Unmarked mass graves in IHK

This ugly reality behind the façade of the so-called "greatest democracy" in the world, an expression mostly popularised by India's friends in the West, especially the US, endorses the soul-rendering pleas of the relatives of the thousands of persons, who either go missing for unknown resons or are simply picked up from their houses, to dampen the spirit of the freedom fighters, for their whereabouts. It also bears out the repeated accusation of Syed Ali Geelani, the intrepid and long-standing leader of the Kashmiri struggle for freedom from the Indian yoke, that a large number of Kashmiri youth are being brutailly killed or mysteriously disappear ever day.
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Mohammad Jamil

The Jammu-Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (J&KSHRC) in a report said: “At 38 places visited in north Kashmir, there were 2,156 unidentified dead bodies buried in unmarked graves.” It is highly likely that the state’s commission has downplayed the number of dead and the mass graves, however the report revealed that there were 21 unmarked graves in Baramulla, three each in Bandipore and Handwara and 11 in Kupwara. The report said all these bodies with bullet injuries were handed over by the police to the local population for burial and were classified as unidentified militants. Reportedly, a few bodies were defaced, 20 were charred, five only had skulls remaining and there were at least 18 graves with more than one body each. The report, released on Saturday, comes after a three-year inquiry by an 11-member team led by Bashir Ahmad Yatoo, the senior superintendent of police of the investigative wing of the commission. However, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) estimated that around 10,000 people went missing during the last two decades, and reckoned many missing people may have ended up in these unmarked graves.On 11th May 2011, European Parliament passed a resolution linking Trade relationship with India and Kashmir. Para-33 of the resolution stated that human rights, democracy and security are essential elements of the relationship between EU and India. “Therefore we call on both the sides to ensure that dialogue on open issues is stepped up with particular reference to Kashmir,” the resolution added. But such resolutions are just any eye wash as they have not been able to stop genocide of the Kashmiris. The only way is that international community forces India to implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions giving the people of Kashmir the right to decide about their future. In 2008 also, EU Parliament had asked New Delhi to urgently ensure independent and impartial investigations into all suspected sites of mass graves in Kashmir and as an immediate first step to secure the grave sites in order to preserve the evidence. But such resolutions were of no avail, as most European countries wish to do business with India – being plus one-billion market. Anyhow, the list of India’s crime against humanity is long. In March 2006, the molestation of a 15-year girl by an Indian Major had triggered protest demonstrations at Tanghmarg in Baramulla district of North Kashmir. The CNS, a local news agency had reported that the troops of 52-Rashtriya Rifles in civvies led by a major barged into the house of Abdul Ghani son of Ghulam Rasool and molested his daughter Mehmooda Akhtar, which was one of the many cases in Indian Held Kashmir. In 2008, facts about killing of five innocent Kashmiris by Indian army in a fake encounter at Pathribal village in Occupied Kashmir in 2000 have come to light. The army had justified the killing in an encounter on the plea that five Kashmiris had killed 36 Sikhs at Chhatisinghpura on 20th March 2000. The government of India and its media had drummed up the propaganda that Pakistan was involved in the killings of the Sikhs.

