Tamasha over Pak culpability
Swapan Dasgupta
The Pioneer
January 4, 2009

There are two wildly divergent debates raging in the world. The first, centred on the Israeli attacks on Hamas-run terrorist bases in Gaza, is about the definition of the term “proportionate”. Article 51 of the UN Charter accords to every nation the right to engage in self-defence against armed attacks — there is no distinction made between State and non-State aggressors. However, international law also stipulates that any retaliation must satisfy the principle of proportionality. Has Israeli targeted air strikes in crowded localities in Gaza which has produced nearly 420 casualties been disproportionate? Alternatively, should proportionality be measured by the risk posed by the aggressor rather than the number of civilians killed? After all, the Hamas is habituated to using women and children as human shields to maximise civilian casualties.

The second debate is actually somewhat of a non-debate and centres on the agonised deliberations in India over how to respond to the terrorist assault on Mumbai on November 26 last year. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has unilaterally ruled out invoking Article 51 of the UN Charter, although External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has insisted that all options are under consideration. Never mind deliberating on the scale of proportionality, India has been preoccupied with international lobbying to persuade Pakistan to simply acknowledge that “elements” inside its territory mounted a commando operation and killed some 170 innocent people in Mumbai.

The persuasion game has taken up more than a month. No doubt the Anglo-American alliance has worked diligently to do*****ent electronic evidence of the fact that the terrorists were being controlled by hardened LeT commanders in Pakistan. The chilling transcripts (and possibly recordings) of Internet telephony talks between the terrorists and their controllers have just been made public. These have presumably been read and digested by the Pakistani authorities.

The reactions to these revelations have been only marginally different from the outright denial that greeted the initial discovery of the Pakistani antecedents of the only butcher who was captured alive. Though Pakistan is sticking to the view that the terrorist, with parents who have owned up to his Pakistani citizenship, is nevertheless a Stateless person, it has calibrated its stand on the LeT commanders who masterminded the operation. It has now been stated that all culpable Pakistanis (if any) will be tried and punished in Pakistan. Even the good President Asif Zardari has affirmed to his nation that there is no question of extraditing any Pakistani, guilty or innocent, to India.

Soon enough, a theologian will also arise to tell the more religiously-inclined Pakistanis that an Islamic Republic cannot allow a Muslim citizen to be governed by non-Islamic laws. That, presumably, will put an end to the nice suggestion that the LeT leaders should be given a business class ticket to Amsterdam to stand trial at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Such a move would have the double advantage of also forcing India to grudgingly accept the jurisdiction of the ICJ.

The tamasha over Pakistani culpability has been continuing for more than a month and there are no signs that the show is coming to a quick end. India is waiting for its inquiries to get over before providing “proof” to Pakistan. When this process concludes in a few months, Pakistan will take time to study the evidence, ask supplementary questions and, maybe, even despatch the long awaited ISI team to verify matters. By then, hopefully, India would have voted in the General Election. If the UPA is re-elected, the Foreign Secretary may personally undertake to sit in on the next round of the joint anti-terror mechanism. If Manmohan Singh and Pranab Babu are forced into the Opposition benches, the successor Government will discover that it is left with no option than to postpone retribution till the next time the LeT or some other wild group decides that it is time to feast on the blood of unbelievers.

Some six weeks after the 10 commandos attacked Mumbai, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Pakistan has once again got away with calculated murder.

The reason behind this Pakistani success, as the Government has been bluntly informed by its senior diplomats based in the relevant Capitals, is unpalatable: Pakistan has calculated that India is in no position to exercise any punitive measure against it. The West has always regarded India as a bit of an upstart with pretensions of boxing above its class. (Of course, it considers Pakistan an absolute rogue unfortunately blessed by geography). Now the sheer incompetence, ineptitude and ineffectiveness of the Indian State are coming home to roost. So decrepit has the Indian State become that details of every minor garrison movement of the Indian Army are available to the Pakistan authorities in real time. The information is instantly used to warn the world of India’s aggressive intentions. Pakistan’s staggering human Intelligence in India has crippled the Government’s ability to move rapidly and in secrecy.

