim boys provided by Indresh Kumar. “A couple of days after the Ajmer blast Joshi came to see me. He was accompanied by two men named Raj and Mehul who had also visited Shabri Dham on previous occasions. Joshi claimed his men had perpetrated the blast and he was also present at Ajmer Dargah at the time of the blast. He said that Indresh had provided him two Muslim boys to plant the bomb. I told Joshi that if the Muslim boys get caught, Indresh would get exposed. I also told Joshi that Indresh might get him killed and told him to stay at Shabri Dham. Joshi then told me that Raj and Mehul were wanted in the Baroda Best Bakery case (12 Muslims were killed by rioters in Best Bakery in Gujarat 2002). I told Joshi not to keep Raj and Mehul at the ashram as it would not be safe for them to stay in Gujarat. Joshi, along with the two men, left for Dewas the next day,” said Aseemanand.

Barely two months later, on 29 December 2007, in a sudden twist, Aseemanand’s fears came true. Sunil Joshi was mysteriously murdered outside his house in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. His family claimed he had been murdered by his own organisation. After her arrest, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur also suggested this. But the Madhya Pradesh Police failed to solve the case and filed a closure report in the court.

At the end of December 2010 though, acting on fresh leads, the Madhya Pradesh police finally accepted that Joshi had been 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 where he confessed to the murder. However, even these arrests don’t join all the dots. The police claim internal rivalry as the motive for the murder. The CBI, though, believes the real motive behind Joshi’s murder was to silence him. Joshi knew too much about the terror conspiracy and his masters were perhaps wary that they might get exposed.

ABDUL KALEEM, 21 The Muslim boy who triggered an unlikely conversion in jail Kaleem, a cell phone seller, was arrested and tortured in 2007 for a blast at Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad. He spent a year-and-half in jail before being acquitted. Soon after, he was back in jail on another charge, when he met Swami Aseemanand. The Swami was struck by the boy’s kindness. When he heard that Kaleem was blamed for a blast that he and his comrades had done, he was profoundly affected and decided to confess as an act of penance.

Sunil Joshi’s murder leaves many unanswered questions. If he was one of the key figures in the terror conspiracy, as many of those arrested testify that he was, why would his comrades want to bump him off? If he was a protégé of Indresh Kumar, acting on his orders and with his sanction, why would his mentor want him dead? What could have created a rift or fallout between all of them? The murder suggests a murky and inexplicable factionalism within the sinister grouping.

With Joshi dead and much of Aseemanand’s confession based on things Joshi had told him about the blasts, it might seem that Aseemanand’s confession runs thin in certain portions and is, therefore, of uneven consequence. But Joshi was not the only piece in the puzzle. Aseemanand’s confession is powerful because it implicates himself at every juncture and points to a network of Hindutva pracharaks, who not only participated in the terror plots but were moved around and sheltered by sections of the organisation while they were on the run. Investigators believe that the arrests of Kalsangra and Dange would provide the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Joshi’s death didn’t mean the end of the horrific blasts — at least from the ultra-Hindutva side. The terror infrastructure he had created along with a few other RSS men continued to function.

ASEEMANAND CONFESSED coming into contact with the shadowy saffron terror outfit Abhinav Bharat in January 2007. Col Purohit was one of the founder members of the outfit. Aseemanand has confessed to proposing more terror strikes in a meeting of Abhinav Bharat held at Bhopal in April 2008. Sadhvi Pragya, Bharat Riteshwar, Col Purohit and Dayanand Pandey were also present in the meeting. “I participated in many Abhinav Bharat meetings and proposed to carry out more terror strikes,” Aseemanand told the magistrate.

On 29 September 2008, horror struck again. During Islam’s holy month of Ramzan, an IED went off at Bhikku Chowk, a Muslim neighbourhood in Malegaon. The bomb was concealed in a motorcycle parked in front of a locked office of SIMI. Given the paranoia that had grown around Islamist terror, it had become an accepted maxim that members of SIMI were behind every blast. No proof was ever required. Placing a bomb in front of their office, therefore, was an act of deadly symbolism for the Hindutva outfits.

A similar bomb blast was triggered almost simultaneously hundreds of miles away in a small town called Modasa in Gujarat. Like in Malegaon, the blast took place in a Muslim colony named Sukka Bazaar, outside a mosque when special Ramzan prayers were being offered. Like in Malegaon, the bomb was again concealed in a motorcycle. The two blasts were separated by a gap of five minutes.

The Malgeaon blast killed seven Muslims, including a three-year-old boy. The Modasa blast resulted in the death of a 15-year-old boy. Several others were injured.

