Unfinished stories, goes an old idiom in Ajmer, find their denouement in Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti’s shrine. Perhaps, unfinished investigations do too. Two-and-a-half years after low-intensity blasts ripped apart the courtyard of the centuries-old shrine, the Rajasthan police arrested three men—Devendra Gupta, Vishnu Prasad and Chandrashekhar Patidar. Gupta, an RSS worker, was suspected to have bought the mobile phone and SIM card that triggered off the October 2007 blast in which three were killed. Till their arrest on April 30 this year, the story narrated by the investigators, lapped up by the establishment and reiterated in large sections of the media was that the Ajmer blast was the handiwork of jehadi terrorists.
The one troubling question—would jehadis target Muslim devout at a dargah?—can have complicated answers, as the body count at Lahore’s Data Ganj Baksh would testify. But in India, the question wasn’t even deemed worthy of being asked as a reasonable line of inquiry. The needle of suspicion remained firmly and automatically fixed on Islamic terrorists—young men from the community were detained at various stages of the investigation and interrogated at length—until the trail finally led to Gupta and pointed to radical Hindu nationalist groups instead. Says Rajasthan Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Kapil Garg: “We have arrested some people of that religion (Hinduism) and we’re dead sure we’re on the right track.”
May 18, 2007 Doom Friday Mecca Masjid was rocked by a pipe bomb
In Hyderabad too, the CBI team believes it is on the right track, finally, in the Mecca Masjid bomb blasts case. Four men belonging to radical Hindu groups were arrested this May for triggering a high-intensity bomb that went off in the masjid complex in May 2007, killing 14 and injuring some 50. At that time, the Hyderabad police had said it was most likely the work of the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HuJI), backed by local logistical support; some 26 Muslim men were picked up, interrogated, forced to confess and detained for up to six months.
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Around the same time, officers of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) filed a chargesheet in a Panjim court accusing 11 people, all Hindus and members of the ultra-right-wing Sanathan Sanstha, of masterminding and executing the October 2009 Margao blasts that killed the two people ferrying the explosives to a local festival. Investigation in Pune’s German Bakery blast this February has run aground after the initial suspicion, detaining and interrogation of suspected Muslim men, some believed to be members of “sleeper cells of jehadi groups” or the Indian Mujahideen (IM). When Abdul Samad was arrested last month, the Maharashtra ATS actively encouraged the understanding that he was the man caught on CCTV cameras in the bakery that night. However, Samad was never charged with the blast and subsequently let off in other cases too.
Malegaon Blasts II: September 29, 2008 Deadly Bike The bomb here was mounted on a Hero Honda (Reuters, From Outlook July 19, 2010 Issue)
Malegaon Blasts-I
September 8, 2006
37 dead
- Initial arrests: Arrested include Salman Farsi, Farooq Iqbal Makhdoomi, Raees Ahmed, Noorul Huda Samsudoha and Shabbir Batterywala.
- Later revelation: Suspicion now rests on Hindu terrorists because of the 2008 blasts.
Samjhauta Express Blasts
February 18, 2007
68 dead, mostly Pakistanis
- Initial suspicion: LeT and JeM were blamed. Those arrested included Pakistani national Azmat Ali.
- Later revelation: Police have seen the evidence trail lead to right-wing Hindu activists. Investigators claim the triggering mechanism for the Mecca masjid blast three months later was similar to the one used here. Police are looking for RSS pracharaks Sandeep Dange and Ramji.
Mecca Masjid Blast
May 18, 2007
14 dead
- Initial arrests: Around 80 Muslims detained for questioning and 25 arrested. Several have now been acquitted, including Ibrahim Junaid, Shoaib Jagirdar, Imran Khan and Mohammed Adul Kaleem.
- Later revelation: In June 2010 the CBI announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for information on the two accused, Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra. Lokesh Sharma arrested.
