On the banks of the River Ganga, in Varanasi a blast occurred at close vicinity where routine ritual of Aarti was being performed at Sheetla Ghat in the evening of 7th December, a day after 18th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya. A two-year old girl died from her head injury caused by a flying piece of stone. Another casualty was of a 60 years old woman who died in the hospital five days later. 30-35 persons got injured in consequent mad dash after blasts and others under the impact of a railing which fell due to stampede. The Hindustan Times (December 8) reported, “The low-intensity bomb used in the blast here did not have shrapnel in it and the injured were hit by pieces of wall that broke following the explosion.”
Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of U.P. Police and National Investigating Agency (NIA) are engaged in investigating but there is no clue of culprits till writing this story (December 17). Quoting IG Varanasi Mr. R.P. Singh, the ADG Police of U.P. Mr. Brijlal said in Lucknow the next day, “The bomb was placed in some cavity in the wall between the Dashashwamedh and Sheetla Ghats and most of the persons suffered injuries due to stone splinters.” The Hindustan Times (December 13) reported, “The blast left a heavy and dense cloud of smoke and had a deafening sound but didn’t trigger a fire.” Referring to a senior police officer, the paper further reported, “Five days after the blast, investigators are yet to find any residue of the explosive used, remains of any circuit or detonator and even use of shrapnel in the explosive.”
Mid Day reported on December 12, “Police are still clueless about the nature of the explosive – as no splinters, remote control device, shrapnel or any electronic circuit were found from the blast site.” Quoting a senior police officer from Varanasi, the report said, “The nature of the blast and how it was triggered are two key questions before us… It’s still a puzzle for us. Until these two questions are answered, we would not be in a position to link any terror outfit with the blast.”
This shows the complexity of the situation and intention of conspirators. Certainly conspirators did not want to harm the worshippers but to create panic and make headlines in the media. They succeeded in their aim. A highly sophisticated device ‘never heard before’ was used to trigger the blast. The world knows only one country to design such innovate devices.
Within minutes of the blast, an email of five pages was received to some media houses, purporting to be sent by mysterious IM Module claiming responsibility of the blasts. However, terming the blast as a “terror attack,” ADG Mr. Brijlal had categorically said, “The police were not in a position to clearly state as to which outfit, organisation or module was behind the blast.” When some media persons in a quest to extract some spicy information of their like, suggested names of Bhatkal brothers purportedly master-minds of Indian Mujahedeen module, Dr. Shah Nawaz, (brother of Md. Saif, an accused in police custody in Delhi serial blast case and Batla House dubious encounter) and dragged the name of Azamgarh, Mr. Lal refused to fell in the trap.
The Hindustan Times (December 9) reported: “On report of involvement of Dr Shahnawaz, brother of IM foot soldier Mohammed Saif who was arrested in the Batla House encounter in September 19, 2008, and other youths from Azamgarh district in the Varanasi blast, Brij Lal said, “It was premature to say anything as of now.”
“As far as Shahnawaz and others, who are members of Indian Mujahideen, are concerned they are wanted in several cases of blasts in different states,” he said. “As I have already said, one cannot pinpoint any particular person or organisation at this juncture,” he said.
In New Delhi Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said, “It was a low intensity blast which occurred around 6.20 pm. He also rejected the suggestions to link the crime to some particular person or group as ‘premature’.”
However within minutes of the blast, TV channels started flashing un-interrupted stories with graphic details raising accusing finger on some Muslims. The sensationalist media ignored the facts on the ground and specific information provided by the senior officials, directly linked to the investigation. Instead they based their fascinating stories on the dubious email and a statement made by a Maharashtra police officer, who is not even remotely related to the investigation.
The Hindu (December 9) reported: “The police claimed on Wednesday that the blast was planned from Pakistan and the Bhatkal brothers (Riyaz and Iqbal) were involved in it.” “The main players of IM are based in Pakistan, and they are running this. Even the Bhatkal brothers are definitely there,” Mumbai Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Dayal told journalists.