The freedom fighters organization and Pakistan had denied the allegations, but because of the pressure from human rights organizations the case was handed over to India’s Central Bureau of Investigations in February 2003. Since 1989, the Indian army and other law enforcing agencies have martyred around 91000 Kashmiris when the latter took up arms to counter India’s state terrorism, but the Indian forces’ record of killing Kashmiris in fake encounters and molestation of girls and women is ignominious. In the past half a century, there have been negotiations between India and Pakistan but whenever the thorny issue of Kashmir came under discussion, India did find some excuse to derail the process. The stalled composite dialogue was perhaps the longest one but no serious thought had been given to resolve the core issue of Kashmir, and India as usual too the position that until terrorism ends, it would not agree to any solution. After hiatus of about three years, once again secretary and ministerial-level talks have been started, but there is no hope that India would shun its intransigence. In fact, India’s RAW and other agencies have the knack of creating a ‘scene’ and kill innocent Kashmiris in the fake encounters to prove their point that Pakistan has done nothing to stop cross-border terrorism. Kashmiris have faced the longest ordeal and suffered repression, death and destruction even during the undivided subcontinent. The British that claim to be civilized, upholders of democratic values and human rights had played a key role in the subjugation of Kashmiris. However, the plight of the people even in India’s own provinces is deplorable. Repressive laws such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act have provided Indian forces the powers to kill with impunity any person in Northeast India. Indian forces have shot down several innocent persons in fake encounters and custodial killings, and as such it is involved gross human rights violations in this region. Because of inept policies of Indian government law and order situation in all 13 Naxal affected states such as Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, western Orissa and Bihar is hopeless. Central Reserve Police Force also suffered heavy casualties of its men in Naxal attacks due to poor intelligence reports. International community has all along shown apathy towards atrocities of Indian forces on the people of Kashmir, its minorities and people of other regions in addition to Kashmir. Despite the fact that India faces insurgencies in Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Bodoland, Manipur and Tripura where it is using heavy-handed methods and use of brutal force to quell the unrest, which fact has been censured by human rights organizations including Amnesty International. To force Pakistan to forget about Kashmir and to weaken it, India is involved in ongoing anti-state activities in Balochistan, because India is covertly opposed to mega projects including Gwadar. India has been working on developing the North-South Transportation Corridor, the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Iran highway, a strategic road project linking Tajikistan with Chabahar via Afghanistan to counter Pakistan’s strategic interests. These Indian projects are likely to suffer a setback as soon as Gwadar port is further developed and emerges as a key port in the area that marks the confluence of South Asia, Central Asia and West Asia.

Hindutva’s ruthless anti-Muslim mission

Swami Aseemanand’s 42-page-confession is a reminder of the fact that had police acted judiciously and nipped the budding militants in time a trail of bomb explosions could be averted.
Similarly, had the police all over the country dropped their bias and prejudices, thousands of innocents would have escaped torture, trauma and ruined careers. More damaging is the media’s role in hounding the innocents, compelling the security forces to act and show result on suggested lines, and thereby earn brownie points. As Ashish Khetan in Tehelka (15 Jan 2011) points out: …. an automatic and damaging perception amongst most Indians that there is a Muslim hand behind every terror blast…. this bias was shared by the police and intelligence agencies…. [they] would routinely round up Muslim boys…. a frenzied media would swallow the story….”
But for the dauntless vision and integrity of late Hemant Karkare and now the conscience bitten prayaschit [repentance] of Aseemanand, the ruthless rath of Bhagwa Brigade would have continued to crush many more for years. “It was not Muslim boys but a team of RSS pracharaks who exploded bombs…. And 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,” says Khetan.
The story goes back to 2001 when three RSS pracharaks – Sunil Joshi, Sandeep Dange, Ramchandra Kalasangra (all belonging to Malwa region around Indore) decided to act. They began inducting like-minded people from neighbouring states. Several organisations readily responded to their call and a Hindutva “deadly platoon” got formed. At that juncture came the Akshardham blast in 2002 which triggered them into action. The dormant volcano began erupting. To this came the Sabridham Kumbh where these got a mentor in the form of Swami Aseemanand who gave them the slogan – “bomb Muslims.” The Varanasi bomb that exploded at Sankat Mochan in March 2006 fuelled the brigade to respond and act.
In a meeting at Bharat Bhai Riteshwar’s house in Valsad, Dange, Kalsangra, Lokesh and Ashok (Amit) discussed the plans. Swami suggested various Muslim targets.
While Malegaon was chosen because of its 80% Muslim population, Hyderabad earned their ire because of the Muslim majority of the city which until 1948 was the capital of the sovereign state of Deccan ruled for 224 years by the Muslim Asef Jahi dynasty, before being forcibly annexed through military action by India.
Ajmer was suggested to distract Hindus from visiting Hindu shrines and Samjhauta Express merited their attention for the simple reason that it was mostly ferrying Pakistanis.
With the selection of targets, responsibilities were divided. It was decided that Sunil Joshi and Bharat would go to Jharkhand to purchase SIM cards. “I handed over Rs 25,000 to Sunil Joshi.” At this step Indresh Kumar “advised” the Swami to mind his own business – i.e., the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram.
The first experiment was a great success for Hindu terrorists. Malegaon yielded a rich harvest of 31 casualties with 312 injured (8 Sept. 2006). Encouraged by this, came the Samjhauta Express blast causing 68 casualties (17 Feb. 2007). Had MP police assisted the Haryana Police in locating the people at Indore the trail would have ended there.

