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.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||
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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
“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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment