India’s Blatant ‘Joke’ about Terrorism
By Sajjad Shaukat
While following the double standard of some western countries about terrorism, and speaking in the US baseless tone that Pakistan should ‘do more’ against the militants, Indian Defence Minister AK Antony said on June 18, this year that Pakistan must take strong action against terrorist groups operating from its soil. Antony’s statement becomes India’s blatant joke about terrorism, if we wetness factual position. In fact, a deliberate propaganda campaign keeps on going by the US, some western countries, Israel and India regarding ‘Talibanisation’ of Pakistan under the pretext of perennial subversive acts like suicide attacks, bomb blasts, targeted killings and sectarian violence which secret agencies like American CIA, Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad have been arranging in the country through their affiliated militant outfits. They intend to destabilise Pakistan because the latter is the only nuclear country in the Islamic World.
In this regard, Indo-Israeli lobbies which are well-penetrated in the US administration leave no stone unturned in distorting the image of Pakistan; its security forces and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) by manipulating every terror-event which takes place in Pakistan. For example, despite the fact that Pakistan’s all segments of society had strongly condemned the failed attempt by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Malala Malala Yousafzai, but US-led some western countries exploited the episode.
On the other side, US-led western countries and their media neglect Hindu terrorism which has officially been confessed by India. In this respect, exposing the nexus between Bhartia Janta Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde disclosed on January 20, 2013 that organised training camps run by the fundamentalist parties, RSS and BJP were promoting Hindu Terrorism. He also explained that these extremist parties were behind the Samjhauta Express, Meccca Masjid and Malegaon blasts. He added, “We will have to think about it (Saffron terrorism) seriously…Hindu extremist parties BJP and RSS were involved many times in Hindu Muslim violence in India, especially Gujarat and Babri masjid incident.
India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid endorsed Shinde’s statement, saying that it was based on facts. Meanwhile, Indian Home Secretary R K Singh revealed that during investigation the government had found ten names of the Hindu extremists, associated with RSS, who were involved in these terror attacks including Ajmer Sharif.
While, India has always accused Pakistan of these subversive acts of terrorists, but it is quite silent over Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) terror which has obtained a new face as Indian RAW, country’s high officials and fundamentalist parties have co-relationship.
In fact, ideology of Hindu nationalism prevails in every field at the cost of other minority groups. It is even supported by Indian defence forces secretly. This could be judged from the incident, when on April 6, 2008 in the house of Bajrang Dal fundamentalists in Nanded, a bomb went off. The investigation proved that these militants were found in the bomb-making and attack on a mosque in Parbhani in 2003. Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra arrested a serving Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit 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 further disclosed that Lt. Col. Purohit confessed that in 2007, he was involved in bombing of Samjhota express, which brunt alive 70 Pakistanis.
India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) is convinced that Sadhu Swami Aseemanand, a Hindu right-wing leader was directly involved in the Samjhota Express blast. Sources in NIA further pointed out that besides Lt. Col. Purohit, other Indian army officials were also behind that train-bombing. In this regard, a court in Panchkula, Haryana has recorded Aseemanand’s statement which confirmed the NIA inquiry.
Swami Aseemanand also confessed in the court that several RSS preachers and Sang activists were directly involved in planning, financing and executing Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts. He stated that various leaders of Hindu communal organisations including Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Abhinav Bharat, Jai Vande Matram and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram were also behind these blasts.
It is mentionable that in various tapes, LT. Col Purohit said, “We are all on the same plane, Hindu Rashtra (Nation)”. He even claimed that Gen. J J Singh is “with us”. (Singh was Army Chief till Sept. 2007). Significantly, Purohit mentioned that “one of our own captain had visited Israel”, and demanded “continuous supply of arms, 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 added, gave “a very positive response.”
Notably, 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 radicalised Hindu groups which create religious tension and political confrontations with the Muslim community.”
It is noteworthy that Indian Hindus are followers of Chanakya (Say some thing else and do some thing else). This fact has been verified by the misdeeds of Hindu fundamentalist parties like BJP, RSS, VHP, Shiv Sina and Bajrang Dal which have missed no opportunity to communalise national politics of India even under the Congress rule. With the support of Indian officials and RAW agents, these parties have been launching anti-Christian and anti-Muslim bloodshed coupled with the dissemination of Hindutva.
In 2002, more than 2500 Muslims were massacred in the BJP-ruled Indian state of Gujarat. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have charged the “Gujarat state administration” for involvement in “a massive cover-up of the state’s role in that massacre” and pointed out numerous police officials—specifically ministers, high officials and leaders of the VHP, BJP and Bajrang Dal as participants.
Similarly, in the recent years, assaults on Christians, their churches and property have been executed by the Hindu mobs in various cities of India. In this context, at least 60 Christians have been assassinated in the recent past by Hindu extremists in the state of Orissa. Other religious minorities of India are also target of Hindutva terror.
In Maharashtra, non-Hindu communities have lived in constant fear and awe since the advent of the fundamentalist party, Shiv Sena whose Chief Bal Thackeray (The late) has organised army of hoodlums to beat up any religious minority, openly directing the Hindu terrorists to loot and stone any of their shop or house. Lack of serious action by the subsequent governments against Shiv Sena’s vandalism has clearly defeated the secular echoes of India which is in fact a secular terroist state.
As regards Hindu terrorism, on November 7, 2011, leader of the VHP, Pravin Togadia, in his furious speech questioned the past of Muslims and Christians, and further gave a call to Hindus to capture the Islamic holy places in Arab and Vatican of Europe.
Besides, Hindutva terror is also employed in the occupied Kashmir. In this context, in 2008, a rights group reported unmarked graves in 55 villages across the northern regions of the controlled Kashmir, while other groups reported about thousands of mass graves without markers. In this context, in the last few years, rights groups discovered more than 3,000 unnamed graves in the various districts of Kashmir.
Especially, in August, 2011, Indian Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) officially acknowledged in its report that innocent civilians killed in the two-decade conflict have been buried in unmarked graves. Notably, foreign sources and human rights organisations have said that unnamed graves include those innocent persons, killed by the Indian military and para-military troops in the fake encounters including those who were tortured to death by RAW.
Indian official confession also shows that Mumbai terror attacks of 2008 were in fact, arranged by RAW in connivance with Indian home-grown terrorists, while Indian top officials were accusing Pakistan’s ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in this respect.
As a matter of fact, western countries have interests in India which serves as their largest market. And the US has also its strategic interests in the region, while New Delhi is its main ally to counterbalance China in Asia. It is owing to these collective interests that like his predecessor, President Obama ignores Hindu terrorism which has become a dangerous reality for international community after the official confession of Indian rulers.
Judging in light of all these facts, Antony’s statement reflects India’s blatant joke about terrorism.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Affairs
Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