It is not clear how could Mr. Dayal know what he stated so assertively in Banaras blast case? He must reveal if he has some conclusive evidence, except a dubious email, of involving certain particular persons or organisation. It is important as Mr. Dayal has squarely contradicted the Union Home Secretary Mr. Pillai and ADG Mr. Brijlal who is directly supervising the investigation as Head of UP ATS.
Bombay police have miserably failed to find the person(s) behind such mails. Was Mr. Dayal hiding his failure by pestering wild allegations against some mysterious Muslim identity? How can a police officer afford to ignore the possibility of involvement of terror groups linked with Sangh Privar who are caught involved in most heinous terror attacks in the country. Such an explosive device, which has puzzled our investigators, may only be in the reach of saffron brigade from their friends in Israel. Strong possibility exists that tactics of sending emails is used to mislead the investigators and to malign Muslim names as Saffronites and their Zionist friends have been doing.
Mr. Dayal claimed: “The e-mail was sent from an unsecured Airtel broadband WiFi connection.” He refused to name the owner of the connection, saying the person was innocent and his connection was used without his knowledge. However The Asian Age (9 December) reported that a senior crime branch officer told: The Wi-Fi connection is registered in the name of Mithilesh Talreja (32), a resident of Mansarovar building in Sector 17 in Vashi. “Mithilesh is a business development executive with a major telecom firm and lives with his brother Akhil.” Speaking to The Asian Age, Akhil said, “We had secured our connection with a password, but they must have managed to crack it.”
Obviously Mr. Dayal ignored this crucial information provided by Akhil and showed exemplary haste to exonerate Mr. Talreja and his brother in the sensitive matter of terrorism. He did not even bother to investigate the possibility of Talreja Brothers involvement and let them go “innocent”. Only IT experts can decide if their Wi-Fi connection was used by cracking their password or not.
It is not clear whether the Police Commissioner decided himself to hide the identity of Wi-Fi connection owner whose connection was used to send IM’s email and hold him “innocent” within minutes of his arriving to Police Office or acted on behalf of someone else? However young Talreja and his brother Akhil cannot be beyond doubt as Talreja is a senior executive with a major telecom firm, and it is difficult to believe that he was unaware of the risk of insecure connection.
In support of his theory of IM’s involvement, Mr. Dayal said, “Primarily, the signature style of this mail matches the previous mails sent by the module. This points to the IM’s involvement.” Email users know that only signature used in emails is its ID. The signature pasted on a text message does not authenticate the email.
It is not the first time that in a case of terrorism police officers and media personnel have eagerly blamed certain persons of organisations identified with Muslim names. Same stories were floated after blast in Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Dargah Shareef Ajmer, Makka Masjid, Mohammedi Masjid Parabhani, Qadaria Masjid Jalna, Jama Masjid Delhi and so on. However it was found later that these crimes were done by activists associated directly or indirectly with ‘Sangh Parivar’. After each terrorist attack, Muslim youth were arrested only on flimsy grounds and tortured brutally. Media, mostly controlled by Sangh sympathisers, made such atmosphere against the minority community that police officers acted to earn fame in anti-Muslim media.
Intention of blast as claimed in dubious mail also seems politically motivated to buttress the motive of the saffron parivar. It is quoted from the mail: “Indian Mujahideen attribute(s) this attack to the 6th of December that will haunt your nation of world’s ‘greatest demoNcracy’ until Muslims are paid back justly and fairly for the loss of their beloved Babri Masjid, the precious lives of their near and dear ones, their pride, dignity and self-respect.”
Yes, Indian Muslims have lots of grievances but they have never resorted to violent options. It is only saffron brigade which has been using violence against minorities. Babri Masjid was demolished by Hindutva extremists stimulated and instigated by Saffron Parivar in 1992. Muslims agitated on every 6th December but only peacefully and democratically. During the last 18 years no terror attack was reported to protest the demolition. Why this year, and that too on 7th December?
