Sunday, April 28, 2013

My comments posted on The New York Time article by Thomas L. Friedman - By Ghulam Muhammed

My comments posted on The New York Time article by Thomas L. Friedman -


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  1. Friedman writes:

    "This is a popular meme among radical Muslim groups, and, to be sure, some Muslim youths were deeply angered by the U.S. interventions in the Middle East. The brothers Tsarnaev may have been among them.

    But what in God’s name does that have to do with planting a bomb at the Boston Marathon and blowing up innocent people? It is amazing to me how we’ve come to accept this non sequitur and how easily we’ve allowed radical Muslim groups and their apologists to get away with it.

    Would he be willing to accept the paraphrasing of his logic to the following:

    " Yes, Americans are genuinely angered over 9/11. But what in God's name, what that have to do with US invading and killings hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan?"

    "Why US is so radicalized. By Friedman's logic, US should have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan, not to bomb but to build schools, hospitals for Muslims, so that they may not think US as an enemy. Why bomb innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan? What kind of sick madness is this?"

    "Friedman never gave that pacifying advice to Israel, when it matched rockets with rockets against its adversaries. He never told Israel: go build schools, hospitals in Gaza.
    "
    This only proves that even the best brains in America are yet to get their logic straight when it comes to their violence against our violence.

    Friedman wants others to do all the pacifying, while the neo-cons are free to carry on with their warmongering. That is fooling people.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/opinion/sunday/friedman-judgment-not-included.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

New York Times

Op-Ed Columnist

Judgment Not Included

Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan, this month. Innocent Muslims are killed by radical Muslims in the Middle East weekly.
By
Published: April 27, 2013 9 Comments
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AS police investigators peel away the layers of the Boston Marathon bombing, there are two aspects of this unfolding story to which I want to react: the mind-set of the alleged bombers and the role of the Internet in shaping it. Important news about both was contained in a single Washington Post article on Tuesday. 
Josh Haner/The New York Times
Thomas L. Friedman

Readers’ Comments

“The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the attack, according to U.S. officials familiar with the interviews,” The Post reported. The officials said, “Dzhokhar and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev ... do not appear to have been directed by a foreign terrorist organization. Rather, the officials said, the evidence so far suggests they were ‘self-radicalized’ through Internet sites and U.S. actions in the Muslim world. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has specifically cited the U.S. war in Iraq, which ended in December 2011 with the removal of the last American forces, and the war in Afghanistan.”
This is a popular meme among radical Muslim groups, and, to be sure, some Muslim youths were deeply angered by the U.S. interventions in the Middle East. The brothers Tsarnaev may have been among them.
But what in God’s name does that have to do with planting a bomb at the Boston Marathon and blowing up innocent people? It is amazing to me how we’ve come to accept this non sequitur and how easily we’ve allowed radical Muslim groups and their apologists to get away with it.
A simple question: If you were upset with U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, why didn’t you go out and build a school in Afghanistan to strengthen that community or get an advanced degree to strengthen yourself or become a math teacher in the Muslim world to help its people be less vulnerable to foreign powers? Dzhokhar claims the Tsarnaev brothers were so upset by something America did in a third country that they just had to go to Boylston Street and blow up people who had nothing to do with it (some of whom could have been Muslims), and too often we just nod our heads rather than asking: What kind of sick madness is this?
It’s a double non sequitur when it comes from Muslim youths who lived and studied in America, where, if you’re upset about something, you have many ways to express your opposition and have an impact — from organizing demonstrations to publishing articles to running for office. In fact, an American guy named Barack, whose grandfather was a Muslim, did just that. And he’s now president of the United States, a job he’s used to unwind the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
Moreover, some 70,000 people, most of them Muslims, have been killed by other Muslims in the Syrian civil war, which the U.S. had nothing to do with — although many Muslims are now begging us to intervene to stop it. And every week innocent Muslims are blown up by Muslim suicide bombers in Pakistan and Iraq — every week. Thousands of them have been maimed and killed in attacks so nihilistic that the bombers don’t even bother to give their names or make demands. Yet this does not appear to have moved the brothers Tsarnaev one iota.
Why is that? We surely must not tar all of Islam in this. Having lived in the Muslim world, I know how unfair that would be. But we must ask a question only Muslims can answer: What is going on in your community that a critical number of your youth believes that every American military action in the Middle East is intolerable and justifies a violent response, and everything Muslim extremists do to other Muslims is ignorable and calls for mostly silence?
As for the role that Web sites apparently played in the “self-radicalization” of the two Chechen brothers, it is yet another reminder that the Internet is a digital river that carries incredible sources of wisdom and hate along the same current. It’s all there together. And our kids and citizens usually interact with this flow nakedly, with no supervision.
So more people are more directly exposed to more raw information and opinion every day from everywhere. As such, it is more important than ever that we build the internal software, the internal filters, into every citizen to sift out fact from fiction in this electronic torrent, which offers so much information that has never been touched by an editor, a censor or a libel lawyer. That’s why, when the Internet first emerged and you had to connect via a modem, I used to urge that modems sold in America come with a warning label from the surgeon general, like cigarettes. It would read: “Attention: Judgment not included.”
And that’s why the faster, more accessible and ultramodern the Internet becomes, the more all the old-fashioned stuff matters: good judgment, respect for others who are different and basic values of right and wrong. Those you can’t download. They have to be uploaded, the old-fashioned way, by parents around the dinner table, by caring but demanding teachers at school and by responsible spiritual leaders in a church, synagogue, temple or mosque. Somewhere, somehow, that did not happen, or stopped happening, with the brothers Tsarnaev.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A town where even school dropouts are builders! - By Zeeshan Shaikh - The Free Press Journal, Mumbai, INDIA



A Muslim ghetto town, Mumbra, in the suburb of Mumbai could have been a model town, if the Muslims had not been discriminated against by the communal government of Mumbai City and Maharashtra State. Hundreds and thousands of supposed 'illegal' buildings all over the city and suburbs of greater Mumbai, are made legal through the very outset by the authorities through under the table exchange. However, for Muslim entrepreneurs, even that route is closed. So there remains no alternative for the so-called dropout 'builders' other than to take the 'criminal' routes. They are forced to remain outside of the legal and official framework. Mumbra could have been a planned city, just like Sharad Pawar's LAVASA. But Muslims have no political clout and no access to bank finances. They are forced to work with whatever means available to them, to make a living. At least they are getting employment for themselves and their workers. If they had finances available like the Bohra communities' Bhendi Bazaar Project, they could have come out with flying colors with their flair for entrepreneurship. The politically correct analysis in Free Press Journal, by Zeeshan Shaikh, falls short of taking the wider and deeper issues that surrounds the upcoming of a new ghetto in the suburb of Mumbai city. The disaster of the crash of a 7-story building could have been avoided if the authorities had cooperated with the genuine need of hundreds and thousands of families uprooted in Mumbai riots. Since Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is still ruled by the same Shiv Sena, that had unleashed the post-Babri riots of Bombay, the gulf between the two communities is still wide and glaring. Muslims are never given an inch lest they catch up and make a success of their existence in the burgeoning city of Mumbai.

