In the backdrop of terror blasts that have been shaking the nation for the last few years, SOROOR AHMED raises a very serious and pertinent question: why these blasts are taking place during Ramadhan and Shab-e-Barat or on Fridays and why the terrorists select more exclusively Muslim targets than Hindu ones.
What a surprise it is! About a month has passed since the Muslim festival of Eid (October 2) and not a single blast has taken place anywhere in the country. Barring a weak explosion in Kanpur, which caused some minor injuries nothing of sort happened anywhere in the country though two big festivals, one of Muslim and another of Hindu, fell in between. Where have all the Indian Mujahideen people suddenly gone?
In contrast the Maharashtra Police on October 22 disclosed that Hindu Jagran Manch, an outfit close to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students wing of the BJP, was involved in the bomb blasts of September 29 in Malegaon in Maharashtra and Modasa in Gujarat. Five Muslims were killed in Malegaon while one in Modasa. The explosions took place when Muslims were busy doing Eid marketing. The Maharashtra police have detained so far six Hindutva activists, including Pragya Singh Thakur, an “extremely radical” sadhvi from Gujarat. The motorcycle used in the Malegaon blast was traced to Pragya, a member of ABVP national executive during 1996-97. Other persons detained in this connection have been identified as Dilip Nagar, Mehul Rawal, Shyamlal Sahu, Dharmendra Bairagi and Shivnarayan Singh.
How this anti-climax? Between September 13 (when the first blast took place in Delhi) and October 1 (that is the day Eid moon was sighted) passed without threat of terror attack in one place of the country or the other. Even after the September 19 Batla House killings, explosions continued to take place in Delhi, Malegaon, Modasa etc.
If the earlier versions of the police are to be believed then why is it that the “Muslim terrorists” suddenly become active during Ramadhan and Shab-e-Barat or on Fridays and why they select more exclusively Muslim targets than Hindu ones remain a mystery. It has also been pointed out in this column last month that apart from Sankat Mochan Mandir blasts in Benaras the terrorists have targeted exclusively Muslim targets more than half a dozen times. The Akshardham Temple attack of Ahmedabad on September 25, 2002 was not a bomb blast but a different type of attack by some gunmen.
The blasts need to be assessed differently. At times, for example in Jaipur or Delhi’s Ghaffar Market, it has been observed that a substantial number of Muslims also lost their lives.
Be it the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001; killing of armymen in the Lal Qila and subsequent killing of a suspect militant in an encounter in Batla House; the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu and subsequent release of Masood Azhar; October 29, 2005 Sarojini Nagar (Delhi) blasts, or this year’s bomb blasts and subsequent encounter – once again in Batla House – all took place in the second half of the Islamic month of fasting. As if that is not enough, right from March 12, 1993 Mumbai blasts, till September 19 last encounter most of these incidents have taken place on Friday – the Makkah Mosque blasts in Hyderabad during the Juma prayer is one of them. Even in the case of Malegaon the blasts in the mosque took place on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat, when Muslims were offering special prayers. The terrorists have targeted the Dargah of Ajmer right at the time of Iftar killing some people a couple of years back. Once a blast took place even in Delhi’s Jama Masjid causing injuries to a couple of persons.
The irony is that if any person was caught red-handed in the act of fomenting trouble this Ramadhan it was none else but a young man named Sanjay, son of Shankar, a police constable posted in Gaya district of Bihar. He was arrested on October 1 night, that is a day before Eid, from his father’s official quarter in Rampur police station of the town on the charge of sending threatening SMS to the Magadh Range DIG, Pravin Bashist and district magistrate of Gaya, Sanjay Kumar. The message sent on September 26 said that four young men, armed with nine mm pistols have intruded into famous Vishnupad Temple premises, where a large number of pilgrims have assembled for performing Pindaan.
Though this news was reported in the Patna edition of some dailies, the matter was grossly underplayed. As to why the son of a policeman chose September 26, the last Friday of Ramadhan, to cause panic remained unresolved.
Incidentally the message was sent at the height of the fortnight long Pitripaksha Mela, which concluded on September 29, in Gaya. About half a million Hindus from all over the world assemble in the holy city of Gaya every year during the Mela to offer salvation (Pindaan) for the death of the departed souls of their relatives. Luckily never had any blast taken place in these huge congregations of Hindus be it in Gaya, Allahabad, Benaras, Puri, etc.
The sudden spurt in blasts, especially during Ramadhan, raise a serious question. So does the sudden drop in the incident of violence just after the holy month. This is not an isolated case this year. If the terrorists have plan to provoke communal backlash in the country and defame India then why is it that Durga Puja passed without any such incident, though it took place only a week after the height of terrorist activities? Since those behind the blasts would not disclose their plan, the onus lies on the government – which claims to have information about their activities – to explain the real design of the terror group, whosoever they may be.
Now the sensational disclosure by Maharashtra police that Hindutva outfits were behind at least a couple of blasts gives a new twist to the whole chain of events. Why is it that no headway was made in the investigation of other explosions, which took place in Kanpur, Nanded and at least a dozen places notwithstanding the clear-cut involvement of Hindutva outfits?