Media, without a scant of evidence, has propagated this as handiwork of IM which is said to have roots in Pakistan and get inspiration and training from Pakistani terror groups. Considering the nature of the Varanasi blast, it is hard to believe to be an attack sponsored by Pakistani terror outfits. There is no Pakistani terror imprint on this attack. Their attacks are always marked as extremely murderous. Those devils do not spare even their own devout brethrens offering prayers in mosques, attending funerals, gatherings of mourners and pilgrims of Holy Mazars. How can they think to spare Hindus offering aarti on the banks of Ganges?
The Times of India (12 December) reported that “initial tests with the Israeli kit” have confirmed the use of a compound explosive, ‘Semtex’ in the blast. It is a general-purpose plastic explosive used in commercial blasting, demolition and in certain military applications. The explosive is notoriously popular with global terrorists as it is extremely difficult to detect.” This strengthens the suspicion of Zionist involvement. The statement of Israeli spokesman in New Delhi defending RSS in matters of terrorism is loud indication of nexus between the two and pressure tactic to stop India from pursuing terror acts of RSS activists.
Recently BJP president Nitin Gadkari, with a big delegation of his party leaders, was on a six-day visit to Israel where he “underscored an urgent need for India and Israel to enhance cooperation in combating terrorism”. Is Varanasi a test case for this co-operation, as aim of both Israel and BJP is the same, malign Muslims for every act of terror? Present political scenario in the country and proximity of Sangh Parivar with Israel strongly indicates probability of saffron involvement, which is being completely overlooked. In recent past involvement of outfits, identified with Saffron Parivar and adherents of Sangh ideology has been in focus. After Varanasi blast, unfounded story of IM involvement has given some relief to the Parivar.
Recently on December 2, Bombay High Court has issued a notice to the Government on the issues raised in former IGP SM Mushrif’s book, Who Killed Karkare? Mr. Musrif has made a strong case to prove that ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s death was orchestrated by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) personnel and members of “right-wing terrorist outfit” Abhinav Bharat. The division bench of Justice BH Marlapalle and Justice UD Salvi found substance in his arguments, and said, “We feel these are relevant. The theory of deep-rooted conspiracy, has it been investigated into,” asked Marlapalle. The judges said they read the book and they would “go into areas of concern.” It is worth reminding that Judge ML Tahaliyani has observed in his verdict sentencing Kasab to death penalty that “bullets recovered from bodies of Karkare and Salaskar did not tally with the weapons of Kasab and Abu Ismail.” This notice of the HC has baffled the saffron parivar.
Before this on November 20 a revered ideologue of the Parivar ‘Swami Asimanand’, wanted in several blast cases, was arrested from his hideout near Hardwar and taken to Hyderabad for interrogation in Makka Masjid Blast case. He was in hiding since his name cropped up in Malegaon Blast case of 2008. He had been living there with assumed name and fake identity. Praveen Togadia reacted sharply on his arrest. During investigation of Malegaon case, Togadia’s name had also cropped up, but no follow-up action was taken after Hemant Karkare’s killing.
Before Swami’s arrest, the name of senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar has cropped up in Ajmer charge sheet (22 October) as one of the hatchers of blasts conspiracy. Asimanand has also revealed Kumar’s role to his interrogators. In the meanwhile leading party of ruling alliance in New Delhi has, albeit hesitantly, blown up the bugle to expose relation of terror and RSS. This all has baffled the Parivar, which seems to have come on the back foot. Varanasi Blast is a device to divert the attention of public and once again raise the boggy of Muslim terror.
Another Swami, Head of Nuh Gurukul Ashram, Mitranand, was arrested on 2nd Dec in connection with a huge blast in the Asharam on September 23, destroying a portion of the building. The blast occurred when he was drying two bombs near a heater. He got the bombs from his predecessor Swami Amranand. Mitranand confessed to the police that he had kept the detonator hidden for years in a water tank. This incidence found little mention in the “mainstream media”. Had this been the case of some Madrasah, Dargah, or Mosque, media reporting would have been entirely different with stories crafted with full reach of imagination.
Therefore we will request NIA to investigate Banaras Blast, impartially and also examine the probability of saffron involvement.
[SYYED MANSOOR AGHA is General Secretary of Forum for Civil Rights, email: syyedagha@hotmail.com]