The situation can easily be compared to the civil disobedience movement of Mahatma Gandhi, who had realised that without an anti-British movement, Indians will never get their  rights. Since all doors to legitimate progress and survival is closed to Muslims, the wider implication of this uncharted and unplanned movement of 'Civil Disobedience' against a institutionally adverse government, has to be recognised as such and the ruling oligarchs and civic administration should shed their prejudices against their Muslim compatriots and treat them at equal footing with all others.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
<ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com>

------------------------
THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL - MUMBAI

Mumbai    April 24, 2013 12:07:59 AM | By Zeeshan Shaikh

A town where even school dropouts are builders!

Mumbra : It is hard to believe that in Mumbra there are 25 builders below the age of 20 who are flourishing in the illegal construction industry and are also living a lavish lifestyle by selling flats constructed in a few months. Most of them are school or college drop outs and joined the race of becoming rich to fulfill their increasing demands.

Mumbra could be the only city in India, where construction industry has builders below the age of 20 in huge numbers. “In Mumbra everyone wants to grow as fast as possible and Mumbra is the only city in the state where a person can become a builder by just investing Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh,” said Hussain Syed, a theatre artiste and a resident of Mumbra.

According to Syed, there are around 250 builders who are working full-time in construction business and there are more than 700 of their accomplices who are working for them as a sleeping partner. Among these 250 odd developers, around 25 individuals who are flourishing in the illegal construction business and their age is below 20, added Syed.

“These under-20s youth do not belong from a well to do family and most of them are school or college drop outs. At some point of time these youths were handed some cash by their family members and they selected the easiest path of constructing illegal towers in the vicinity”, said Syed.
One of these builders, Feroze Khan, 19, who has a light growing moustache on his face every evening visits Sahil Hotel, located on the main road of Kausa, with his white Honda Activa. While speaking to FPJ Khan said, “I was not interested in studies due to which I flunked my SSC board exams. My father after seeing my result informed me that he had saved Rs 3 lakh for my further studies, as he wanted me to become an engineer”. After observing the construction boom in the vicinity, Khan requested his father to allow him to enter the construction business with Rs 3 lakh in 2009, when he was just 15-year-old. Till 2013, Khan had developed more than five illegal buildings with three ongoing illegal construction which is stopped after the mishap.

According to Khan, “It is easy to enter the illegal construction industry of Mumbra, as these developers have a famous roadside restaurant, Sahil, which is famously known as the junction where deals worth of crores take place in few minutes. Every evening the G+1 restaurant, owned by a local corporator, is full of builders finalising their deals, politicians waiting for their share, contractors waiting for their money, TMC officials are also bribed at the same place and even police officials also halt there to take their envelopes full of cash.

“In the words of K P Naik, suspended senior police inspector of Diager police station, Sahil Hotel, is a Vidhan Bhavan of builders,” said a police official requesting anonymity.

“If anyone wants to enter the illegal construction industry of Mumbra, the locals advise him to start visiting Sahil Hotel and pay bills, bring pan, buy a cigarette for big developers,” said Khan.

“It is the most easiest and safest way to catch hold of one group from Sahil and flourish in the market of construction. Even I found a group in Sahil hotel who were ready to take me as a partner with Rs 3 lakh,” added Khan.

“What great would I have done after becoming an engineer, I would be employed under some firm working nine to five for some pennies. Today more than 150 people are employed under me and the construction business is worth doing some other business,” said Khan.

Apart from Sahil Hotel, these under-20 youths have discovered a small restaurant, Sugar and Spice which is a stone’s throw away from Sahil. Luxurious cars and bikes are parked every evening at Sugar and Spice, where these youths show off their power to each other with their accessories and clothes 
every day.

Ehsaan Dalvi, a professor and a resident of Mumbra said, “These youths are not at all interested in education and are looking for easy money by any means. The illegal construction industry provides them the way to earn easy money, and they are completely disabled to approach municipal corporation for legal construction work”.

Khan and his bunch of business partners who like to spend their nights in Konkan Palace or Bhiwandi Dhaba hardly showed any remorse over the death of 74 people but were in a worried condition for their blocked investment.

Zeeshan Shaikh

Life in America Unraveled for Brothers - By ALAN CULLISON and PAUL SONNE in Moscow and JENNIFER LEVITZ in Cambridge, Mass.- Wall Street Journal

Was that a FBI set-up? If the elder brother was under constant surveillance by the FBI, where were the FBI men, when the brother or brothers were able to assemble their crude bombs?

Life in America Unraveled for Brothers

Where did the alleged bombers of the Boston Marathon come from? What were their career aspirations? What can we learn from their online media presence? WSJ's Jason Bellini has "The Short Answer."
The two Chechen brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombing set about building American lives after coming to the U.S. about a decade ago.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26 years old, became a successful Golden Gloves boxer. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, 19, was a nursing student and became an American citizen just last year, on Sept. 11.
But a close examination of the Tsarnaev family's life in the U.S. shows a hopeful immigrant trajectory veering off course.
For nearly 24 hours, a dragnet of cinematic proportion played out in Boston's eerily quiet streets after the two brothers were branded as the architects of Monday's Boston Marathon bombings. A gunbattle in Watertown, Mass., left Tamerlan dead by early Friday morning, and police put Boston on lockdown after Dzhokhar eluded capture. Later Friday, however, he was apprehended.

More Video

The ethnic Chechens suspected of planting the Boston Marathon bombs have put the spotlight on Chechnya, the embattled Russian republic that’s been engaged in fierce fighting for its independence. WSJ’s Mark Scheffler reports.
On Friday, details from their lives emerged through interviews with neighbors and relatives, and from their online activities. Acquaintances recalled the brothers as strong students and avid athletes. They left few clues suggesting they would be capable of the gruesome acts the police say they committed.
But the patriarch of the family, a talented auto mechanic named Anzor Tsarnaev, struggled to make a living. Tamerlan, his eldest son, failed to make a career out of boxing, dropped out of community college for lack of money and struggled to find work.
Living on public assistance in a multifamily house in Cambridge, the family began to fray, friends said. The parents separated. Anzor Tsarnaev returned to Russia, battling illness.
Along the way, Tamerlan's attitude seemed to sour. "I like the USA," he told the Lowell Sun newspaper in 2004 while competing in a boxing tournament shortly after arriving in the U.S. "America has a lot of jobs." But a caption accompanying an online photo of him a few years later reads: "Originally from Chechnya, but living in the U.S. since five years…I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them."
Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of the two brothers, told reporters outside his Maryland home Friday that his nephews were "losers" who were unable to settle into American life "and thereby just hating everyone who did." He said he didn't think there was an ideological motive. "This has nothing to do with Chechnya," he said. He also indicated there was a rift between him and his brothers. "It's personal," he said, "I didn't like them."
Getty Images
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, at right in photo, in a 2009 Golden Gloves boxing match in Salt Lake City.
The boys' mother said in a television interview with the Russian state-run news channel RT Friday night that anyone calling her son a loser is a loser himself. "I am really sure, like I am 100% sure, that this is a setup," Zubeidat K. Tsarnaev said. She also said that she had been contacted by the FBI about her older son, before Monday's deadly attack, as he grew more religious.
The boys' father, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, said he was present when the FBI interviewed Tamerlan in Cambridge. He said they visited for what they called "prevention" activities. "They said: We know what sites you are on, we know where you are calling, we know everything about you. Everything," Mr. Tsarnaev said.
Another relative—Maret Tsarnaev, the paternal aunt of the brothers—defended the sons. "Nothing points out that my nephews did [the bombings]…I demand evidence," she said.

