Mustafa Khan
In the name of fighting terrorism some have hijacked the world opinion against Islam
The firing squad that executed Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) on November 8, 2008 should leave no doubt in any mind that Muslims do not support terrorism. The terrorists had appealed that they be executed in Ramzan, in September. They had dreamed to go to heaven for creating a South East Asian caliphate. The government and the court viewed it differently. The three accused had carried out 2002 bombing of a picnic resort in Hindu majority Bali, Indonesia, that left 202 dead. The overwhelming majority of the Muslim population of Indonesia had shown understanding with the government and has supported it. There has been no protest in the streets or crowd gathering anywhere celebrating any martyrdom.
However the scene at the session court of Nasik, India, on November 3, is antipodal. It indicates how Indonesia could become India in world economy while India will have to remain where it is in its fight against terrorism.
Malegaon has been prominently in the news for quite sometimes. There is a fairly large segment of Muslim population residing in the eastern part. The notoriety of the town as a communally sensitive flash spot is the least desirable of its attributes for the local people but not for outsiders. Currently it is a stage chosen to launch a Sadhvi into a cult figure of strident Hindutva with its rugged determination to turn India into a Hindu rashtra where Vedic culture would be the ruling passion of the people. History will show whether the face of Pragyasingh Thakur will in its turn launch a thousand phalanxes of the saffron brigades that would carry the day despite what the international community and the minorities along with people free from the extreme belief within the country would react to. Of course the constitution of the country and the laws of the land have always been taken for a ride ala 1992. As much of the confession extracted by the ATS is the confession of a band of thugs it is difficult to prove and is also time consuming we can adopt this creative mode of narration to engage the mind in the meanwhile.
The premonition about the orchestrated order to come into existence is based on how things are transpiring in and around Malegaon. On September 29 the Sadhvi rode pinion in her flowing Hindu robe as Major Ramesh Upadhya drove LML Freedom into the heart of the enemy territory and a jeep filled with the other accused followed. As it would turn out to be their knight in shining armour was no other than a Lt Col of the Indian army, Prasad Srikant Purohit. Their pincer thrust by motorbike and jeep at Bhiku chowk demoralized their enemies for they rose against their own fellow Indians in uniform and tried to seize the outpost at the chowk. It is understandable in the light of the observation of WH Sleeman in his book Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official about thuggery in the nineteenth century. "It is a common practice with Thanadars all over the country to connive at the residence within their jurisdiction of gangs of robbers, on the condition that they shall not rob within those limits, and shall give them a share of what they bring back from their distant expeditions".
The sea of crowd in saffron headwear and flags and pinions surging in Nasik on November 3, 2008 reminds you of the fall of the wall of Berlin, history was made on that day. Since then the Sadhvi has left far behind the BJP priministerial candidate in her trail of glory. His ferocity for fighting terror has depleted and he seems to be lost in ifs and buts. Her saffron turban makes her look like Swami Vivekanand resurrected to lead the Hindus infected by unmentionable un- parliamentarian adjectives Bal Thackeray ascribes to them. Is his Marathi virility far superior to that of the people in the other states of the union?
Devlali camp in the vicinity of Nasik is the right military terrain to train the new recruits of Abhinav Bharat and mine the deadly RDX for the real attack on the fort of the enemy at Malegaon. As the conspiracy deepens Purohit not only provided 4 weapons to the other accused but also distributed cash. From where did he get arms, ammunition and cash? Who could be so generous and why? As the thugs of Chambal and Morena belt had codes and signals evolved to meet emergency, Purohit and the Sadhvi too had learnt the same along with the other accomplices. Purohit had said on the mobile "singh has sung." There is no mistake of grammar of the verb infinitive sing and past participle sung. It means what it means that Ram Narayan Sigh has detonated the bomb at Bhiku chowk. "The cat is out of the basket" is another code of Purohit that shows how he successfully did his works of military intelligence and adapted them for terrorism. He had also arranged meeting between Pragya, Upadhyay and several others in Anand ashram at Faridabad, in Bhonsla military school of Nasik and had transferred funds from various accounts to Abhinav Bharat accounts and indulged in Hawala transactions.
Nowhere in the world are there so many different organizations subsumed to a paternal organization like we have in India. Ku Klux Klan was and is just one. The RSS and its numerous known and unknown organizations and also the ever-changing affiliates, Bajrang Dal, Hanuman Dal etc, are ever assuming new identity with time. All this involves very huge amount of money. RSS keeps no accounts and therefore there is no audit, it is not even registered. Lt Col Purohit deposited huge amounts of money to the accounts of Abhivau Bharat and transferred money to the other accused. Sameer Kulkarni received regular monthly payment of five thousand rupees. Where does the money come from? Around the time the Sadhvi appeared in court after Bal Thackeray announced total support to her the chief minister of Maharashtra, Deshmukh, also addressed audience in Nasik where he said that the Marathi speaking natives of the state do not do the jobs that the people of UP and Bihar do. He grumbled that Marathi speaking natives prefer comfortable jobs in offices from 11 to 5.
The mammoth crowd that Shiv Sena and Abhinau Bharat mustered at the court in Nasik on November 3 cannot have been of office goers unless they had taken mass casual leave. Mobilizing them also requires transport and huge sums of money. It is inevitable that terrorism requires supply of cash.
Another feature is that like the conspiracy to kill Mahatma Gandhi involved almost entirely Maharashtrians, in Malegaon conspiracy also mostly Maharashtrians are involved, or at least the most crucial ones. Simultaneously it is remarkable that Shiv Sena, a regional party which is in the forefront in providing legal assistance to defend the alleged terrorists. Shiv sena and Ahinau Bharat are essentially Marathi in nature and prone to violence.
They had burst crackers on large scale outside the court precisely at the time when the judge in the courtroom announced order of transfer of the Sadhvi from police to judicial custody (remarkable, for the Muslims accused in 2006 Malegaon bombing are still languishing in police custody). Such a close coordination smacks of military precision. It is for nothing that critics are saying that the RSS has infiltrated the Indian army. What has the country come to!
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