Tagged: Ajmer
RSS leader involved in Ajmer blast conspiracy: Police
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Jaipur, Oct 23 (IANS): A senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader was present when the conspiracy to carry out a blast at the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer was hatched, according to the charge-sheet filed in the case.
However, the RSS leader Indresh Kumar has not been named as accused in the charge-sheet filed by the Rajasthan Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad in an Ajmer court Friday.
Holding supporters of radical Hindu group Abhinav Bharat responsible for the Oct 11, 2007 blast, in which three people were killed and 30 injured, the ATS has charged Devendra Gupta, Lokesh Sharma, Chander Shekhar Lave, Sandeep Dange and Ramji Kalsangre with murder, attempt to murder, conspiracy, harming or defiling place of worship and other crimes.
Gupta, Sharma and Lave are in judicial custody while Dange and Kalsangre are absconding.
Another accused, Sunil Joshi, died during the course of investigation.
The 806-page charge sheet says that the conspiracy for the bomb blast was hatched during a meeting held in room number 26 of Gujarati Samaj Guesthouse situated near MI Road in Jaipur Oct 21, 2005. The accused had checked in under false names.
According to the charge sheet, Indresh Kumar was present at the secret meeting in which six other functionaries of the outfit were also present.
‘Indresh suggested that they attach themselves to some religious organisation so that they can pass themselves off as pilgrims,’ the charge-sheet says.
Swami Asinanand of Abhinav Bharat Sangthan and Sadhvi Pragya of Jai Vande Matram Sangthan were also present in the meeting where not only was the conspiracy hatched but different tasks were also assigned to some of the conspirators, the ATS said.
‘Indresh has so far not been made an accused in the case as further investigation are required, but he seems to be a conspirator,’ a source in the ATS said.
According to the ATS, the bombs were made in Indore and the area where the bombs were to be planted were identified in a meeting held in Dang area of Gujarat between Feb 11 and 13, 2007.
RSS leader chargesheeted for Ajmer Blast
NDTV Correspondent, Updated: October 23, 2010 18:53 IST
Jaipur: The Rajasthan ATS on Friday filed a charge sheet against five 2007 Ajmer blast accused, accusing them of murder and defiling a place of worship.
A senior RSS leader, Indresh Kumar, is among those named in the charge sheet, which says the blast at the Ajmer Dargah three years ago was the result of an elaborate conspiracy hatched by a group of Hindu radicals.
The chargesheet says:
- Indresh took part in a meeting in Jaipur on October 31, 2005 with seven others
- In the meeting he exhorted members to do radical acts
- Indresh said being part of religious organisations will help them avoid suspicion and accomplish their mission
- Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case, was also present in that meeting.
But the man in the eye of the storm, Indresh Kumar, claims he’s being framed. “It is a political conspiracy,” he told NDTV.
The court fixed October 26 for arguments on the charge sheet.
Investigation and Media’s role in Terrorism: Indore, Hindutva hardliners’ haven
The arrest of right-wing militants in connection with the blast in Ajmer Dargah isn’t surprising and is just another in the series of arrests of members of organisations ranging from Abhinav Bharat to Sanatan Sanstha who have committed a series of bombings in India from Malegaon to Goa.
Headlines in prominent newspapers and leading English channels read like ‘Abhinav Bharat man caught’, ‘Ajmer blast suspects linked to Hindu groups’ or ‘Ajmer blast: Hindu group responsible’.
There is no mention of ‘terrorism’ and suddenly words like suspects and ‘organisation member’ are back in journalistic lingo. Just a recent example because public memory is short:
Bettig mafia responsible for blast in Bagalore stadium during IPL!
During the Indian Premier League (IPL), bombs exploded in the stadium in Bangalore. Soon after, journalists who crave for breakthroughs and first page bylines, were mouthing names of persons involved in the blasts. There were reports that security agencies don’t deny the role of particular persons.
A few days passed and the everybody has forgotte it. Now it seems that it was local betting mafia that was involved in planting bombs in the stadium, and we no longer read any follow-ups or any sort of news. So did it make it less serious if underworld or betting mafia is involved?
The classic case was in Assam where major bomb strikes in which dozens died were ignored when ULFA was involved but once minor blasts occurred and a news agency suspected ‘Islamists’ angle’, it was suddenly prime time news and got repeatedly termed as terrorist attacks.