Let us be honest with ourselves, the complete neglect of national security since 2004 and the growing over-dependence on the US has taken a huge toll on India’s capacity to do what is in its own paramount national interest. Outsourcing is a good proposition when it comes to low-grade technology and elementary IT. When it becomes a policy mindset, the results are debilitating. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi may not realise this but surely the Home Minister and External Affairs Minister know the high cost India is paying for a must-win-election-at-all-cost approach to national problems.

The Mumbai attack has been a reality check for India. It has punctured our pretensions, informed us that leopards don’t change their spots and jolted us into realising that America won’t fight our battles for us. It’s time we learn the lessons of the 26/11 defeat.

Indian American community protests Mumbai carnage in New York and asks UN to declare Pakistan a terrorist state

Indian American community held a strong demonstration on December 21, Sunday 2008 here in New York, outside the UN against Pakistan sponsored Islamic terrorism and asked UN to declare Pakistan as a terrorist state.


About 300 men and women from New York and New Jersey spearheaded by Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) – USA, VHP-America, HSS, and supported by over 40 Indian American organizations participated in the demonstration braving chilly afternoon and shouted slogans vociferously against the heinous terrorist attack on Mumbai and denounced Pakistan's abhorrent role in sponsoring and manufacturing the Islamic terrorism.

The demonstration was started first by observing one minute silence to pay homage to the victims of Mumbai attacks including the brave police officers and army commandos who had sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. The demonstrators carried posters having pictures of Jewish couple from New York, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and wife Rivka, who were brutally murdered by the Pakistani terrorists in Mumbai's Jewish Chabbad center.

Some of the slogans shouted during the demonstration were, "Who is funding terrorism?' - Saudi Arabia," "Down with Pakistan," "Pakistan, a sponsor of Jehadi terrorism", "Declare Pakistan a Terrorist State", and "Down with Global Islamic Terrorism", "What happened in Mumbai, May Happen in New York too".

Some functionaries of OFBP, Jayesh Patel (Vice President), R. P. Singh and Jagdish Sewhani (General Secretaries) gave interviews to the television media while Rakshpal Sood, Ram Kamath (Treasurer), Raju Patel (New jersey Coordinator) and Krishna Reddy (Liasion, South India States) spoke to print media. The common theme of their interviews was that the elements from Pakistan's Army and infamous spy agency "ISI" should be tried for crimes against humanity by an International tribunal and asked the International community to stop financial aid to Pakistan unless they hand over the 20 terrorists to India who were identified and sought by the Government of India, and destroy the terror infrastructure spread across the Pakistani terrotaries.


Released By:

Public Relations and Media Committee – OFBJP (USA)

Stop running to US to tackle terror: BJP

December 11, 2008
rediff.com

Pledging support for a full-scale war against terror, opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said the government must stop depending on Washington hoping that the United States will come to its rescue in tackling Pakistan-backed terrorism.

"Please stop running to mummy (US) hoping that somebody else will help the country to tackle terrorism," senior BJP leader Arun Shourie said initiating a discussion in the Rajya

Sabha on the recent terror attacks in Mumbai.

He said the government keeps pinning its hopes on US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [Images] coming to resolve the country's problems with regard to terrorism.

Asking the government to stop the peace process with Pakistan, he said: "Your intelligence record shows that the ISI is now knitting together Indian insurgent groups."

Observing that China was propping up Pakistan, Shourie said Islamabad was supporting terrorism and at the same time putting the onus of the peace process on New Delhi.

Advising the government to come out of self-denial, he said four days before the Mumbai terror strikes, the then home minister Shivraj Patil was taking consolation in the figures showing comparison of terrorist attacks during the NDA and the UPA governments.

Referring to coastal security, he said barring one, none of the remaining 35 islands in Lakshadsweep was properly staffed by intelligence agencies.

Noting that the country remained vulnerable because terrorist groups backed by the neighbouring country use high technology like Voice over Internet Protocol, he warned that in the next five years the terrorists would use non-conventional weapons like chemical and nuclear arms in miniature forms.