‘I told my comrades that since the Nizam had wanted to opt for Pakistan during Partition, Hyderabad was also a fair target for us,’ the Swami said

It is a measure of the deep-seated bias that had crept into the Indian justice system that even when deadly blasts went off in the midst of Muslim neighbourhoods and mosques, Muslim boys were still automatically blamed for them. It was beyond anyone’s imagination that Hindutva groups could be behind the inhuman acts.

But as Aseemanand says, “Sometime in October 2008, Dange phoned me and said he wanted to come to Shabri Dham and stay there for a few days. I told him that since I was setting out for Nadiad (Gujarat), it would not be a good idea for him to stay there in my absence. Then Dange requested me to pick him up from a place called Vyara and drop him to Baroda which was on the way to Nadiad. I picked up Dange from Vyara bus stop in my Santro car. He was accompanied by Ramji Kalsangra. Both were carrying two or three bags stuffed with some heavy objects. They told me they were coming from Maharashtra. I dropped them at Rajpipla junction at Baroda. I later realised that it was just a day after the Malegaon blast,” said Aseemanand, before concluding his statement. His confession further corroborates the evidence put together by Karkare.

After the Maharashtra ATS arrested Sadhvi Pragya in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast, Aseemanand went absconding. He was finally arrested by the CBI from Haridwar on 19 November 2010.

THE EMERGENCE of Hindutva terror does not leach away the horror of Islamist terror attacks on places like the Akshardham temple, Sankatmochan mandir and German Bakery in Pune, amongst others. But Aseemanand’s confession will raise many uncomfortable questions for the RSS. It is no one’s case that the actions of a few tars an entire organisation. But there are urgent questions the RSS needs to confront within itself. And answer to the nation.

Given the growing evidence about the involvement of RSS pracharaks in a series of terror blasts, how will the RSS leadership respond?

Many of these terror blasts display a high degree of sophistication in the planning and devices used, with RDX and complex bomb designs being deployed in several of them. Given that most of the foot-soldiers accused for these blasts are of very humble backgrounds, is it possible that they could execute these blasts without support and sanction from the top? Given the strictly hierarchical and disciplined nature of the organisation, is it possible that they were acting without the knowledge of their superiors? Most crucially, given the gathering evidence about the involvement of several RSS pracharaks and other affiliates in this series of terror blasts, how will the RSS leadership respond? If it is true that some members of their organisation have turned rogue, will they seek the most stringent punishment for them? The Hindutva worldview may be politically opposed to minority rights, but will it go far enough to watch some of its members drag the country further down the suicidal course of competitive terrorism between Islamist and Hindutva extremists? Or will it opt for the saner option of a cleansing within.

Related Stories The willing fundamentalist BY ASHISH KHETAN An angry hall of fall guys. And unfair arrests BY ASHISH KHETAN

---

ashish.journo@gmail.com

An angry hall of fall guys. And unfair arrests - By Ashish Khetan - TEHELKA Magazine, New Delhi

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne150111CoverstoryIII.asp From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 2, Dated January 15, 2011

CURRENT AFFAIRS   HINDUTVA TERROR

An angry hall of fall guys. And unfair arrests

A dangerous prejudice had slipped into the Indian criminal justice system: if there was a blast, a Muslim was behind it. For this, these 32 Muslims had to pay for blasts done by Hindutva extremists. ASHISH KHETAN reports

IN A twist of fate worthy of the literary greats, a chance encounter a month ago between a Muslim boy and a hardline Hindu triggered a change of heart that seems to have unravelled a massive terror conspiracy.
In 2007, Abdul Kaleem, 18, was picked up from his house by the Hyderabad Police in connection with a bomb blast in Mecca Masjid in which nine people had died. Kaleem pleaded his innocence but no one would listen. It was crime enough that Kaleem was a Muslim and the younger brother of Abdul Khaja, who had gone over to Pakistan years earlier and intelligence agencies had inputs that Khaja was working for the ISI. Kaleem’s second brother Abdul Khaddar was at the time employed in the Middle East and Khaja was listed as absconding.

At the time, Kaleem was in the business of selling cell phones and SIM cards while pursuing a course for a medical lab technician. Two bombs had been planted at Mecca Masjid. While the first had exploded, miraculously, the second had not. Since a mobile and a SIM card were also found in the unexploded device, in a leap of faith, the police were now absolutely sure that Kaleem was behind the blast. The facts did not matter, the association was enough. Along with dozens of Muslim boys, Kaleem was tortured and kept in prison for 18 months before he was acquitted.