Joshi took Rs 40,000 for Mecca Masjid blast. “A few months later Joshi telephoned me to keep a tab on newspapers and in a few days the news appeared (17 May 2007),” says Aseemanand. After 7-8 days Joshi came to Sabri Dham. And the next target was the Ajmer Shrine. for which Indresh Kumar, the patron of Rashtravadi Muslim Manch, supplied them with two Muslim conspirators. When Joshi informed the Swami of Muslim involvement; he smelled the rat. He expressed his fear to Joshi, “…. Indresh’s name would come up, and his life would be in danger from Indresh and Muslim men.” He suggested him to stay in Sabri Dham. But as Joshi had with him the Best Bakery accused Raj, Mehul etc, Swami did not allow all of them to stay there. Aseemanand’s fears were not baseless. Joshi was killed in December 2007, as Harshad Solanki claims, because of his arrogance. However, Aseemanand now, without mincing words, holds Indresh responsible because not only did he know too much but also because Joshi could have “confessed” and created problems for Indresh. Bharat Riteshwar recalls that the day after Joshi’s murder, Swami told him that it “was the handiwork of Indresh Kumar.”
Undeterred by this, the parallel group, Abhinav Bharat, conducted their operation at Malegaon and Modasa (Sept, 2008/29). It was Pragya motorcycle meticulously parked in front of the locked office of SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) to divert the investigation to SIMI that led the Maharashtra ATS to the arrest of Pragya Thakur and Lt. Col. S Purohit. Hemant Karkare reversed the stereotyped investigation procedure and paid with his life.
With Karkare’s elimination, the conspirators heaved a sigh of relief because the new chief K. P. Raghuvanshi and later on Rakesh Maria reverted back to their old track – either out of fear for their lives or because of “hidden” instructions from someone. It was, however, Rajasthan ATS which continued the probe on Karkare’s line. It began arresting, one by one, culprits from Indore region. Forced by Raj ATS’s alarming pace, reluctant Madhya Pradesh also re-opened Sunil Joshi’s file. Meanwhile, each new arrest led to further arrests culminating in Swami Aseemanand’s arrest in November 2010, at Haridwar. After Pragya Thakur’s arrest he had left Dangs, and during the intervening two years had changed locations 30 times. His chance association in Chanchalguda jail with a victim of Mecca Masjid blast, Kaleem, made him repent and on 18 December 2010 he made his long confession before Tis Hazari metropolitan magistrate,Deepak Dabas.