Shourie said the proxy war started by former Pakistan President Zia-ul Haq has kept India bleeding for 35 years with no damage to them.

Advising the government to judge Pakistan by the ground realities, he said" "Please do not go by joint statements that you sign with their leaders."

Rejecting the theory of using minimal force, Shourie said the government should go all out to win over the proxy war unleashed by Pakistan.

"Not an eye for an eye. But, for an eye, both eyes. For a tooth, the whole jaw," he said.

He observed that violence in Jammu and Kashmir had come down in the last one year because Pakistan was preoccupied with its own problems in troubled areas like Balochistan, the tribal belt and other places.

He asked the government to empower the proposed Federal Investigation Agency with adequate teeth.

Asking the government not to make it a prestige issue, he said if the UPA was "allergic" to POTA, it should bring changes in the National Security Act so that tough actions can be taken against terrorists.

Shourie said the entire country would support the government if it took effective and urgent steps to combat terrorism.

He reminded Chidambaram that if he failed to act sternly against terrorism, "this time it will not only the share prices that will come down, but the entire country would have been let down and exposed to greater danger".

Don't petition Islamabad
Editorial
he Pioneer
December 5, 2008
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/140679/Don't-petition-Islamabad.html

Tell the world the truth; punish Pakistan

There's something nauseating about the manner in which the UPA
Government has been petitioning the Government of Pakistan in the hope
that Islamabad will do for New Delhi what the latter should do for
India. While Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's rude snub in response
to the UPA Government's plea for assistance is no doubt obnoxious, we
should not have expected him to react in any other manner. Those who
occupy the corridors of power in South Block today, among them a
feckless Prime Minister who is unable to distinguish between the
perpetrator of terrorism and the victims of terror, may be short on
memory, but the nation has not forgotten that it was Benazir Bhutto who
had urged jihadis to 'chop' India into pieces and played midwife during
the birth of the monster called Taliban. Nor is public memory too short
to recall Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's threat to inflict a "thousand cuts" on
India. Mr Zardari, after all, has to maintain tradition; much as he may
wish to, he cannot entirely disassociate himself from the political
legacy he has inherited. In any event, it is absurd to expect the
so-called 'civilian' Government of Pakistan to break ranks with the Army
and the all-powerful ISI to help India wage war on terror, that too on
Pakistani soil. That would not only gravely imperil Mr Zardari and his
cohorts who pretend to be in power but whose writ does not run beyond
Islamabad, but also be a fatal assault on the idea of Pakistan. Given
these incontrovertible facts, there was absolutely no reason for the UPA
Government to further diminish India's stature by pleading with those
who claim to rule Pakistan. If the UPA Government has acted in so
pitiable a manner at the Bush Administration's behest - which is
entirely possible - then the move deserves to be condemned all the more.
For all her tough talk in New Delhi, US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice has betrayed America's bias by praising Pakistan in Islamabad. Mr
Zardari is surely smirking, as are the Generals, including the ISI
chief, in Rawalpindi.

After the terrorist attack on Parliament House, the NDA Government had
sent emissaries - politicians representing all parties, not only the BJP
and its allies - to capitals around the world with a simple brief:
Present the evidence of Pakistani complicity. That single move turned
out to be a diplomatic coup, and fetched India global publicity that was
damning for Pakistan. Simultaneously, troops were deployed along the
border in what turned out to be a long standoff: We could absorb the
cost; Pakistan bled. This time, too, the Government should have taken
the international community into confidence, presented the evidence that
has been gathered, including telecommunication interceptions, and
insisted that the world must act in unison against a rogue state which
poses a threat not only to India but to everybody else. At the same
time, to demonstrate that India's sovereign rights cannot be sacrificed
at the altar of American 'interests' or infringed to please those in the
West who preach the line of least resistance, the UPA Government should
have taken decisive action against Pakistan. The Prime Minister and his
colleagues know that Pakistan is not going to help India track down
terrorists and their patrons. They also know that Pakistan will not shut
down the nurseries of terror that lovingly raise mass murderers. Above
everything else, it is no secret that when push comes to shove, the US
will advise 'restraint', which, of course, it does not practice when
American interests are at stake. Then why plod along a path that leads
to nowhere?