However, in the interim, his brother Khaja was caught in Sri Lanka by RAWand sent to jail in Hyderabad. In October 2010, the police accused Kaleem of supplying a phone to his brother and arrested him again.

This is when Swami Aseemanand met Kaleem. The unsuspecting boy was kind to the Swami and the two got talking. When the Swami found out that Kaleem had been jailed and tortured for a crime that, in fact, the Swami and his comrades had committed, apparently it had a profound impact on him. Moved by a desire for penance, he sought a confession before a magistrate.

The Fall Guys: 32 Muslims had to pay for the blasts done by Hindutva extremists
AASIF KHAN: The SIMI member was arrested on 14 November 2006 and is now in Arthur Road jail	ABDUL SATTAR: HUJI-member-turned-police mole. Mecca Masjid arrests based on his 'confession'	ABDUL WASSEY: He had planted a crude bomnb in a hotel run by a Hindu and had done time in a juvenile home	ABRAR AHMED: A SIMI member now in ARthur Road jail, but is undergoing treatment at present
SALMAN FARSI: A SIMI member, he was arrested on 6 November 2006. Now in Arthur Road jail	ARSHAD KHAN: Was from the same neighbourhood as Shahid Bilal. Had no known terror links	FAROG ANWAR: A SIMI member, he was arrested on 6 November 2006. Now in Arthur Road jail	GULAM SIDDIQI: Was an undertrail for allegedly conspiring to carry out attack on a temple in Hyderabad
IBRAHIM JUNAID: Charged for conspiring to murder BJP MLA Indrasena Reddy. But was acquitted in the end	MAQSOOD AHMED: Allegedly tried to recruit boys and send them to Pakistan for terror training	MD. ABDUL QADRI: Former SIMI member who ran a phone booth. Had no criminal record	MD. BALEEQUDDIN: The police said he had links with radical SIMI leader Safdar Nagori
ABDUL MAJEED: Was the brother of Shahid Bilal. Had no past criminal record	ABDUL KAREEM: Was a former SIMI member and had no past criminal record	ABDUL WAJEED: A former SIMI member, he had no criminal record besides attending SIMI meetings	MD. SHAKEEL Was employed as driver of Mehboob Ali, a known Muslim radical in Hyderabad
M ABDUL RAHEEM: Charged for conspiring to murder BJP MLA Indrasena Reddy. But was aquitted in the end	M YASIR: A former SIMI member, his father was a known radical who had been booked under POTA	MD MUSTAFA ALI: He was a friend of Shahid Bilal. Had no criminal background	MD NASEERUDDIN: He had no criminal record nor was he associated with SIMI
MD RAYEESUDDIN: Was charged with conspiring to murder MLA Indrasena Reddy but was acquitted	ZAHID ABDUL: A SIMI member, he was arrested on 22 November 2006. Now in Arthur Road Jail/p>	MOUTASIM BILLAH: Former SIMI member. Had links with the radical faction led by Safdar Nagori	MUNAVAR AHMED: 29-year-old student and a resident of Malegaon
NOOR-UL-DOHA: A SIMI member who was arrested on 30 October 2006. Now in Arthur Road Jail	RAEES AHMED: Was arrested on 5 November 2006. Now in Arthur Road Jail	RIYAZ AHMED: Resident of Malegaon	SHABIR AHMED: A SIMI member who was arrested on 2 November 2006. Now in Arthur Road Jail
SHAIK MD. FAREED: A former SIMI member but had no criminal record	MD. ALI ALAM: A SIMI member who was arrested on 14 November 2006. Now in Thane Jail	SYED KHADER: Brother of Abdul Khala who had escaped to Pakistan and ‘joined’ a terror network	ABDUL KALEEM: Was arrested in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast, in jail for 18 months

The Swami’s confession (See story on page 30) has brought back into focus the entrenched prejudice against Muslims in the criminal justice system.

In a time of tragedy and terror, everybody justifiably wants answers, culprits, punishment. The challenge then is not to reach for the quick route, the easy demonisations. Sadly, the Indian State does not always meet this challenge well.

Over the last decade — particularly between the years 2004 and 2009, as the country was struck by frequent and terrifying terror blasts, dozens of innocent Muslims have found themselves automatically and falsely accused of terrorism. In the struggle for a just and safe society, it is crucial to find real perpetrators and correct answers; crucial to cleave doggedly to the idea of fair play and rule of law; crucial not to fall prey to overblown and false psychoses. But a dangerous prejudice had crept into the psyche of a section of our investigating agencies. There was an instant assumption: behind every terror blast there must be a Muslim hand. Trapped in that hysteria, it no longer mattered whether this assumption was true, or even whether the correct Muslims were arrested. What mattered was that someone should be blamed for it — and blamed quickly.