Ajmer Sharif Blast
October 11, 2007
3 dead
- Initial arrests: HuJI, LeT blamed. Those arrested include Abdul Hafiz Shamim, Khushibur Rahman, Imran Ali.
- Later revelation: In 2010, Rajasthan ATS arrests Devendra Gupta, Chandrashekhar and Vishnu Prasad Patidar. Accused Sunil Joshi, who was killed weeks before the blast, is believed to have been a key planner.
Thane Cinema Blast
June 4, 2008
- Affiliated to Hindu Janjagruti Samiti and Sanathan Sanstha, Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari and Mangesh Dinkar Nikam arrested. Blast planned to oppose the screening of Jodhaa Akbar.
Kanpur And Nanded Bomb Mishaps
August 2008
- Two members of Bajrang Dal—Rajiv Mishra and Bhupinder Singh—were killed while assembling bombs in Kanpur. In April 2006, N. Rajkondwar and H. Panse from the same outfit died under similar circumstances in a bomb-making workshop in Nanded.
Malegaon Blasts II
September 29, 2008
7 dead
- Initial suspicion: Groups like Indian Mujahideen involved
- Later revelation: Abhinav Bharat and Rashtriya Jagaran Manch accused of involvement. Arrested include Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Srikant Purohit and Swami Amritanand Dev Tirth, also known as Dayanand Pandey.
Goa Blasts
October 16, 2009
- 2 dead Both accused are members of the Sanathan Sanstha. Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik were riding a scooter laden with explosives, which accidentally went off.
Terror trails in India dramatically changed with the Malegaon blasts investigation in September-October 2008. Led by then Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who was subsequently killed on the night of 26/11, the investigation pointed to Abhinav Bharat (AB), an ultra-right-wing Pune-based organisation established in 2005-06, and its members or affiliates. What Karkare’s teams managed to uncover is part of recent history and should have become the basis of examining and monitoring the new phenomenon of Hindutva terror but didn’t.
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However, till May-June this year, the establishment did not either see these warning signals or chose to ignore them—except for a brief two-month period in 2008 when Karkare led the Malegaon probe. Now, it may be difficult to sustain the denial. “For the last 10 years, stories about Hindu right-wing violence have been trickling out. Instead of a systematic investigation, there has been an event-to-event investigation. The larger story has remained underinvestigated and under-reported,” says Mumbai advocate and human rights campaigner Mihir Desai. The CBI is only now seeking directions from the Union home ministry to see the Ajmer, Mecca Masjid, Malegaon and other blasts in conjunction after there has been no conclusive evidence of the involvement of Islamic groups.
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Malegaon I - September 8, 2006 two bombs attached to cycles went off in a cemeteryThe 4,528-page chargesheet filed in the Malegaon case offers insight into the grand design of the Abhinav Bharat and its affiliates. Purohit, the Sadhvi and others had spoken to one another “to avenge bomb attacks on Hindu shrines” and had engineered a series of blasts with the larger ambition to establish a “separate Hindu rashtra”. Abhinav Bharat—whose original avatar was started by Veer Savarkar, later disbanded, and restarted by Himani Savarkar—was set up to achieve this ambition. “This organised crime syndicate,” states the chargesheet, “wanted to adopt a national flag, that is, a solo-themed saffron flag with a golden border...with an ancient golden torch.”
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The Rajasthan ATS now believes that Devendra Gupta, linked to the Ajmer blasts, was in touch with AB members through RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi. Providing the other end of the link, the Maharashtra ATS says the Sadhvi, enraged when Joshi was killed by suspected SIMI activists in September 2007, ordered the 2008 Malegaon blast. Joshi has also been linked to the Samjhauta Express blasts which killed 68 people, all Pakistanis. The evidence has come from Purohit’s reported phone conversation as narrated by an unnamed witness.
