India Mujahidin (IM), at the very outset, seems to be an organisation run by Muslims. ‘Mujahidin’ (or mujahidoon) is plural of Arabic word mujahid meaning ‘one who exerts efforts for the sake of Allah (not necessarily fighting)’. However, nowadays mujahid has come to be considered synonymous with ‘fighter’. So, according to the common notion, IM should be the Indian front of those fighting for God’s rule on earth. Is it really so? Many would say ‘Yes’. But the belief of the impartial people in know of the affairs would be ‘No’.
Anyone who fights for the sake of his religion seeks benefits for his co-followers. Judged against this criterion, IM stands a complete failure. The word ‘IM’ has inflicted much damage to Indian Muslims. As for any good to the community by this name, it is zero.
Surprisingly, Muslims do not believe there is any such outfit called Indian Mujahidin. To them, IM is just an excuse coined by anti-national elements to harass Muslim youth. Despite repeated demands to disclose whereabouts of the so-called outfit, our investigating agencies are unable to even locate its head office, what is its agenda and who are its founders. There is nothing to prove these things except imagined, and in some cases forced, confessions. Isn’t it interesting scenario? It is true especially in view of the fact that hundreds of Muslim youth are arrested for their alleged link with the outfit. Had there been anything like IM, the agencies could have gathered enough data by now to crack down on its associates and eliminate it. In near past, one Yasin Bhatkal was arrested. But his arrest too did not help in acquiring information about the outfit. Bhatkal was one of the most wanted persons of IM. He is said to be among the founders of IM.
People who believe in the existence of Indian Mujahidin apprehend that it would be working for Muslims. But the reality is that the name ‘IM’ has been inflicting much damage to Muslims. It not only defames them as a religious community but also impedes their social, educational and economic development.
The infamous Batla House encounter saw the education of two brilliant students having come to an end. Besides, it gave a terror tag to their families, their village, district and the community they belonged to. The two deceased students, Atif and Sajid, were said to be the members of Indian Mujahidin, an allegation which is yet to be proved.
Besides, several youth are nabbed after each blast making the future of their families bleak. In connection with the recent serial blasts which took place shortly before Modi’s address to a rally in Patna, various Muslim youth have been arrested. They are accused of having links with Indian Mujahidin.
The organisation, which some claim exists only on papers, is believed to be responsible for the blasts. The blasts allowed Modi to shoot a statement declaring him pitched against ‘terror’. A few days after the blasts, the statement of Modi that in the coming elections the battle will be between ‘him and CBI & IM’ is an attempt to show himself a victim of terror. The Patna blasts investigation is underway and the responsibility is yet to be fixed. One wonders as to how Modi knew that it were IM men who had executed the blasts at his rally venue. Did the terrorists convey such a message to him?
The fact worth mentioning is that among the first arrestees after the blasts was one Manoj. He reportedly said that he was a BJP worker and that he had planted the bomb on someone’s instruction. The reports said that those arrested had confessed they were given Rs. 10,000 each for planting bombs.
If a section of the media is to be believed, the Patna blasts were the handiwork of IM men. And if the above mentioned reports are true then Manoj was the part of the blasts conspiracy. Put together, both the reported facts reveal that Indian Mujahidin members are also Hindus! If it is so, IM ceases to be a jihadi organisation. Jihad is a holy act in Islam provided the conditions for it exist, and non-Muslims cannot be part of any jihadi expedition.
It is not for the first time that fingers were raised to Hindutva youth in any blast allegedly executed by Indian Mujahidin. Some of the Hindutva terrorists arrested in Ajmer and Malegaon blasts, etc. had confessed their activities having been funded by the ISI. The Pakistani intelligence agency is the alleged mentor of various terror organisations, including IM, harming India.
In the meantime, the Lakhisarai police arrested four persons having links with Pakistanis. Gopal Kumar Goyal, Ganesh Prasad, Vikas Kumar and Pawan Kumar Gupta were arrested after the police acted “on a tip-off that some youth of the district, having links with terror outfits, were involved in large-scale money transfer on the instructions of Pakistan-based masters,” says a report in the Times of India.
All of them used to make frequent calls to some men in Pakistan and received money in Indian currency from across the border. As many as 20 ATM cards, 10 SIM cards and a dozen bank passbooks were recovered from their possession. Several crore rupees were deposited in the bank accounts and the money was transferred to some people in India. There is every possibility that this amount was used to fund the ‘terror’ organisations.
Although some media reports say that the police deny that they have any link to the Patna blasts or IM. The media also says it is just a case of hawala racket. It would be unwise not to probe this bunch of criminals from the angle that their services were achieved for funding the blasts in Modi’s Patna rally or in Bodh Gaya.
In this context the statement of the Gujarat Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela also assumes importance. Due to his association with the BJP in the past, Mr. Vaghela naturally knows much about the party. There must be substantiation in his statements about the BJP. In an address to his party workers, Mr. Vaghela accused BJP and RSS of funding the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM).
“The IM’s modus operandi is similar to that of the BJP,” Vaghela said claiming that the party was using Qadyani community to fund the IM.
Anyway, the whole episode hints at a different story. Indian Mujahidin might be a bunch of Hindutva brainwashed terrorists with ISI links and the Muslim youth arrested in its name might be innocent (some of the youth have been acquitted by the courts for lack of evidences). Our investigating agencies have committed blunders in solving terror cases. The world saw after the investigations of Hemant Karkare that in making arrests in Ajmer, Malegaon, Samjhauta Express and Makkah Masjid blasts the police had gone horribly wrong; it had arrested innocents while the real culprits were left to roam freely. This was despite that skull caps, fake beards, sets of kurta payjama and maps of various mosques were recovered from the house of Hindutva terrorists blown off while assembling bombs in Nanded in 2006.
In the blast taking place near the BJP office in Bangalore, ahead of the Karnataka assembly elections, the SIM card used to trigger the bomb was traced to an RSS leader. Similarly, the bike used in the blasts was registered for one Shankar Narayanan. But they were given clean chit by the police on various pretexts and the Muslim youth have to bear the brunt of the blasts.
The arrest of the four ‘ISI agents’ in Lakhisarai is an important lead for the investigating agencies. They should not be taken for granted. A thorough probe may reveal the terror network that escapes the eyes of our investigating agencies.
[A. HAMEED YOUSUF can be reached at ahameed12@gmail.com]