Unfazed by the confession, Indresh dismissed it as a cock and bull story. “I told the CBI that if you have been asked by your political masters to fix me, then go ahead and do it with your false and bogus stories,” he says Giving the matter a political twist, he and RSS claim “Government is fabricating a new story and is trying to malign the image of patriots, social workers and those who love their religion.”
Forgetting Indresh and Sangh’s outcry, let us try to see what other evidence suggests.
Let us take Purohit’s charge that Indreshji was an ISI agent. This is not for the first time that we are listening of ISI-RSS nexus. During 2007, it was very much in the news. Hence if ISI was financing RSS, it was “wisely” used by the organisation in financing these bomb blasts. Probably, hefty payments to Joshi were made from this bonanza. May be, this very money was used to establish the Rashtravadi Muslim Manch, the “Muslim” outfit floated by the RSS. If this is true, then the ISI money boomeranged on Pakistan by taking a toll of its 68 civilians. This brings us to another aspect missed by many. The clue - “the chemicals required for the blast (Samjhauta) would be arranged by Dange,” which he did. But think of Sabarmati Express’s Coach-6. a mysterious white powder was found in that coach too which was highly inflammable. Even at that time it was held that the coaches were not set on fire by pouring petrol from outside but from something inside. Do the two train blasts not share a similar modus operandi? Pictures of Sabarmati and Samjhauta burnt coaches are very much identical.
They are crying hoarse of “politicizing” the issue. But this is what BJP regimes have been doing all these years. Pracharaks were given impunity and shelter in MP and Gujarat. After committing crimes in non-BJP states (Andhra/Maharashtra) they were shielded in BJP regimes. MP had become a safety zone for them. So when Joshi was killed there was no riot. Why? Because the Sangh must have asked its pracharaks to maintain a low profile. Even Ajmer blast (which provided all the dots linkage) would have remained a closed affair had the Vasundhara government continued. With Congress back in saddle, the Rajasthan ATS got moving. Hence, BJP had been, all the time, controlling investigations – which one to pursue and which one to dump in cold storage. The mysterious missing explosives (tonnes of them) during BJP regimes, need a fresh probe in the light of Aseemanand’s confession.
Till now they have been making a lot of hue-and-cry about Madrasas being the breeding nursery for Talibans. Yet Advani, as home minister, could not find a single madrasa training or hoarding arms.
Sunil Johi and many of his associates provide the proof what Shishu Mandirs had been breeding during the saffronization drive. It is time now to harvest the crop sown by Murli Manohar Joshi’s drive.
Sunil Joshi is not an isolated case. Take the case of his associate Kaloda aka Ramji who supplied him the explosives. Kaloda’s body was found near Baloda Takoon (a small non-descript village between Ratlam and Indore) railway track. It was believed that Joshi and Kaloda were killed by their own people. Even the names of Kaloda’s killers were known – Dharmendra Jatt, Lakhan and Ratan Lal. This probe is also in cold storage, of course, because of political compulsions. The so-called gobhaktas used to dump explosives in cowshed! (Hindustan Times, 10 January 2011). It is not without reason that five out of six Ajmer blast accused are from around Indore.
Pakistan has expressed desire to share probe findings. .
Of course, still there are many missing links. Sunil Joshi was advised to constitute three separate groups – so that if one gets arrested the others remain safe and carry on the mission. With Dange and Kalsangra still absconding, the dots are yet to be connected. Mail Today (8 Jan. 2011) argued: “how the highly sophisticated bombs (two exploded; two unexploded) were made and planted it i.e., how 15% high explosive RDX and TNT and 85% Potassium Chlorate and Sulphur (was procured)…. the printed circuit boards used in the bomb were of good quality, well finished and seem to be prepared by professionals on a computerised machine.” The answer is simple. Dange is an engineer from a government college in Indore while Kalsangra is an electrician. And they were in touch with other friendly organisations like Jai Vande Mataram and Abhinav Bharat. No wonder, the explosives were procured through Purohit or the bomb training was imparted to them by retired army people. Not in vain did Joshi live in Mhow where there is a large military establishment.
There was a hush about a “militant” camp near Mhow around April 2008. The Malegaon and Modasa blasts were triggered in May 2008. Was there any link between the two? Joshi, of course had been killed by that time – but there were others. May be the missing “dots” were involved therein.

(By AG Khan – The Milli Gazette)

Evidence of Samjhota Express Blast

Hindu extremist outfits carry out false flag terrorist acts for which Muslim entities of India and neighbouring countries are promptly blamed under a well thought out scheme. Swami`s confession is only a confirmation about the open secret about phenomenal rise of homegrown Hindu terrorism in India. According to India `s Tehelka magazine, which has obtained a copy of Swami `s 42 page confession, swami told his interrogators that attacks on Muslim places were in response to attacks by Islamist militants.
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By Sajjad Shaukat
 

Without any doubt, India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) is now convinced that besides Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit and other Indian army officials, Swami Aseemanand, a Hindu right-wing leader was directly involved in the Samjhota Express blast that had burnt alive 69 persons, mostly Pakistanis, in 2007.