Photos: FBI Releases

Review the images released by the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation/Associated Press
This photo released Friday by the FBI shows a suspect that officials identified as Mr. Tsarnaev.
The Tsarnaev family, which included two boys and two girls, had come to America after facing discrimination as ethnic Chechens living in Kyrgyzstan during wars in their ethnic homeland. A separatist rebellion there, with elements of radical Islam, had been crushed by the Kremlin under presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin.
Before arriving in the U.S., the family lived in a number of places. Anzor, the father, grew up as an ethnic Chechen in Kyrgyzstan, and said he briefly returned to Chechnya with the family in the early 1990s before moving back to the Central Asian republic. He then left Kyrgyzstan again, facing discrimination. The family lived for a few years in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, where Ms. Tsarnaev's family is from, before moving to the U.S.
U.S. law-enforcement officials said the two brothers came to the U.S. at different times. Dzhokhar arrived with his parents in 2002, just before he turned 10. Tamerlan arrived on his own around 2004. The family was granted legal permanent residence in the U.S. in March 2007, a law-enforcement official said.
An aunt, who already lived in the U.S., helped them get established. Soon they moved into a house in a poorer neighborhood near the border of Boston's Cambridge and Somerville suburbs. There they faced headwinds that many immigrant families encounter.
Associated Press
Younger brother, Dzhokhar, in an undated photo after graduating from Cambridge Rindge & Latin High School.

Map: Boston Area

See the locations of key incidents in the search for the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings.

Terror in the U.S.

Review other major plots of terrorism on American soil.
One problem was money. The father was unable to find steady work as a mechanic. He struggled to make ends meet by fixing cars on the street for $10 an hour, a practice that prompted neighbors to complain, according to one of the neighbors.
Tamerlan excelled in school but dropped out of Bunker Hill Community College because of money, according to the family's landlord, Joanna Herlihy. In an interview published in a Russian newspaper Friday, the father also recounted his younger son's problems with money, which he said he tried to solve by working as a lifeguard between studies.
Ms. Herlihy, who speaks Russian and helped tutor the children, said Tamerlan's boxing dreams eventually crumbled. "His back was in really bad shape and he couldn't get into the Olympics, and that was the last thing he really worked hard at," Ms. Herlihy said.
Dzhokhar excelled as a student at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School. "I know this kid to be compassionate. I know this kid to be forthcoming," said Larry Aaronson, a retired history teacher at the high school. "Every conversation I had with him—he was generous, compassionate and thoughtful."
A former classmate there said, "His brother and family weren't really Westernized, but Dzhokhar was really integrated into our school community. He was a normal American kid."
Attorney Andrea Kramer said Friday her sons played on the varsity soccer team while Dzhokhar played on the junior-varsity squad. Dzhokhar "wasn't 'them.' He was 'us,'" Ms. Kramer said. "He was Cambridge" and part of a community whose "strength and beauty" is its diversity.
The younger Mr. Tsarnaev was seen on campus at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he was studying nursing, in the days after the marathon attack, possibly on Wednesday, according to one student who lived in his dorm. He said his roommate shouted "Yo, Dzhokhar" to him in greeting.
Authorities are now trying to determine whether or not the young men had contact with terrorist figures. Last year Tamerlan traveled to Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, the Russian republic next to Chechnya where his father currently lives and where he has other relatives as well. Dagestan is home to a simmering Islamist insurgency.
Tamerlan came up with money for the trip and unexpectedly left for the Russian region. A law-enforcement official confirmed that Tamerlan flew out of New York on Jan. 12, 2012, for Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport and returned July 17. To travel to Dagestan from the U.S., most passengers go through Moscow.
The brothers' father, Anzor, said Tamerlan was with him while in Dagestan. "He wasn't occupied with anything. He was just visiting relatives," Mr. Tsarnaev said. He said there is no way his son interacted with Islamic fundamentalists while on the trip. "There aren't even any of those here anymore," he said.

FBI Releases Photos of Suspects

Video

Evan Perez and former FBI special agent in charge Andrew Arena, discuss the significance of the Boston Marathon suspects being from Chechnya, Russia. Photo: AP.
Before his departure, Tamerlan was showing signs of stricter religious beliefs, a family friend said. "He started to pray," his father said. About 3½ years ago he had married an American woman who mothered his child and converted to Islam. She was supporting him in recent months as a home health aide, the friend said.
His father said Tamerlan had a domestic incident in his past with his first girlfriend, and had struck her.
Richard Medeiros, who lives in the house behind the suspects, says that six months or so ago, Tamerlan, after being clean-shaven, grew a beard. "He looked like one of those Amish people," said Mr. Medeiros, who is 40 and lives in an apartment building that was evacuated by police and remained cordoned off Friday afternoon. "It made him look really old."
He said he must have shaved it only recently. "That's why I did not recognize him in the photos," he said.
He said his wife wore a black head-covering "down to her eyebrows" and was the friendliest of the group. "She was always asking, 'Hey, how ya doing? Is your leg getting better?'" said Mr. Medeiros, who is on crutches.
Tamerlan also influenced his younger brother. In an interview Friday with a Russian newspaper, his father, Anzor, said Dzhokhar "wouldn't have gotten involved in this against the will of his brother, Tamerlan, and his older brother never would have allowed such things." He denied that his sons were guilty.
In another interview, with a Russian tabloid-news website, he expressed concern about the fate of his sons. "We wanted some peace and calm in life," he said. "And you see what they've found. They were running away from one thing and they met another."
—Lisa Fleisher in West New York, N.J., Sara Germano in New York and David George-Cosh in Toronto contributed to this article

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Sowing the seeds of terror - Editorial - DNA, India

http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/1825380/editorial-dna-edit-sowing-the-seeds-of-terror






Home > Analysis > Editorial

dna edit: Sowing the seeds of terror

Monday, Apr 22, 2013, 9:00 IST | Agency: DNA


The Boston bombings and the blasts in India and elsewhere bring into focus the new face of terror: The educated man or a regular teenager we encounter on our way to work, at the workplace, in an eatery or a theatre.
But, why would a man with a rational mind give in to the doctrine of hate? The answer lies in the approach the so-called forward nations have adopted towards other cultures and sensibilities that do not conform to their notions of civilisation and justice.