Just a day ago the Bangladesh government has handed DR Nabla alias Ranjan Daimary, the chief of the militant NDFB, that was involved in serial bombings in Assam in 2008 that caused over a 100 deaths. But the arrest didn’t make big news despite the fact that a terrorist mastermind was caught.
Ironically media perceptions force police and investigative agencies to hurry up in investigations and they throw up names to evade intrusive journos by saying that such group’s involvement is not ruled out. The casualty is truth.
Apart from inefficiency and political reasons, often the cases are not cracked because of these reasons. It’s a fact that had there been a BJP government in Maharashtra, Goa or Rajasthan, the activists of Sanatan Sanstha or Abhinav Bharat may never have been arrested.
Upright officers, political will needed
Though Himanshu Panse’s role in blasts in Marathwada had alerted security agencies, the investigation was closed. Firstly, some officers were soft on the group while others apparently didn’t want to get into controversy. It took an officer of the calibre of Hemant Karkare to unravel this network.
Even in cases of blasts where there was a clear stamp of right-wing radicals, Muslim youths were arrested and put for months in illegal detentions. In Hyderabad, those protesting police action were fired at and many were killed.
The fact is that whether it is Hindutva-inspired fanatic or the Islamist militant, they are equally dangerous for the country. Terrorism and crime should be seen purely as a threat to the nation and not from the prism of religion.
Sadly, this doesn’t happen. When some youths from Azamgarh were arrested, the entire district was demonised. When youths from a particular Muslims-dominated town were arrested, the name of the town ‘Bhatkal‘ was added to their names though it was not their surname.
The aim was to defame the town. It was part of a strategy. Shouldn’t Indore be also termed haven of Hindutva-wadis in India. This peaceful town in Central India has been linked to almost all the major cases of bomb blasts.
Should towns be defamed: Is Indore Hindutva-wadi’s Azamgarh?
Either its Malegaon blast, Mecca Masjid or Ajmer terror strike, the accused are being arrested from Indore. The planning was done here. Even investigation trail in Samjhauta Express case has reached Indore. And the most wanted man, Ramji Kalsangra, whose arrest can unravel the entire group, also hails from here.
It is not that MP police were not aware of Sunil Joshi’s shadowy organisation that was based in Indore. It was also aware of Samir Kulkarni’s Abhinav Bharat that was functioning from MP. But the state police didn’t act then even though local Hindi papers printed tonnes of material.
Kulkarni’s role in planting bombs at Bhopal’s major Islamic gathering of tablighi jamaat that attracts 1 million Muslims was also known but police under BJP rule didn’t act. It is only when CBI and central investigative agencies reached Indore that the activity began.
The unfortunate aspect is that everything in India either gets politicised or communalised.
HINDU TERROR The Mirror Explodes
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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.”
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.
The Hindutva links to Mecca Masjid, Ajmer and other low-intensity blasts have been in the public domain for close to two years; the signs were visible since 2002-03 when an ied found at the Bhopal railway station was traced back to local Hindutva activists Ramnarayan Kalsangra and Sunil Joshi. They were questioned, but no evidence was found. Yet, it prompted Congress leader Digvijay Singh to declare a Bajrang Dal hand. Later in 2006, there were explosions in the houses of Hindutva activists in Nanded and Kanpur, where ieds were being prepared. Through that year, mosques in several towns in Maharashtra—Purna, Parbhani, Jalna—were rocked by low-intensity blasts; the Nanded one was meant for a mosque in Aurangabad. Recovered with a map of Aurangabad were false beards and Muslim male outfits. That should have been warning enough.
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.
The Hindutva links to Mecca Masjid, Ajmer and other low-intensity blasts have been in the public domain for close to two years; the signs were visible since 2002-03 when an ied found at the Bhopal railway station was traced back to local Hindutva activists Ramnarayan Kalsangra and Sunil Joshi. They were questioned, but no evidence was found. Yet, it prompted Congress leader Digvijay Singh to declare a Bajrang Dal hand. Later in 2006, there were explosions in the houses of Hindutva activists in Nanded and Kanpur, where ieds were being prepared. Through that year, mosques in several towns in Maharashtra—Purna, Parbhani, Jalna—were rocked by low-intensity blasts; the Nanded one was meant for a mosque in Aurangabad. Recovered with a map of Aurangabad were false beards and Muslim male outfits. That should have been warning enough.