Unholy deed A bomb in a schoolbag exploded during iftaar at the Ajmer Sharif
October 11, 2007
Yet, the story has several loose ends, most critical among them being fugitives Ramnarayan Kalsangra, Swami Aseemanand and others. Kalsangra, investigators in Maharashtra and Rajasthan say, was introduced to Devendra Gupta by the Sadhvi and is believed to be an expert at assembling bombs. Finding Kalsangra is crucial since all accused in custody have named him as “the man”. Ajmer, Mecca Masjid, Malegaon, Samjhauta Express and several other blasts are clearly part of a larger story. Only when the CBI puts all the pieces together will the entire Hindutva terror picture emerge, if at all.
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Sudhakar Dwivedi, Abhinav Bharat“A meeting was held at Deolali near Nashik in August 2007. Lt Col Purohit, (Sudhakar) Chaturvedi and Maj (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay were present. It was discussed that something should be done during Urs in Panipat because the maximum number of cows are slaughtered there. Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur demanded that Purohit ‘supply explosives’ so that the group could do something against the killing of Hindus. Purohit promised to supply explosives. Chaturvedi took the responsibility of ‘getting two bomb planters’.
“Purohit was supplying firearms for money. One Ashok from Bhopal had got a weapon from him. This Ashok (had) deposited the money in Purohit’s ICICI Bank account. Purohit was also paid Rs 5 lakh for a ‘gun consignment’ in 2008 by a man. I had convinced Purohit to procure bomb-making material as Purohit had not been taking the sadhvi seriously.”
The statement also has Dwivedi spilling the beans on detailed plans made to gun down RSS leader Indresh Kumar as Purohit and others believed he was taking money from the ISI.
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of Hindus by Muslims”. In August 2007, “I met Purohit in Deolali camp where he told me about forming a right-wing group by the name Abhinav Bharat for promoting and safeguarding Hindutva”.
In January 2008, “I attended a meeting of Abhinav Bharat in Faridabad” where Purohit, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay were present. Here, Purohit spoke extensively about the “setting up of a Hindu rashtra”. Purohit also said he would “arrange for explosives which can be used to blast Muslim-dominated areas. Upadhyay then said that he can arrange for men to prepare the bombs”.
In June 2008, Pandey met the Sadhvi in Indore, who said that Purohit was not taking the cause seriously and asked him “to convince Purohit to arrange for the explosives immediately”.
On February 18, 2007, a bomb exploded on the Samjhauta Express which runs between India and Pakistan when it was close to Panipat. Sixty-eight persons died, many of them Pakistani nationals, and several others injured. The very next day, the Haryana police constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and sent its men to different parts of the country to follow leads. The trail led to Indore where the SIT managed to locate the Abhinandan Bag Centre in Kothari market, from where the Kodak brand of suitcase containing the explosives was purchased, the tailor who stitched the covers of the suitcases located and other evidence. Although no terrorist outfit has claimed responsibility till date, the government’s first reaction was to blame Pakistan for it.
But within official circles, it’s widely known that investigations into the Samjhauta Express blast were discreetly stopped when the trail led to Hindu activists in Indore. Earlier, the Maharashtra ATS investigating the Malegaon blasts too had uncovered the Indore link.
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Crucially, several senior police officials told Outlook that it was the office of the then National Security Advisor, M.K. Narayanan, which informally advised the police to go slow on the probe and not investigate the Hindu connection.
Interestingly, when the Maharashtra ATS did a narco test on Lt Col Srikant Purohit as part of its investigation into the Malegaon blast, it was revealed that though he wasn’t personally involved in the Samjhauta blast, he seemed to know something about those who were. In September 2007, the Haryana home department wrote to the central government, requesting the CBI to take over the investigation, but this was not done.
Later, the CBI helped the Haryana police with the investigations but as an officer connected with it points out, it amounted to very little. Officers say that the key persons who can shed some light on the matter are Sandeep Dange and Ramji, both RSS pracharaks. The two have eluded arrest so far.