In this connection, a court in Panchkula, Haryana has recorded Aseemanand’s statement in the blast case. The statement was recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code before a magistrate. His earlier confession was recorded in the Mecca Masjid case, which is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Sadhu Aseemanand stuck to his confession that Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) radicals were behind the bomb attack on the Samjhota Express. Aseemanand, Aka Naba and Kumar Sarkar, named absconding Hindutva militants Ramji Kaisangra and Sandeep Dange as the key plotters in that terror attack.

Sources of the NIA also disclosed that the confession in connection with the Samjhota Express blast practically rules out the involvement of other groups, while initial investigation into the attack had also looked into the possibility of involvement of Jehadi groups which both the UN and US had banned, even naming Arif Qasmani (a rich Pakistani), alleging him as the plotter, linking with terror groups.

However, Aseemanand was arrested for bomb attacks that Hindutva radicals carried out on mosques to retaliate against the spate of Jehadi terror strikes by Mujahideen and other Islamic groups as part of what he calls the “bomb-for-bomb” strategy.

In the Samjhota Blast case, the probe team has found that the bomb used in the train was kept in a suitcase that was bought from a shop of Indore’s Kothari Market. The suitcase had cloth covers stitched by an Indian local tailor. The NIA is now trying to get details of those who bought the suitcase and covers.

It is interestingly notable that Dr. J C Batra, who is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India, was asked to give opinion on Aseemanand’s confession. He appeared very defensive and as usual started to accuse Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI�its so-called history for such activities, alleging that even this could be an ISI plot. He further said that Swami’s statement does not have much legal value as circumstantial evidence is also needed, while adding that RSS is being wrongly implicated and there could be others involved who are not being exposed. In this regard, a Pakistani parliamentarian, Mr. Mian Abdul Sattar, parliamentary secretary for planning and development, who was accompanying him, later said that that he was told by Mr JC Batra that the Indian Army was involved in this case and there “are efforts to shield it from getting exposed”.

In brief, Swami Aseemanand has clearly confessed that several RSS preachers and Sang activists were directly involved in planning, financing and executing Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Makkah Masjid blasts. He told the court that leaders of different Hindu communal organizations including Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Abhinav Bharat, Jai Vande Matram and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram were also involved in all these blasts.

It is mentionable that ideology of Hindu nationalism prevails in every field at the cost of other minorities groups. It is even supported by Indian defence forces clandestinely. This fact could be judged from the recent past, when on April 6, 2008 in the house of Bajrang Dal fundamentalists in Nanded, a bomb went off. The investigations proved that the militants belonging to the Bajrang Dal were found in the bomb-making and attack on a mosque in Parbhani in 2003. Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra had arrested a serving Lt. Col. Purohit and along with other army officials, indicating that they were helping in training the Hindu terrorists, providing them with the military-grade explosive RDX, used in the Malegaon bombings and terrorist attacks in other Indian cities. ATS had further disclosed that Lt. Col. Purohit confessed that in 2007, he was involved in bombing of Samjhota express. Col Prohit has also confessed that his main purpose in connection with Samjhota Express tragedy and training of Hindu terrorists was to cause an armed conflict between Pakistan and India. He has elaborated that his job required interacting with both Hindu and Muslim extremists. 

Here, it is noteworthy that in the tapes, LT. Col Purohit says, “We are all on the same plane, Hindu Rashtra (Nation)”. He even claims that Gen. J J Singh is “with us”. (Singh was Army Chief till Sept. 2007). Significantly, Purohit mentions that “one of our own captain” had visited Israel for “training and meeting”, and demanded “four things from Israel”, i.e, continuous and uninterrupted supply of arms and training, an “office with a saffron flag “in Tel Aviv”, political asylum and “support for our cause of a Hindu Nation in the UN”. The Israelis, he adds, gave “a very positive response and promised “arms and asylum.”

According to ‘Tehelka’, “Indian army seemed to rally behind Col Prohit including all these incidents…infiltration of Hindutva forces into the Indian army and intelligence agency…is a serious development.”

It is notable that leaders of the Indian extremist parties, Shiv Sena, BJP, VHP and RSS are now pressurising the Congress regime to release all the culprits of Smjhota Express and of bomb blasts in other places of India.