Driven by the idea of a superior civilisation, best articulated by Samuel Huntington’s 1998 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order, the US and its allies have perpetrated massacres in the name of restoring order in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world.

And, worst of all, it has painted the entire Muslim world with the same brush. Tortured to silence, people have resorted to blasts to make themselves heard. 

If the West wants to counter terror, it can begin by encouraging other voices. Voices that speak reason and articulate the frustrations of oppressed peoples. Voices that will work as counter-point to the West’s ‘infallible logic of aggrandizement’.

As Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has argued in his critique of Huntington, ‘humanity cannot be classified into distinct and discrete civilizations’. The man behind the act of terror is a victim of that foggy notion.

By choosing to overlook his many identities, and focussing only on his religion or ethnicity, the West has managed to alienate itself from the common concerns of humanity.

In India too, we have fallen into this trap that has widened the cracks between communities after every blast. We view the ‘other’ with suspicion, our vision blinded by prejudice and hatred.   

Terror is only a desperate tool for those who believe that it can lead to empowerment. It is a message to the Goliath of a US that it is breeding Davids in its backyard.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Syed Shahabuddin - Luminaries laud life and works of iconic Syed Shahabuddin: By Mumtaz Alam, Muslim Mirror

http://muslimmirror.com/eng/luminaries-laud-life-and-works-of-iconic-syed-shahabuddin/



MUSLIM MIRROR

Luminaries laud life and works of iconic Syed Shahabuddin

April 22, 2013 in Home Slider, Indian Muslim | 1 Comment

By Mumtaz Alam, Muslim Mirror,
 
Syed Shahabuddin
L-R: Abida Inamdar, Syed Shahabuddin, PA Inamdar, Salman Khurshid and Mushtaque Madni

New Delhi, April 22: The road outside the Constitution Club was almost deserted and silent due to Sunday, but the evening inside the hall was reverberating with applauds and clapping at regular interval. The ceremony was simple but studded with luminaries from different walks of life. Renowned educationist and edupreneur of Maharashtra Mr. PA Inamdar was launching a book Syed Shahabuddin – Outstanding Voice of Muslim India.

“He lit a light for the political discourses in the country. His contribution in the field of politics will be felt by the future generation,” said Mr. Salman Khurshid, External Affairs Minister. He was talking about 78-year-old former diplomat and parliamentarian Mr. Syed Shahabuddin.

“Some narrow minded people say he raised the issue of Babri Masjid and Personal Law for petty politics. This is wrong. The fact is we could not take full benefit of him as much we should have,” Mr. Khurshid said.

Turning to Mr. Shahabuddin who was sitting on the dais, Mr. Khurshid said: “You speak strongly and clearly.

If someone who does not know you were a diplomat he would never know it from your personality. You have ruled over the hearts of men and women. We got in you a leader, an icon, a role model.”

Earlier in his opening remark, publisher of the volume and himself a stalwart in the field of education, Mr. PA Inamdar said he was repaying a debt – publishing a book on his life was one way to appreciate the works and life of Mr. Shahabuddin.

DSC00198

“I set up a B.Ed. college in 1992 without prior permission of the Maharashtra government, using the benefit of Article 29 and 30. But it was objected by the government and matter taken to the court. In those days, we got huge support from the writings of Syed Shahabuddin sahib highlighting the constitutional guarantees and judgments of courts in his Muslim India magazine. This presentation is part of my gratitude. Today my Azam Campus in Pune has 29 institutions with 25000 students. I wanted to repay that debt,” said PA Inamdar, president of Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society, Pune.

“Publishing a book on the life of iconic personalities like Syed Shahabuddin is one way to appreciate his works and tireless struggle,” said Mr. Inamdar.

“His stand, however debatable it may have been, had the stamp of complete honesty and total dedication for social, educational and economic upliftment of Muslim community. He became controversial because he was public figure fully armed with the constitutional equipments to challenge his adversaries,” said Mr. Inamdar.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Syed Shahabuddin recalled his diplomatic and political days.

“It is said diplomats tell lies and politicians mint money. But in 20 years of diplomatic career, I never told a lie. And despite three terms in Parliament (one in Lok Sabha and two terms in Rajya Sabha), I remained a darwesh. When I was resigning in the 1970s Atal Bihari Vajpayee was External Affairs Minister. He called me thrice and asked me not to resign,” said Mr. Shahabuddin.

Talking about the controversy when he brought up Muslim India, Mr. Shahabuddin said: “When I started Muslim India in 1982 some people said I wanted to become a second Jinnah. I said if ever I would like I would like to become second Nehru, not second Jinnah.”

Syed Shahabuddin

In his presidential address Mr. K Rahman Khan, Minority Affairs Minister said: “Syed Shahabuddin sahib is an anjuman, he is an institution. He is fearless, frank and honest. His magazine Muslim India has vast materials for future historians.”

“He struggled for Muslims to get a place in India. He left a mark in every field he worked – whether it is diplomacy, politics, journalism or social activism,” said Mr. Khan adding that he is indeed outstanding voice of Muslims in India.

The 112-page volume Syed Shahabuddin – Outstanding Voice of Muslim India has 24 articles on Syed Shahabuddin’s life and personality, ideas and thoughts written by renowned personalities including M. Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India, Justice AM Ahmadi, former chief justice of India, Justice Rajindar Sachar, former chief justice of Delhi High Court, Justice Aftab Alam, Judge, Supreme Court of India, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, politician and legalist, Prof. Muchkund Dubey (IFS), Salman Haider, former diplomat, Asghar Ali Engineer, writer and author, Kaleem Kawaja, eminent Indian American personality based in Washington.

In his foreword, Vice President Hamid Ansari says: “A passionate espousal of causes he believed in, regardless of consequences, distinguishes Syed Shahabuddin from most of his contemporaries. As a result, he is as much understood as misunderstood.”

Mr. Ansari further says that Syed Shahabuddin is “A patriot to the core of his being, wedded in letter and spirit to the Constitution of India, motivated by the belief that selective justice leads to injustice, and propelled by an urge to rectify it meaningfully led him in his public life to seek avenues for furthering his quest.”