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.
The Hindutva links to Mecca Masjid, Ajmer and other low-intensity blasts have been in the public domain for close to two years; the signs were visible since 2002-03 when an ied found at the Bhopal railway station was traced back to local Hindutva activists Ramnarayan Kalsangra and Sunil Joshi. They were questioned, but no evidence was found. Yet, it prompted Congress leader Digvijay Singh to declare a Bajrang Dal hand. Later in 2006, there were explosions in the houses of Hindutva activists in Nanded and Kanpur, where ieds were being prepared. Through that year, mosques in several towns in Maharashtra—Purna, Parbhani, Jalna—were rocked by low-intensity blasts; the Nanded one was meant for a mosque in Aurangabad. Recovered with a map of Aurangabad were false beards and Muslim male outfits. That should have been warning enough.
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.
The Hindutva links to Mecca Masjid, Ajmer and other low-intensity blasts have been in the public domain for close to two years; the signs were visible since 2002-03 when an ied found at the Bhopal railway station was traced back to local Hindutva activists Ramnarayan Kalsangra and Sunil Joshi. They were questioned, but no evidence was found. Yet, it prompted Congress leader Digvijay Singh to declare a Bajrang Dal hand. Later in 2006, there were explosions in the houses of Hindutva activists in Nanded and Kanpur, where ieds were being prepared. Through that year, mosques in several towns in Maharashtra—Purna, Parbhani, Jalna—were rocked by low-intensity blasts; the Nanded one was meant for a mosque in Aurangabad. Recovered with a map of Aurangabad were false beards and Muslim male outfits. That should have been warning enough.
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.
Take decisive action against Hindutva terrorism
New Delhi, July 17: Investigations into the Makkah Masjid, Ajmer Sharif and Malegaon terror attacks appear to be exposing the true face of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Though the RSS has posed as the custodian of Indian nationalism, it has, in fact, sought to undermine the core values of the republic.
The inspiration behind the RSS was not Indian nationalism and not even Hindu religion, but Italian fascism. BS Moonje, the mentor of RSS founder KB Hedgewar, and the brain behind the RSS, conceptualised the organisation on the lines of Benito Mussolini’s Blackshirts. A great admirer of the Italian dictator, Moonje even visited him in 1931.
It is the same fascist inspired deviant nationalism that drove a group of ex- RSS members like Nathuram Godse to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi. The role of the RSS in the Mahatma’s assassination has been clearly established by the Jivan Lal Kapur Commission. The involvement of RSS members in the recent terror attacks— including the alleged role of senior leader Indresh Kumar— is a manifestation of the same deviant, if not pervert, nationalism.
The big danger of Hindutva terror is in its attempt to disguise itself as nationalist even while attacking the very foundations of the republic: secularism and democracy. In this context there is need to investigate a security conclave organised by Mr Kumar in which officials, perhaps retired, from the military, security agencies and the administrative services participated.
The law enforcement agencies should not be taken in by the nationalistic pose adopted by Hindutva extremists. But more importantly, they need to be combated politically rather than through some administrative ban or sanctions. There is need for quick and decisive action on the part of like- minded political parties, civil society and the administration to check this cancer.
Aware of Hindu outfits’ role in blasts
New Delhi, July 17: The government said on Friday that it was aware that elements in certain right wing Hindu outfits were allegedly involved in terror activities in the country.
“We are aware about that,” Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai told journalists when asked about reports that elements in certain right wing Hindu outfits were allegedly involved in some bomb explosions in the country.
Pillai, however, did not specify which outfits were involved in such acts.
The CBI, which is probing into the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer blast cases, has recently said that the agency did not question any RSS functionary during the probe.
Central Bureau of Investigation Director Ashwani Kumar had said that the reports about the agency questioning Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders in connection with the terror attacks in Mecca Masjid and Ajmer were not correct.
–PTI–
Hindutva terrorism Horrible Attacks From 2002
2002
Evidence that Hindutva groups were seeking to acquire terrorist capabilities begins to emerge. An improvised explosive device (IED) is found at the Bhopal railway station in December, evidently intended to target Muslims arriving in the city to attend a Tablighi Jamaat gathering.