There have been half-hearted attempts to restart the stalled investigation, but nothing much seems to have happened. In August 2009, a coordination meeting of the National Investigating Agency north zone was held at Panchkula, where all senior police officers of Haryana and other states participated. It was decided at this meeting that the SP/GRP will have a coordination meeting with the CBI and a meeting was fixed at the CBI headquarters in Delhi. This too was not held.
Hindus are docile, peace-loving, non-violent people. India is a land of unity in diversity. This is, after all, the country that produced Mahatma Gandhi. Terrorists are always Muslims. What of the so-called Maoist terrorists? Oh, they are tribals and their leaders are communists. They are not really Hindus!
These are the stereotypes we live with, blinding us to an unfolding reality. That there is indeed a phenomenon that can only be described as ‘Hindu terror’. For the people who display trishuls, shout shrill slogans for Bharat Mata and believe in retributive justice against minorities are not fringe lunatics with crazy ideas. Increasingly, investigations reveal that they have actually taken to making bombs and planting them in places where Muslims would be blamed. Why do they do this? Perhaps, in their distorted worldview, any action that would mobilise the people against the minorities is justified.
Yet most of us believe that Hindu terror does not exist because we do not see it. And what we don’t see, we don’t know and we don’t believe. Hence the conspiracy of silence on the issue. Jyotirmaya Sharma, author of books on Golwalkar and Hindutva, says this stems from the myth that most Indians harbour about the peaceful, other-worldly Hindu. “If you participate in the myth, you participate in the conspiracy,” he says. Indeed, he argues that while we can separate mainstream Muslims from the extreme Wahabi Islam promoted by organisations like the LeT, in the case of Hindu terrorists, they are emerging from the wellspring of the Sangh parivar. “The BJP parliamentarians and the terrorists are from the same tradition and that should worry us deeply,” he says.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| “BJP parliamentarians and the terrorists are from the same tradition ...and that should worry us deeply.” Jyotirmaya Sharma, Author |  “They get away with murderous activities as they have sympathy among a section of the Hindu elite.” Dilip Simeon, Historian | |
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 “Past records are bad enough...the Indian state can’t afford any complacency against Hindu terrorists.” Christophe Jaffrelot, Historian |  “Hindu chauvinism has grown in the past 20 years...there are many who silently support such attitudes.” Kumar Ketkar, Senior Journalist | |
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 “What is objectionable is using government machinery to give currency to the idea of Hindu terrorism.” Seshadri Chari, Ex-editor, Organiser |
Historian Dilip Simeon digs out some data from the past to argue “that to disregard the nature of the RSS would be to pull wool over our eyes”. He quotes from the February 4, 1948, communique of the government of India declaring the RSS unlawful because “its members have been found circulating leaflets exhorting people to resort to terrorist methods, to collect firearms and suborn the police and military. These activities have been carried out under the cloak of secrecy...the cult of violence of the Sangh has claimed many victims. The latest and most precious to fall was Gandhiji himself”. Besides, Simeon asks, “Is Praveen Togadia’s yatra in Kandhamal that resulted in 125 dead, thousands injured and rendered refugees any less a terrorist act than that of the cadre involved in the Malegaon and Ajmer blasts? They get away with their murderous activities because of sympathy among a section of the elite.”
Crimson tide Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh ThakurWhy does mainstream discourse rationalise and accept groups like the VHP, Shiv Sena and the RSS? At worst, they are trivialised as a looney fringe. Senior Maharashtra-based journalist Kumar Ketkar says this attitude comes from a middle class ambiguity. “Hindu chauvinism surfaced over the last 20 years and there are many who silently support it. And the classes who have such attitudes are in high-end professions like media, academics, law and judiciary.” S.M. Mushrif, ex-IGP (Maharashtra) and author of the book Who Killed Karkare?, calls it Brahminists’ propaganda. “The mainstream media, police, government are all victim to their propaganda. I purposely don’t call them Hindus. At every stage in the investigation of these cases of Hindu terror, there was interference by the IB which has also been taken over by the Brahminists.”