Mr. PA Inamdar has earlier published similar volumes on other stalwarts of the Muslim community including Dr. Mumtaz Ahmed Khan and Saiyid Hamid

Sunday, April 21, 2013

FBI's failure brings entire US nation into grief - Comments by Ghulam Muhammed on NYT article : Bombing Inquiry Turns to Motive and Russian Trip

My comments posted on New York Times article on Boston Bombings:

  1. If FBI has done its job properly, the contrived stigma over the entire Muslim world could have been avoided and those few terrorists, could be managed in isolation, rendering them ineffective in their criminal plans. America and its media could have avoided the avalanche of propaganda that usually follows such terrorist attacks, stereo-typing and demonizing Muslims and Islam. The aftermath of overreaction to 9/11 and two bloody wars that costs hundreds and thousands of lives on both sides, without solving the essential problem of de-fanging small groups that are the real criminals. Bush/Cheney and their American Jewish Noe-con adviser would appear to be not interested in controlling and managing 'terrorists' but had agenda that was not in the wider interest of the majority of the people of the USA. Obama has rightly remained cautious and working on the problem, without bring the entire nation in the front-line of fighting the world in the name of terrorism.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/us/boston-marathon-bombings.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130421&_r=0&pagewanted=all

The New York TimesThe Global Edition of The New York Times

Bombing Inquiry Turns to Motive and Russian Trip

Eric Thayer for The New York Times
A visitor to a memorial near the Boston Marathon bombings site on Saturday, a day after the younger suspect was captured.
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Published: April 20, 2013 359 Comments
WASHINGTON — With one suspect dead and the other captured and lying grievously wounded in a hospital, the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombings turned on Saturday to questions about the men’s motives, and to the significance of an overseas trip one of them took last year.
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Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times
A news conference in Boston on Thursday during which images of the two bombing suspects were released to the public.
Matt Rourke/Associated Press
Investigators worked near the location where a suspect in the marathon bombings was arrested.

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Federal investigators are hurrying to review a visit that one of the suspected bombers made to Chechnya and Dagestan, predominantly Muslim republics in the north Caucasus region of Russia. Both have active militant separatist movements. Members of Congress expressed concern about the F.B.I.’s handling of a request from Russia before the trip to examine the man’s possible links to extremist groups in the region.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died early Friday after a shootout with the police in Watertown, Mass., spent six months in Dagestan in 2012, and analysts said that sojourn might have marked a crucial step in his alleged path toward the bombings.
Kevin R. Brock, a former senior F.B.I. and counterterrorism official, said, “It’s a key thread for investigators and the intelligence community to pull on.”
The investigators began scrutinizing the events in the months and years before the fatal attack, as Boston began to feel like itself for the first time in nearly a week.
On Monday, the twin bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and wounded more than 170. The tense days that followed culminated in Friday’s lockdown of the entire region as the police searched for Mr. Tsarnaev’s younger brother from suburban backyards to an Amtrak train bound for New York City.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was taken into custody Friday night after he was found, bloody and weakened, hiding on a boat in a driveway in Watertown. He was still too wounded to speak on Saturday, said Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. Special counterterrorism agents trained in interrogating high-value detainees were waiting to question him, according to a law enforcement official. An issue arose about the administration’s decision to question him for a period without giving him a Miranda warning, under an exception for questions about immediate threats to public safety.
The brothers’ motives are still unclear. Of Chechen heritage, they had lived in the United States for years, according to friends and relatives, and no direct ties have been publicly established with known Chechen terrorist or separatist groups. While Dzhokhar became a naturalized American citizen last year, Tamerlan was still seeking citizenship. Their father, Anzor, said Tamerlan had made last year’s trip to renew his Russian passport.
The significance of the trip was magnified late Friday when the F.B.I. disclosed in a statement that in 2011 “a foreign government” — now acknowledged by officials to be Russia — asked for information about Tamerlan. The request was “based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country’s region to join unspecified underground groups.”
The senior law enforcement official said the Russians feared he could be a risk, and “they had something on him and were concerned about him, and him traveling to their region.” Chechen extremists pose a greater threat to Russia than they do to the United States, counterterrorism specialists say, though some of the groups have had ties to Al Qaeda.
But the F.B.I. never followed up on Tamerlan once he returned, a senior law enforcement official acknowledged on Saturday, adding that its investigation did not turn up anything and it did not have the legal authority to keep tabs on him. Investigators are now scrambling to review that trip, and learn about any extremists who might have influenced, trained or directed Tamerlan while he was there.
President Obama and Republican lawmakers devoted their weekly broadcast addresses to the Boston attack, with both sides finding a common voice. Mr. Obama also met with his national security team for an update on the investigation.
“Americans refuse to be terrorized,” Mr. Obama said. “Ultimately, that’s what we’ll remember from this week.”
Since 1994, Russia and the United States have routinely exchanged requests for background information on residents traveling between the two countries on visa, criminal or terrorism issues.
The F.B.I. responded to the request in 2011 by checking “U.S. government databases and other information to look for such things as derogatory telephone communications, possible use of online sites associated with the promotion of radical activity, associations with other persons of interest, travel history and plans, and education history,” it said in a statement.
In January 2011, two counterterrorism agents from the bureau’s Boston field office interviewed Tamerlan and family members, a senior law enforcement official said on Saturday. According to the F.B.I.’s statement, “The F.B.I. did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign,” and conveyed those findings to “the foreign government” by the summer of 2011.
Federal officials said on Saturday that the Department of Homeland Security, however, had decided not to grant a petition from Tamerlan for United States citizenship after officials found a record in his files that he had been interviewed by the F.B.I. His petition was held for further review.
As the law enforcement official put it, “We didn’t find anything on him that was derogatory.”
The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted the father of the Tsarnaev brothers recalling the F.B.I.’s close questioning of his elder son, “two or three times.” He said they had told his son that the questioning “is prophylactic, so that no one sets off bombs on the streets of Boston.”
In an interview in Russia, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the two men, said that the agents had told her that Tamerlan was “an excellent boy,” but “at the same time, they told me he is getting information from really extremist sites, and they are afraid of him.”
After Tamerlan’s visit to Dagestan and Chechnya, signs of alienation emerged. One month after he returned to the United States, a YouTube page that appeared to belong to him was created and featured multiple jihadist videos that he had endorsed in the past six months. One video featured the preaching of Abdul al-Hamid al-Juhani, an important ideologue in Chechnya; another focused on Feiz Mohammad, an extremist Salafi Lebanese preacher based in Australia. He also created a playlist of songs by a Russian musical artist, Timur Mucuraev, one of which promoted jihad, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors statements by jihadists.
The Boston bombings have led to increased cooperation between Washington and Moscow, a jarring shift coming amid weeks of rancor over American criticism of Russia’s human rights record. Presidents Obama and Vladimir V. Putin spoke by telephone late Friday night, in a conversation initiated by the Russian side, the Kremlin announced. The Kremlin’s statement said both leaders expressed “the building of close coordination between Russian and American intelligence services in the battle with global terrorism.”
Nevertheless, there were glaring questions about the case, among them how Tamerlan had escaped scrutiny.
A Russian intelligence official told the Interfax news service on Saturday that Russia had not been able to provide the United States with “operatively significant” information about the Tsarnaev brothers, “because the Tsarnaev brothers had not been living in Russia.”
Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist who specializes in Russia’s security services, said he believed that Tamerlan might have attracted the attention of Russian intelligence because of the video clips he had posted under his own name, some of which were included on a list of banned materials by the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B.
On Saturday morning, federal prosecutors were drafting a criminal complaint against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was wounded in the leg and neck.
An official said the criminal complaint would most likely include a constellation of charges stemming from both the bombings and the shooting, possibly including the use of weapons of mass destruction, an applicable charge for the detonation of a bomb. That charge, the official said, carries a maximum penalty of death. Though Massachusetts has outlawed the death penalty, federal law allows it.
The F.B.I. and local law enforcement agencies continued on Saturday to gather evidence recovered from the suspects’ home and the cars they used. Investigators found five pipe bombs and three grenades after the firefight Friday, and they were seeking to identify the origins of the explosives.
Agents fanned out to interview family members and others who knew the brothers to determine any motive, as well as clues about what or who radicalized them. Three Kazakh citizens who were acquainted with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev contacted the Kazakh Embassy in Washington, reporting that they had been questioned by the F.B.I. and asking for consular assistance, said Ilyas T. Omarov, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. None of the three were held, he said.
Muslim leaders in many cities rushed to hold news conferences and preach sermons at mosques denouncing the bombing suspects, mourning the victims and praising the response of law enforcement and the community in Boston. They were eager to dissociate their faith from the Muslim suspects, and to head off a backlash against Muslims in the United States.
Anzor Tsarnaev and his younger son first came to the United States legally in April 2002 on 90-day tourist visas, federal law enforcement officials said. Once in this country, the father applied for political asylum, claiming he feared deadly persecution based on his ties to Chechnya. Dzhokhar, who was 8, applied for asylum under his father’s petition, the officials said.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to the United States later, and applied for American citizenship on Sept. 5 last year, federal law enforcement officials said.