2003
On November 21, there is a bomb blast at Mohammadiya Masjid in Parbhani, Maharashtra.In December, exactly a year after the discovery of the IED at the Bhopal railway station, another bomb is found in the Lamba Khera area, on the outskirts of Bhopal, on the last day of a Talblighi Jamaat meeting.
2004
On August 27, there are blasts at the Meraj-ul-Uloom Madarsa and Masjid in Purna, and at the Quadriya Masjid in Jalna, both in Maharashtra, injuring 18 persons.
2006
Bajrang Dal activists Naresh Kondwar and Himanshu Panse are killed in a bomb-making accident in Nanded, Maharashtra, in April. Police later find that the two men had allegedly been responsible for the Parbhani blast, and other Bajrang Dal activists linked to the Nanded cell were involved in the Purna and Jalna blasts.Blasts triggered at three different places in Malegaon, including a mosque-cum-graveyard where 38 people are killed. The occasion was Shab-e-Baraat and people had come to offer prayers for their dead.
2007
On February 18, 68 people are killed and scores injured when two suitcase bombs exploded in the Indo-Pak Samjhauta Express when it was passing through Dewana village in Haryana. Among the dead are 42 Pakistani nationals. Indian authorities immediately blame a suspicious Pakistani national for allegedly masterminding the attack and call it an attempt to sabotage the peace process.On May 18, a bomb blast at the historic 17th-century Mecca Masjid in the heart of Hyderabad kills nine persons and injures at least 50. Police fires on people protesting against the attack, killing five. Reportedly, around 200 Muslim youth are picked up, kept in illegal detention and brutally tortured for many days.In August, two Bajrang Dal activists, Rajeev Mishra and Bhupendra Arora, were killed in Kanpur while assembling bombs.On August 25, twin blasts rock Gokul Chaat and Lumbini Park in Hyderabad, killing 53 persons. Police point fingers at HUJI and, later, the Indian Mujahideen, for carrying out the attack to avenge the Mecca Masjid blasts.On October 11, a low-intensity bomb explodes at the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, killing three persons. The same module of HUJI which the police had blamed for the Mecca Masjid blast is alleged to be behind the attack. The SIM card used to trigger the Mecca Masjid blast is found to be from the same series as the one found at the site of the Ajmer blast.
2008
On September 29, five Muslims are killed in Malegaon, Maharashtra, and another person in Modasa, Gujarat, when bombs exploded within minutes of each other. Police immediately blame their usual suspects, the Jehadis.
The probe takes a new turn, however, after the arrest of Dayanand Pandey, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Srikanth Purohit in October for their alleged involvement in the Malegaon blast. Police says the attack was carried out by the Hindu Jagran Manch, an Indore-based Rightwing Hindu outfit, which reportedly has links with Abhinav Bharat, another such outfit based in Pune, and the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Many photographs in which Sadhvi Pragya is seen with senior BJP leaders also come to light. But the probe comes to a standstill in November after the mysterious death of Maharashtra ATS Chief Hemant Karkare in the Mumbai terror attack.
2009
On October 16, two men die when a bomb they were carrying explodes in Margao, Goa, on Diwali eve. The suspects are allegedly members of a Rightwing Hindu organisation called Sanatan Sanstha. The police also recover two unexploded IEDs at Sancaole, Goa.
2010
On May 1, the Rajasthan ATS arrests Devendra Gupta from Bihariganj in Ajmer. He is allegedly responsible for procuring the SIM cards used for carrying out the Ajmer Dargah blast. Chandrashekhar, an RSS activist from Madhya Pradesh, is also arrested for his alleged role in the plot. Both are linked to Abhinav Bharat. However, Swami Asimanand, the alleged mastermind of the Ajmer and Malegaon blast, is still absconding. CBI Director Ashwani Kumar claims that the bombs used in the Ajmer, Malegaon and Samjhauta express blasts had used the same arming devices that were procured from Indore.On May 17, the National Investigating Agency files a chargesheet at a district court against 11 members of Sanatan Sanstha, a Rightwing Hindu outfit, for the 2009 Margao blast.
Courtesy: Hardnews
Brahmin Terrorism 