Notably, while quoting a cable of the Wikileaks by U.S ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, The Times of India reported on December 17, 2010 that India’s renowned “political leader and Congress Party’s heir, Rahul Gandhi feels that the “the bigger threat (to India) may be the growth of radicalized Hindu groups which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community.”

In a separate cable, describing a meeting between India’s National Security Adviser M.K.Narayanan and FBI Director Robert Mueller, a US official reports the former as saying “India is also seeing the beginning of Hindu extremist groups that use violence.”  The cable indicates that the Director Mueller points out, “terrorists come from more than just Muslim backgrounds.”

Nevertheless, while using delaying tactics, the Indian government on the other hand said that it would share information with Pakistan on the investigation regarding the Samjhota Express blast once the probe was completed. In this context, Indian Home Secretary G K Pillai stated that India understood the concerns of Pakistan as several Pakistani citizens were killed in the blast but the investigation was not yet over, explaining, “As and when the investigation is completed and the charge sheet is filed, we would definitely share the information with Pakistan.” He further explained, “Government was committed to bring to justice anyone who committed terror irrespective of religion or anything else as it considered such people as criminals…I think in one sense, it (the probe) shows that we are willing to be fair as far as possible. If somebody has done a crime, irrespective of who is he, what his religion is, we will go after him and make sure that he is punished. He said that he hoped the message would go across Pakistan which was yet to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack to justice.

Nonetheless, finally, it is suggested to the honourable parliamentarians of Pakistan that the evidence of Samjhota Express blast needs to be discussed in the Parliament. At the moment, RSS and Indian Army are under the focus and we have the legitimate right to ask for information on investigation in relation to the Samjhota blast case. Pakistan must initiate ground work in an endeavour to ask for compensation for poor victims of Pakistan in the light of Lockerbie case. Some ground work may be initiated to get access to the accused once the case proceeds in the Indian court.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations. Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

Indian claim proved false

The report had confirmed the complicity of the Hindu extremist group Abhinav, Indian Army officers of the ilk of Lieutenant Colonel Purohit, who actually supplied the military-grade explosive RDX, and other Hindu radicals, who had plotted and executed the heinous crimes against humanity as part of their campaign of ethnic cleansing of Muslims.
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By Mohammad Jamil

It is a matter of routine for Indian leadership to accuse Pakistan for every act of terrorism in India whereas it has been proved many a time that invariably every act of terrorism was committed by India’s homegrown terrorists. All along, India had also been officially denying any link of Hindu extremists with the mayhem, death and carnage resulting from the blasts, and instead tried to shift the blame for the heinous crime to the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Meanwhile, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief, Swami Aseemanand has confessed before a magistrate that he along with other Hindu activists was involved in the Malegon, Samjhota Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid bombings. This has knocked the bottom out of Indian Prime Minister’s pretense. Indian weekly Tehelka magazine stated that his confession has unraveled the inner workings of the Hindutva terror network.

Pakistan on Saturday asked India that it should not squander the opportunity and bring to justice the perpetrators of the bombing of Samjhota Express train in light of a RSS leader’s confession about the involvement of Sangh activists in the attack. “It took almost four years for the Samjhota Express investigations to come to this pass. We can only hope that no further time will be squandered in bringing the criminals to justice,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told Indian news agency PTI in a text message.

Basit was responding to a question on Pakistan’s reaction to Swami Aseemanand’s confession about the involvement of Sangh activists in several terror attacks, including the 2007 bombing of Samjhota Express that killed nearly 70 people, majority of them Pakistanis. Basit said. “We look forward to hearing from India officially. The relations of Pakistani victims of Samjhauta Express terrorist action are desperately awaiting their protracted trauma to come to an end,” he added.

Aseemananad’s statement made under Clause 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) is legally admissible evidence that makes it crucial for the investigators probing the terror bombings targeting Muslims. Aseemanand, who was arrested last year, also alleged that Indresh financed Joshi for the terror activities and provided him men to plant bombs. He 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 the Ajmer Sharif shrine. Terming it as ‘Sanghi terrorism’, Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders should make their position clear in the wake of the latest revelations about involvement of an RSS activist in terror activities. He said that the government should ‘take strict action against people involved in terror and those who are supporting them’.