Eric Schmitt and Michael S. Schmidt reported from Washington, and Ellen Barry from Moscow. Reporting was contributed by John Schwartz and Julia Preston from New York; Andrew Roth and David M. Herszenhorn from Makhachkala, Dagestan; Peter Baker from Washington; and C. J. Chivers from the United States.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Exclusive: Headlines Today probe reveals Gujarat riots were not spontaneous and sudden - By Ashish Khetan - HEADLINES TODAY

INDIA TODAY

Ashish Khetan   |   Headlines Today  |   Gandhinagar, April 15, 2013 | UPDATED 09:49 IST

Exclusive: Headlines Today probe reveals Gujarat riots were not spontaneous and sudden

 
 

In the past 10 years, the Gujarat government and senior BJP leaders have often said that the riots that broke out in the state in February 2012 were an 'instantaneous reaction' to the carnage at Godhra. The chief minister himself in an interview on March 1, 2002 had said, "What we are witnessing in Gujarat at this time is a chain of action and reaction. We want that there neither be action nor reaction."

But now Headlines Today has uncovered the police control room messages and the state intelligence bureau reports which show that the police had received a constant stream of inputs from its field officers about VHP leaders making provocative speeches, about crowds being mobilised and warnings about the possibility of major riots breaking out. Despite the flurry of ground reports and advance warnings, no curfew was imposed in Ahmedabad till noon the next day. The BJP government supported the VHP called bandhs that, as events turned out, proved to be the pretext under which violent mobs were mobilized. VHP leaders were not warned or put under preventive detention.

But the most intriguing aspect of these messages is that while they have been produced before the court as annexures, they don't find any mention in the 541 page closure report filed by the SIT. No attempt has been made by the SIT to reconstruct the sequence of events as they unfolded immediately after the news of Sabarmati train incident broke. The SIT did not assess the adequacy or appropriateness of the state's response in a chronological fashion as the law and order collapsed in large parts of the state.

  


Perhaps, that's the reason that the facts that emerge from these messages are hard to reconcile with the conclusions drawn by the SIT.  

There were two centralised police control rooms in Ahmedabad in 2002 - Ahmedabad Police Control Room situated at Shahibaug in the heart of the city.  Naroda and Gulberg Society, where around 150 people were burnt to death on the 28th of February lay within a radius of 6 KMs from this Police Control Room 9Gulber was 2 to 3 kms from the control room while Naroda was roughly six kilometers).

The second one -- the State Police Control Room -- located at Police Bhawan in Gandhinagar.
The Ahmedabad Police Control Room received messages of the build up taking place in Ahmedabad City. The State Control Room got messages from different districts in the state.

In February 2012 the SIT submitted before an Ahmedabad court, in a sealed cover, only the Ahmedabad City PCR messages... a copy of these are now with Headlines Today. The State Control Room messages are still missing.

There was also a third control room...this was at the State Intelligence Bureau Headquarters situated inside Police Bhawan, Gandhinagar...the  same building where the State DGP's office is located. The SIB Control Room was also flooded with field intelligence reports filed by its intelligence units located across the State including Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. These SIB reports too have been submitted before the Court by the SIT. A copy of these too is now in the possession of Headlines Today.

By the afternoon of February 27, the Gujarat home department was being bombarded with messages from cops on the ground about mobilisation of VHP and Bajrang Dal cadre.

Rightwing activists across the state were holding public meetings, making provocative speeches and inciting mobs. All this is documented in hundreds of wireless messages sent by policemen to the state intelligence bureau. But the State failed to take any effective steps to prevent the imminent massacres. Within a few hours after the Godhra tragedy, the three senior-most office bearers of Gujarat's VHP unit -Jaideep Patel, Dilep Trivedi and Kaushik Patel-- issued a statement declaring a state wide bandh and containing remarks that were designed to incite the mobs.

A field level officer faxed this statement to SIB headquarters at 20:38 hours on the 27 Feb 2002.

February 27, 2002
Time: 8:38 pm

State Intelligence Bureau Message No: Page No. 188 (Annexure III, File XVIII)

VHP general secreatary Dilip Trivedi & VHP joint secretaries Jaideep Patel & Kaushik Mehta issue a statement.
VHP declares Gujarat bandh to protest killing of kar sevaks.
Statement says Muslims pre-planned Godhra attack.
Innocent ladies were molested and compartments were set on fire and Ramsevaks were burnt alive.
Through out the day on 27th February the SIB control room received messages of provocative sloganeering and mobilisation by the VHP.

February 27, 2002
Time: Not Known

State Intelligence Bureau Message No: Page No. 345, Order No. 24 (Annexure III File XIX)
Sender: D.O, Ahmedabad
Recipient: Intelligence Office, Virangam (Ahmedabad)

75 VHP & Bajrang Dal members gathered at Virangam Town Chali & Golwada area.
Situation in the area very tense.
The PCR messages warned about the tension that was spreading from the moment sabarmati express (the same train that was attacked by Muslim mobs at Godhra and later after detaching the burnt bogies made its way to Ahmedabad) arrived at Ahmedabad station.