It is a measure of the cynical carelessness with which these Muslim youth have been arrested, that until Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s fiercely dogged investigation into the Malegaon blast of 2008 exposed the tip of the Hindutva terror network, even bomb blasts in Muslim neighbourhoods and mosques were casually ascribed to Muslims.

What makes this additionally shocking is that, often, these arrests were carried out not just in states run by the BJP, which is seen to be hostile to Muslims, but in states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, that are led by either a Congress government or a Congress alliance. Clearly, Muslims had no real political champion.
Swami Aseemanand’s confession has now proved that the arrest of 32 Muslim men for the Mecca Masjid and Malegaon blasts were utterly misplaced. Some of them may have been radicals, some may have had ambiguous histories, but they were not behind the terror blasts. This is the disturbing story of what the security agencies did to them. And the shoddy work that passes for investigation.

ON 26 DECEMBER 2007, the then CBI Joint Director Arun Kumar, who was supervising the investigation into the Mecca Masjid Blast case, was thrilled to receive a letter from the Hyderabad Joint Commissioner of Police (administration), Harish Gupta. Gupta’s two-page letter was annexed with confessions and CDs of narco-analysis tests. It claimed to have solved the Mecca Masjid case and listed as many as 25 accused, of which 19 were Muslims from Hyderabad and six were Bangladeshi Muslims. Gupta said out of the 19 local accused, 11 had already been arrested.

He further claimed that two of them had confessed to their role in the Mecca Masjid bombing during police interrogation and also in the narco-analysis tests. Kumar swiftly dispatched a team to Hyderabad to tie up the loose ends and charge-sheet the accused listed by Gupta.

Cycle of terror Dozens of Muslim boys were arrested and tortured after the 2007 Mecca Masjid blasts PHOTO: AFP

One might wonder why the Hyderabad Police was investigating the Mecca Masjid case when the CBI had already taken over the probe on 9 June 2007. The fact is, two separate cases had been registered in relation to the Mecca Masjid terror attack. One case pertained to the bomb that had exploded; the second to the bomb that had not and which formed the only material evidence at the time.

While transferring the case of the exploded bomb to the CBI, the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh kept the case of the unexploded bomb with the local police. This case — crime No. 107/2007 — was registered at Hussaini Alam Police Station and was subsequently transferred to the Central Crime Station, where it was investigated under Gupta’s supervision.

So the only material and scientific evidence — the unexploded device with an intact Nokia phone and SIM card that eventually led the CBI and the Rajasthan ATS to RSS pracharaks — was not initially given to the CBI. Instead, the Hyderabad Police unleashed a manhunt for the accused. As always, it was the usual suspects — in this case, the followers of the Ahle Hadees sect — that the police went after.

An Ahle Hadees member, Abdul Sattar, 24, had been a police mole for some time. He was linked to the LeT and had been to Pakistan for terror training. But at the time of the Mecca Masjid bombing, he was working as a police informant. Sattar gave the police a list of possible suspects. Over the next few weeks, three dozen Muslim boys were detained and tortured.

Abdul Kaleem was one of those boys. Right through this time, the CBI pleaded with the Andhra Pradesh government to transfer the case of the unexploded bomb to it. The Hyderabad Police knew that sooner or later the case would be handed over to the CBI, so they registered three new and separate cases related to terror conspiracies:

1. Crime No 198/2007 registered at Gopalpuram police station — Conspiracy to provide support to the jihadi movement in India and start mobilising Muslim youth for training and subversive activities

2. Crime No 100/2007 registered with the Special Investigations Team — Conspiracy to cause destruction and communal disturbances by causing blasts in Hyderabad and other places in India

3. Crime No 75/2007 registered with the Special Investigations Team — Conspiracy to facilitate terrorist activities by obtaining cell phone connections on false names and communication to this effect Over three dozen boys, including Kaleem, were booked in these cases. Sattar, the police mole, was also booked since he feared that he might be targeted by the local Muslims if he was allowed to walk free. The jail was the safest place for him.

The police took many of these boys, including Kaleem, for narco-analysis tests. But they failed to get any material evidence that could link any of them to the Mecca Masjid case. Despite this, they refused to let the boys go. The only ‘evidence’ they had was police confessions — which is infamously associated with torture and coercion. They wanted the CBI to book the accused for the case on the basis of this.