Last August, a report of Indian English daily ‘India Today’ had made a reference to official admission by an Indian investigating agency that Samjhota Express and the Jamia Masjid Delhi were on the hit list of Hindutva terrorists who were also involved in attacks on Ajmer Sharif, Malegaon and Makkah Masjid in Hyderabad. The Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad’s 806-page charge sheet on the Ajmer blasts says the module behind these three targets had sinister plans to target the Samjhota Express and Jamia Masjid as well. However, the report stated that it was not clear though whether this terror cell could execute its plan. Over 60 Pakistanis died in the Samjhota Express blast on February 19, 2007, while earlier 13 people were wounded in blasts inside Jamia Masjid on April 14, 2006 – months after this module (according to the Rajasthan ATS) chose them as targets at a meeting chaired by Rashtriya Savak Sangh (RSS) leader Swami Aseemanand in February 2006.

Anyhow, after 44 months of dilly-dallying, India officially admitted in April 2010 that the Hindutva brigade of the extremist group Abhinav Bharat, of which Indian Army’s serving officer, Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit was an active member, was responsible for the bombings on board the Pakistan-bound Samjhota Express. The report had confirmed the complicity of the Hindu extremist group Abhinav Bharat, Indian Army officers of the ilk of Lieutenant Colonel Purohit, who actually supplied the military-grade explosive RDX, and other Hindu radicals, who had plotted and executed the heinous crimes against humanity as part of their campaign of ethnic cleansing of Muslims. Purohit and retired army Major Samir Kulkarni had also helped train the alleged bombers. In November 2008, when the ATS of Mumbai arrested Lieutenant Colonel Purohit for his involvment in the bombings, the BJP had denounced the ATS as traitors.

Bal Thackeray, the supremo of the Shiv Sena, a longtime ally of the BJP, had forthrightly accused the ATS of framing the Malegaon bombing accused. “What Pakistan was not able to do in the last 20 years,” declared Modi, “the Manmohan Singh government has achieved in just 20 days. They have succeeded in branding our soldiers as terrorists.” It has to be mentioned that Haimant Karkare, the head of the Mumbai ATS was assassinated by Indian commandos in the garb of fighting terrorists during the November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks. There have been voices in India demanding proper investigation to unearth the culprits behind Malegaon blasts and the linkage between the army officers and Hindu extremist organizations. Putting an end to all speculations, the anti-terror branch of Mumbai Police had said that Army RDX was used and not supplied from across the border, which vindicated Pakistan’s position. There is now substantial evidence that Purohit procured 60 kg of RDX from Jammu and Kashmir in the year 2006, a part of which is suspected to have been used in Samjhota Express train explosion and Malegaon blasts, Maharashtra police told the court that Purohit gave a part of the RDX to one Bhagwan who was suspected to have used it in Samjhota Express blast. Whereas, America and the West are pressurizing Pakistan to cooperate with India and bring the masterminds behind Mumbai attacks to justice, they do not consider it worthwhile to tell India to bring those involved in Samjhota Express and other bombings to justice. India should stop accusing Pakistan of its linkage with Muslim organizations in India, where hundreds of innocent young boys are picked up and kept under illegal detentions. In addition to torture, arrests, harassment of their families, the families and victims are pressured into signing blank papers.

In 2007, Indian agencies had accused Harkat-ul-Jehad-i-Islami activist alias Bilal of being involved in Samjhota blasts when two coaches were completely gutted. India often names Muslim organizations, which in fact do not exist. Anyhow, on the demand of Human Rights Watch and other non-governmental organizations the Indian government acknowledged that Hindu extremist organizations were behind the terrorists’ activities. On 24th August 2008 two Bajrang Dal workers died while making bombs. In this age of information technology and media explosion, India could not hide the link between the army and the Hindu extremist organizations. With the above disclosures, India should stop accusing Pakistan for its backing of terrorists, and should look inward to stem the tide of terrorism in northern states. India should also stop atrocities on the people of Kashmir and honour its commitments of holding plebiscite under the aegis of the UN.

The writer is Lahore-based senior journalist.