February 27, 2002
Time: 6:10 pm

State Intelligence Bureau Message: No. 531 Page No. 19 (Annexure III, File XVIII (D-160)

Sabarmati Express arrived at Ahmedabad station from Godhra at 4:30 pm.
Karsevaks armed with rods & sticks, shouting slogans 'khoon ka badla khoon'.
At 10:12 pm, Police Inspector of CID, Intelligence in Bhavnagar sent a fax to Inspector General, Gujarat State Intelligence Bureau in Gandhi Nagar saying that Sadhu Samaj president Gopal Nand and local VHP leaders exhorted crowds at Junagadh to retaliate. The message said that the VHP leaders delivered hate speeches and called on all Hindus to unite.


  

February 27, 2002
Time: 10:12 pm

State Intelligence Bureau Fax Message: 311/02 Page No.: D-1/ HA/Jaher Sabha/Junagadh
Sender: CID, Bhavnagar
Recipient: IG, Gujarat & Intelligence Bureau, Gandhi Nagar

Sadhu Samaj president Gopal Nand gave provocative speech at Junagadh Kadva Chowk between 7:30 pm-9 pm.
Gopal Nand questioned lack of response from Hindus even 12 hours after burning of train.
Gopal Nand questioned Muslim patriotism to India and incited mobs to attack them.
By the afternoon of the 27th, the riots had begun.

February 27, 2002
Time 17:45

State Intelligence Bureau Fax Message No 273 File XIX Annexure III
Sender: B M Mohit Anand Centre

Sabarmati Express reached Anand Railway Station at 1500 hrs
Karsevaks from the train stabbed 4 Muslims present at the station.
One victim named Abdul Rashid aged 65 years, resident of Anand, died.
Remaining were hospitalised at Anand government hospital.
Reports of violent attacks by karsevaks came from across the state. A VHP mob was reported as swelling at Vadagam village in Modasa that was to become another epicentre of violence. There were desperate SOS messages seeking reinforcements. Mobs were on rampage through the night, setting ablaze houses and vehicles.

February 27, 2002
Time: 11:59 pm

State Intelligence Bureau Fax Message: Com/HM/550/ Out No. 398
Sender: ACP, Gandhinagar Region
Recipient: IG, Gujarat & Intelligence Bureau, Gandhi Nagar

50 kar sevaks on special bus from Ahmedabad reached Modasa, Vadagam village at 6:30 pm.
500-strong mob received kar sevaks.
Karsevaks told mobs about attack on Sabarmati Express.
Crowds swelled to thousands by 9:30 pm.
Police presence insufficient to maintain order.
10 shops owned by Muslims & several vehicles set ablaze by mobs.
Despite these warnings there was no clampdown by the Gujarat government on the mobilisation being carried out by the VHP leadership and neither were VHP and Bajrang Dal members taken under preventive detention.
The Speical Investigation Team in its report accepted that the Modi government supported the bandh called by the VHP.
Page 134 of SIT closure report: "Shri Vijay Badheka, Under Secretary to Home Department has stated before the SIT that both Gujarat bandh on 28.02.02 and Bharat bandh on 01.03.02 were supported by the BJP."
The bandh allowed the VHP cadre a free run even as the SIB kept sending signals of impending riots and sought preventive action.

February 28, 2002
Time: 9am-10am

State Intelligence Bureau Message No: 73/02 Page 365 (Annexure III File XXI (D-166)
Sender: ACP (Intelligence) Surat

VHP, BJP leaders gave provocative speeches at Sardar Chowk, Vapi Town.
VHP's Dinesh Behri, Bajrang Dal's Acharya Brahmbatt, BJP's Jawahar Desai & RSS member Vinod Chowdhary present Speakers exhorted crowds to take revenge for Godhra.
When the Ahmedabad police commissioner P.C. Pande and State DGP K. Chakravarty were questioned by the SIT, they were not confronted with these specific SIB reports. P.C. Pande was not asked why curfew was not imposed in Ahmedabad city on the 27th afternoon itself, particularly in the face of such specific intelligence inputs.
Pande told SIT on page 7 of his statement recorded on 24.03.2010: "The circumstances did not exist on the 27.02.02 or even on 28.02.02 to warrant the imposition of curfew and any hasty decision would have led to panic in the city. Even otherwise with limited forces available imposition of curfew becomes a serious problem and large scale breach becomes common."
Pande and Chakravarty were also not asked why VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders were not put under preventive arrest even as they were threatening violence.
But the SIT has not explained what these specific measures were. General and vague claims made by Gujarat State Officials that all possible efforts were made to control the riots have been accepted by the SIT.
The State Intelligence Bureau repeatedly pressed the panic button, sending SOS' to the home department about the possibility of riots. Bodies of kar sevaks in public display and funeral processions by mobs…proved to be the trigger. But records show the VHP and its cadres succeeded in stoking mass hysteria.
30 minutes past midnight on the 28th of February 2002, the state intelligence bureau received a fax giving a specific warning about possibility of riots with bodies being brought to Ahmedabad. Then VHP state unit president Jaideep Patel was already on his way escorting the 54 bodies from Godhra to Ahmedabad.

February 28, 2002
Time: 12:30 am

State Intelligence Bureau Fax No. 525

Bodies will be brought to Kalupur Railway station, Ahmedabad.
Dead bodies will be carried in funeral processions VHP gave a bandh call.
High possibility of riots in Ahmedabad. Take preventive action.

February 28, 2002.
Time: Not Known

State Intelligence Bureau report to Home Secretary and all Police Commissioner, all SPs

VHP has given a call for "Gujarat Bandh".

Appropriate vigilance be exercised.

The motorcade carrying bodies finally reached Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad at 3:34 AM. By then there was a already a mob made up of VHP and RSS members outside Sola Hospital.
The PCR Van positioned at Sola Civil Hospital sent a message to City Police Control Room situated at Shaibaug. The distance between Hospital and Control Room was 11 kilometres.

February 28, 2002
Time: 4:00 am
Page No. 5790 (Annexure IV, File XIV)

Mob of 3000 RSS members gathered at Sola Hospital.

February 28, 2002
Time: 7:14 am
PCR wireless message (Sola Hospital)
Page No. 5796 (Annexure IV, File XIV)

Mob assembled at Sola Hospital.
The crowds were getting restless. Soon violence sparked off.

February 28, 2002
Time: 7:17 am
PCR wireless message (Sola Hospital)
Page No. 5797 (Annexure IV, File XIV)

Mob of 500 people holding up traffic.
At 8:10 there is a message from the Control Room saying that 3 SRP Companies have been sent to Sola Hospital for extra bandobast.
  
February 28, 2002
Time: 11:55 am
PCR wireless message: Page No 5894(Annexure IV, File XIV)

Mob set vehicle on fire, arson on highway.