The Maharashtra ATS took over the probe. But it ignored the first rule of investigation: if you want to find the criminal, first find the motive

In December 2007, when the CBI team went to Hyderabad to act on this request, they found the confessions were bogus. Interrogating the suspects in Hyderabad jail, the CBI sleuths came back convinced that though a few of them were radicals, they were not behind the Mecca Masjid blasts. Much to the chagrin of the local police, the CBI refused to chargesheet these boys.

Later, all the three cases registered by the Hyderabad Police resulted in acquittals for the boys. Knowing that it stood on thin ground, the police did not appeal against the acquittals to the higher court. In January 2008, the Andhra Pradesh government finally transferred the case of the unexploded device to the CBI.

The boys may have been acquitted, but the reality is such arrests often make pariahs of the most ordinary and harmless citizen. Set aside the mental and physical corrosion of the years in jail, it becomes difficult to find jobs or even get houses on rent. So two questions linger: why did the police show such undue doggedness in pursuing boys they had no substantive leads on? And who will restore the cracked pieces of the boys’ lives to them?
ON 8 SEPTEMBER 2006, four powerful bombs tore through the communally sensitive town of Malegaon in Maharashtra, killing 37 Muslims and injuring hundreds. Three bombs had been planted inside the premises of the Hamidiya Masjid, the biggest mosque in Malegaon, and the fourth in a crowded market place named Mushawart Chowk, in the town’s Muslim locality. It was a Friday and the occasion of the Muslim festival Shab-e-Barat. Clearly, Muslims were the target of the bombers.

Since October 2005, bomb blasts in mainland India were fast becoming a regular feature, starting with the Delhi Diwali blasts, followed by the Varanasi and Mumbai train blasts. But the Malegaon blast was different.

In the earlier cases, Hindus and their temples had been targeted. In Malegaon, it was Muslims and their mosque. There had only been three occasiona before when crude bombs had gone off near mosques in central Maharashtra: at the Mohammadiya Masjid in Parbhani in November 2003; at the Quadriya Masjid in Jalna in August 2004; and at the Meraj-ul- Uloom Masjid in Purna in Parbhani district in August 2004.

These cases had been solved when an RSS member and a Bajrang Dal activist were killed while preparing bombs in a house in Nanded. But instead of going to the root of the conspiracy, the Maharashtra ATS had arrested a few lower level functionaries of the Bajrang Dal and chargesheeted them for the Nanded, Jalna and Parbhani blasts. The case was quickly forgotten.

In the 2006 Malegaon blast case too, the Maharashtra ATS again took over the probe. But it ignored the first and golden rule of criminal investigation: if you want to find the criminal, first find the motive.

The Maharashtra ATS did come up with a motive, but it was an extremely weak and dubious one. According to them, some local Malegaon Muslims, mainly members of the outlawed SIMI, had exploded the bombs and killed fellow Muslims to trigger Hindu-Muslim riots. Nine Muslims from Malegaon were arrested; another three were shown absconding. Nobody believed the ATS’ theory. When pressure from the Muslims for a fair investigation grew, the Congress-NCP government handed over the probe to the CBI. But all chances of a fair probe were nixed when the Maharashtra ATS filed their chargesheet on the same day that the state government wrote to the CBI to take over the probe. Since September 2006, all nine of these Malegaon Muslims have been languishing in the jail.

The boys may have been acquitted, but the reality is such arrests often make pariahs of the most ordinary and harmless citizen

Now, exposing the police’s almost criminally cavalier approach to terror investigations, Aseemanand has told the Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Dabas that a few RSS pracharaks led by Sunil Joshi had carried out the 2006 Malegaon blasts. Aseemanand also asserts strongly that it was he who had picked Malegaon as a potential terror target because of its large Muslim population. The CBI has also found a cell number mentioned under the head ‘sardar’ in Sunil Joshi’s phone book. Probing this further, the CBI has found that this number belonged to Himanshu Phanse, the RSS activist who had died while making the bombs and was the key conspirator behind the Jalna and Parbhani blasts.

Shivam Dhakad, another RSS activist from Dewas and a close associate of Joshi and Dange, was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Police a few months ago in a murder case. He has apparently told the CBI that Joshi had cried like a child when he heard the news of Phanse’s death.
 
While these may only count as strong leads, the glaring question Swami Aseemanand’s confession has raised is, if investigative agencies can have no presumed credibility, who can ordinary Indians turn to? And if the agencies have mostly been catching the wrong men in their hurry for accolades and political brownie points, who will nab the real culprits?