Clearly, there are strong views on the issue. Historian Christophe Jaffrelot says Hindu terror groups may not pose as big a threat to India as Pakistan-sponsored Islamist organisations like the Lashkar-e-Toiba but they still need to be dealt with seriously. He counts at least three reasons for this. “First, they belong to a resilient tradition that harks back to Savarkar and Godse for whom terrorist violence was a legitimate modus operandi against Muslims and even the Mahatma. This school of thought has always been on the fringe of the Hindu nationalist movement, but they re-emerge in the context of crises like Partition and the post-9/11 series of Islamist attacks in India. More importantly, the Sangh parivar tends to move in this direction as is evident from the techniques of the Bajrang Dal and the involvement of RSS members in the Ajmer blast and the Mecca Masjid attack (Hyderabad). Second, even if organisations like Abhinav Bharat are microscopic, they were started by serving or retired army officers, including Ramesh Upadhyay and Lt Col Purohit. This development takes place after the BJP and VHP have already attracted dozens of former armymen and senior policemen. While India can congratulate itself on the apolitical role of its military personnel, any infiltration of these institutions by communal ideas or elements is alarming.”
Blast proof Major Upadhyay and Swami Amritanand Maharaj
Ironically, the BJP and RSS, alarmed by the questioning and investigations of its cadre, now say that terrorism has no religion. BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told Outlook, “We believe you cannot defame all Muslims just because some are terrorists. You don’t say Muslim terrorists, so why say Hindu terrorists? We condemn your communal approach to terrorism.” Seshadri Chari, member of the BJP’s national executive and a former editor of RSS mouthpiece Organiser, says the police has every right to investigate and question people. “What is objectionable is using government machinery and planting news to give currency to the idea of Hindu terrorism. The government is under pressure from some quarters to say that terrorism is not peculiar to people of the Islamic faith.” In other words, Hindus cannot be terrorists and if someone says they are, it can only be under pressure from those who work for Islamic terrorists!
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh is one of those who has consistently raised the issue of Hindu terrorism with the government. He told Outlook: “I have been saying for a long time that Hindu radicals and Muslim radicals are two faces of the same coin. Acts of terrorism increased after the Babri Masjid demolition. This in turn led to the radicalisation of a section of the Hindus. There is so much evidence of the RSS/VHP combine operating via various militant organisations, so much proof that they have given training in bomb-making. Unfortunately, the media mostly goes with a one-sided story. Whenever there is a blast, the same day the media comes out with names of Muslim boys.”
Blast proof Terror outfit Abhinav Bharat’s Lt Col Shrikant PurohitThe media, after all, only reflects the stereotypes and prejudices of society. Indeed, it thrives on sensational images of Muslim terrorists. A mainstream English and many language channels have even admitted that TRPs go up whenever they show visuals of Muslim terrorists and the Taliban. Hindu terror, it seems, doesn’t have that kind of mainstream audience.
So we have a situation where Muslims are picked up randomly, presumed guilty until proven innocent. In the case of so-called Hindu terrorism, though, the reverse is always true. As Jaffrelot explains, “The Indian state cannot afford to display any complacency vis-a-vis Hindu terrorists as the past records are bad enough. Till recently, policemen—sometimes contradicting themselves in the course of the investigations itself—were quick to attribute any blast to Islamist groups...even when the casualties were Muslims. If the guilty men of Abhinav Bharat and other groups are not dealt with in the right way, the impression that is gaining momentum among the minorities—that some Indian citizens are more equal than others before the law—will have a devastating impact.”
That process has already begun. The irony is that much of what Indian Muslims have been blamed for may well turn out to be the act of a terrorist determined to communalise the situation and blame minorities for wanton violence. We can only wonder who would benefit from such a vitiated atmosphere.