February 28, 2002
Time: 11.55 am
PCR message

State Intelligence Bureau: Page No.6162 (Annexure IV File XV)

Riots have started at Sola Hospital & near High Court where bodies were brought.
February 28, 2002
Time: Not known

PCR message (Sola Hospital)
State Intelligence Bureau: Page No.?6172
Sola Hospital staff surrounded by 500-strong mob Please provide security at hospital urgently.
These revelations show how mobs were allowed to congregate at the hospital to take out funeral processions. Though violence had erupted, curfew was still not clamped.
Pande claimed in his statement before the SIT that he visited the Hospital at 10 am and found everything to be normal.
"I went to Sola Civil Hosptal around 10:00 and found that doctors were under pressure to complete the documentation wheras relatives were in a hurry to take the bodies. However, I didn't find anything alarming and as such returned around 11:00 am."
Pande also claimed there were no funeral processions, a claim accepted by the SIT. But the PCR messages show that there were not only processions but also riots at the hospital, nailing Pande's lies.

February 28, 2002
Time: 11:58 am
PCR message (Sola Hospital)

State Intelligence Bureau: Page No. 5907 & 5925(Annexure IV File XIV)


Funeral procession of 10 bodies taken out from Ramol Jantanagar to Hatkeshwar crematorium 6,000 people accompanied procession.
As funeral processions wound through the city, mobs ran amok at Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gaam in Ahmedabad.

February 28, 2002
Time: Not known
PCR message (Khedbrahma, Sabarkantha) Com/538

State Intelligence Bureau: Page No. 258 (Annexure III File XIX)

Funeral procession allowed at Khedbrahma town in Sabarkantha district
Situation tense, 2 Muslims stabbed at Khedbrahma

February 28, 2002
Time: Not known
PCR message (Khedbrahma, Sabarkantha)

State Intelligence Bureau: Page No. 262 (Annexure III File XIX)

150 Bajrang Dal members on way to Khedbrahma.

February 28, 2002
Time: 3:32 pm
PCR message (Khedbrahma, Sabarkantha)
State Intelligence Bureau: Page No. 254 (Annexure III file XIX) Com/574

Funeral procession organised for Godhra train victim Babubhai Patel in Sabarkantha.
Special Investigation Team in its closure report on pages 59 to 64 had concluded there were no funeral processions and gave a clean-chit to the Gujarat government on this count.


PCR messages detailing incidence of violence in Ahmedabad clearly warned about a brewing unrest. Rioting was reported from Naroda and Meghani Nagar where Gulberg Society is located. The PCR messages of violence in Ahmedabad are contained in Annexure IV File XIV. Here are some samples of the several wireless messages sent by policemen on the ground.

Page No. 5798, 5803, 5804
Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 12:30 am

PCR Message: Factory burnt at Ambikanagar on February 27
Area: Odhav
FIR No.80/02
Page No,: 5746
Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 1:10 am

PCR Message: Between 2:30-3:00 pm on Feb 27, mob stoned bus, vandalized shop
Area: Bapunagar
FIR No.: 64/02
Page No.: 5768

Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 2:38 am
PCR Message: Mob torched buses & rickshaws, damaged public property on Feb 27 at 5:15 pm
Area: Odhav
FIR No.:78/02
Page No.: 341, Order No. 534

Date: February 27, 2002
Time: 8:25pm
State Intelligence Bureau Message: Man succumbs to stab injuries on February 27 at 8:25 pm
Area: Meghani Nagar
FIR No.: 65/02
Page No.: 341, Order No. 534

Date: February 27, 2002
Time: Not Known
State Intelligence Bureau Message: Man succumbs to injuries on Feb 27 at 7:45 pm at Saralaben Hospital.
Area: Meghani Nagar
FIR No.: 65/02
Page No.: 347, Order No. 8535

Date: February 27, 2002
Time: 8:30 pm

State Intelligence Bureau Message: Man critically injured after attack at Ahmedabad railway station at 5 pm.
Area: Ahmedabad
FIR No: Not Known
Page No: 348, Order 541

Date: February 27, 2002
Time: 9:30pm
State Intelligence Bureau Message: Juhapura resident attacked at V.F Hospital.
Area: Ahmedabad
FIR No: 116
Page No.: 5807 & 5808

Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 4:28 am
PCR Message: One critically injured near Kathwada Road, Naroda, on February 27 at 7:30 pm.
Area: Naroda
FIR No.: 97/02
Page No.: 5805 & 5806

Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 4:20 am
State Intelligence Bureau Message: One critically injured near Law Garden on February 27 at 8:15 pm.
Area: Ellisbridge
FIR No: 116/02
Page No.: 5801
Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 3:50 am

State Intelligence Bureau Message: One critically injured in mob attack near Mahalaxmi Crossroad, Paldi on

Feb 27 at 8:30 pm.
Area: Ellisbridge
FIR No.: 114/02

Inspite of all of this, the then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner told the SIT that he didn't find the "circumstances on the 27th and 28th fit for curfew."
PCR and SIB reports show that there were regular inputs of VHP and Bajrang Dal led mobs swelling at Naroda and Gulberg Society.
Pande admitted before the SIT that at both these places curfew was declared only after 12:50 pm ...by then the mob had already swelled to between 10 and 15 thousand people in number. It is no wonder that the curfew that was finally imposed remained only on paper - it had no effect on the ground.
Hundred and fifty men, women and children were burnt and hacked to death at Naroda and Gulberg society in the four hours between 2 and 6 PM on February 28.
Police Headquarters at Shahibaug was only 2 to 3 kilometers from Gulberg Society and around 6 kilometers from Naroda Patiya.
Pande admitted before the SIT that through out the day he didn't move out of his office and visited Naroda Patiya and Gulberg only late in the evening...by that time the massacre was over and done with.   
SIB messages show that there were three alerts about the impending massacre at Gulberg.

Date: 28.02.02
Time: 12:15
Sender: Police Inspector CJ Bharwad To: State SIB Control Room


Muslims reside in Gulberg Society.
Mob is surrounding the place.

Strict watch should be kept there.
Date: 28.02.02
Time: 14:50
Sender: Police Inspector CJ Bharwad To: State SIB Control Room

Mob of 3000 rioters has surrounded Gulberg Society, take immediate action.

Date: 28.02.02
Time: 17:00
Sender: Police Inspector CJ Bharwad To: State SIB Control Room

Mob attacked the society from all sides Ehsan Jaffri and women and children burnt alive.
Houses are ablaze. Mob is looting from homes.

In his defence Pande said in his statement: "On 28.2.2002 requests were received from different police stations seeking additional force and SRP and whatever forces were available with me the same were dispatched. However, I found that no feedback had been received by any one of them. This led me to presumption that additional forces reached in time and they were able to control the situation."

SIT accepted Pande's defence and gave him and the Gujarat Administration a clean chit.

The state government told the SIT that the 2002 riots were a spontaneous reaction to the Godhra tragedy, but documentary evidence tells a different story.

Eleven years after the after the horrific incidents as Narendra Modi aspires for the prime minister's chair, Headlines Today has tried to throw fresh light on why his ascension remains so contentious


Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/gujarat-riots-2002-godhra-sudden-spontaneous-backlash-frantic-police-warnings-ignored/1/262413.html