Terror struck us yet again – this time in the Pink City Jaipur. The official toll is 64 killed, and over 200 others injured. It was 7:30 pm, May 13, prime time for shopping when temperature was above 40 degree. Markets were bustling but within minutes everything was shattered and there was chaos all around in one of the most beautiful tourist places in India.
The first blast took place at 7.20 pm in the crowded Johari Bazaar and within 15 minutes at least seven more blasts shook the adjoining areas. The blasts were of medium intensity in the walled city whose residential areas are heavily Muslim populated.
As in Malegaon, the bombs were mostly planted on bicycles but rickshaws and cars were also used to cause maximum damage.
World capitals from Washington to Paris, London, Dhaka and Islamabad condemned the attacks.
Government officials and some corporate media houses are usually quick to blame ‘Muslim militants’ based in Pakistan or Dhaka for such attacks, which have plagued India in recent years.
Almost all social, political and religious leaders of the country offered sincere condolences to the victims of the dastardly act and some urged the state and central governments to take all possible measures for proper compensation and rehabilitation of the survivors.
What is going on here, one wonders! It appears as if the whole Indian nation is riding on killer bicycles. From Malegaon in Maharashtra to the courts in UP and now Jaipur in Rajasthan, everywhere, the poor man’s vehicle – the bicycle is being used as the vehicle of destruction.
These cowardly acts of terror have become a sore on the body politic of Indian democracy. The current global and local politics in the shape of religious polarisation is intensifying the acts of terror, more so in India. The painful side of the story is that these acts have been politicised by the vested interests. Some claim that the present government is soft on terrorism and the result is an increase in these terror acts. They forget that even during the NDA regime the frequency and intensity of these acts was similar. “These acts of terror have deeper political causes,” observe intellectuals, including Ram Puniyani, secretary All India Secular Forum.
In the recent past, investigating agencies seemed to have overlooked the case of two Bajrang Dal activists getting killed in Nanded in April 2006 while preparing bombs. And arguably they also did not go for the narco-analysis of one of the survivors of the Nanded blast who had said that now ‘we Hindus should also do the acts of terror’.
A Mumbai daily newspaper Urdu Times reported (April 18, 2008) Malegaon police raid in a patho-laboratory situated in the basement of a private hospital and recovery of a revolver, RDX and fake currency notes of one thousand denomination. The police have arrested three terrorists Nitish Ashire (20), Sahab Rao Sukhdev Dhevre (22) and Jitendar Kherna (25). The last one is the owner of Smith Pathology Laboratory which is situated in the basement of More Accident Hospital of Camp Area. One pistol, 5 live catridges, 3 used cartridges, four fake notes of one thousand denomination, a Laptop, a Scanner, five thousand rupees in cash and two mobiles were recovered during the raid, detailed the newspaper.
On February 24, 2008, bomb blasts occurred in the RSS office and the Bus Stand in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu. The media carried big stories on the blasts. The Sangh Parivar organised demonstrations in various parts of the state, demanding the arrest of ‘Muslim terrorists’, who according to them had committed the crime. However the Tamil Nadu police acted sensibly. A special team led by Mr. Kannappan, DIG, Tirunelveli range made a thorough investigation and arrested three persons S Ravi Pandian (42), a cable TV operator, S Kumar (28), an auto driver, both from Tenkasi, and V Narayana Sharma (26) of Sencottai, all Sangh Parivar activists. The last accused had assembled 14 pipe bombs in the office of Ravi Pandian, revealed some media reports.
In the Jaipur blasts the police have launched a massive hunt, as the first lead toward the culprits, for a woman who allegedly promised Rs.100,000 to a rickshaw puller to carry out the terror attacks.
“We are looking for a woman, identified as Meena, who tried to lure a rickshaw puller, Vijay, to carry out the attacks,” a police officer said on the condition of anonymity, according to a report in the press.
Vijay, allegedly a resident of Mumbai, said on Aaj Tak camera, “Stop the lady (Meena) or she would explode bombs at Kotwali”. By that time a bomb already exploded at Kotwali area. Vijay, who was detained just hour after the Jaipur blasts, also told the police that Meena lives near one of the blast sites.
In the light of the above revelations, reinvestigation of all the blasts which took place in different parts of the country ought to be done without preconceived assumptions. In most of the blast cases, there is a feeling in certain quarters that the investigating agencies automatically takes certain outfits as suspects to ease their work and book sometimes innocent persons instead of the real culprits.
[M. Burhanuddin Qasmi is Editor Eastern Crescent and Director Mumbai-based Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre. He can be contacted at [email protected]]