BJP pledges support to govt in fight against terror
Onkar Singh in New Delhi | December 04, 2008 | 23:09 IST
rediff.com

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday pledged full support to the UPA government in its fight against terror but with a few riders and said a consensus should be built before the government takes any major steps.

"Given that Pakistan has totally rejected all requests of the government, we expect the government to assess the stern steps that are required to ensure that Pakistan desists from pursuing jihadi terrorism. As a nationalist party, the BJP shall stand by the government in the effective steps it takes in this regard," Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh said told media persons.

Terming the Mumbai terror attacks as 'India challenged', BJP's core committee in its meeting said the terror challenge should be 'rebutted fully, visibly and tellingly'.

He was accompanied by senior BJP leader Arun Shourie.

"Consensus cannot be ex-post facto, it can arise only from consultations. There must, therefore, be a full and comprehensive sharing of facts," Singh said.

The BJP accused Pakistan of violating the January 6, 2004 accord between the two countries, which states that the country will not allow use of its soil for terror activities.

The ten conditions on which BJP has promised support to the UPA government include immediate suspension of 'peace process' with Pakistan, passing stern anti-terror laws, having uniform anti-terror laws throughout the country, sprucing up the intelligence machinery and setting up a federal investigative agency.

The BJP did not mince words in indicting that Pakistan was responsible for the frequent terror attacks on India.

"Unquestionably, Pakistan as the crucible of terrorism has by now become its principal exporter. BJP holds that India is not and cannot be made either the principal importer or a target of such an evil product," Singh said.

The BJP core committee observed that 48 terrorist attacks in 18 Indian cities have taken place in 2008 alone.

"If the violence unleashed by Maoists, ULFA and others is also taken into account then around 2,300 of our citizens have died on this account in the year 2007 alone," he said.

The party sought to blame the UPA government's policies for this.

Issuing a warning to Pakistan, Singh said, "The BJP, unambiguously, conveys to the Pakistan government that this road of confrontation chosen by them, after the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, is a perilous road, a blind alley with no exit and must be avoided."

The saffron party also had a word for the US and NATO countries, warning them that Pakistan is attempting blackmail by insinuating that unless they toe its line, it may dilute the co-operation it is giving in the fight against terror.

"We hope that the US and NATO will see that each time they step in to bail Pakistan out, it only emboldens that country to continue its destructive course," Singh said.

‘Shocked’ PM forgets his terrible record
Kanchan Gupta
The Pioneer
Nov. 30, 2008

The Congress believes, yes it really does, that its leaders alone have the right to ‘politicise’ national security while others should treat it as a ‘national issue’ above partisan politics. So, the Congress has been prompt in berating the BJP for suggesting that the pusillanimous UPA Government is to blame for the repeated terrorist strikes and the attendant death, destruction and devastation across the country. The 60-hour siege of Mumbai by fidayeen is the latest instance of India suffering yet another grievous blow at the hands of jihadis for whom slaughtering innocent people is the highest tribute to their faith. But after reprimanding the BJP for criticising the Government and thus ‘politicising’ terrorism, the Congress has had no compunctions about ‘politicising’ the grief and misery inflicted by mass murderers. On Saturday, the Congress issued a full-page advertisement in its favourite newspaper, listing the various terrorist strikes during the NDA years, casually mentioning the fidayeen attacks in Mumbai, saluting the security personnel killed in these incidents, and then preachily declaring that terrorism is a “national issue, not a political game”. The purpose was to influence people in Delhi hours before they stepped out of their homes to cast their votes in Saturday’s Assembly election.

The advertisement raises two issues, both related to political morality and ethics, which are alien to the Congress and its amoral and unethical leaders. First, according to this advertisement, there have been no terrorist attacks in India between the audacious strike on the Red Fort on December 22, 2000, and the November 26, 2008 assault on Mumbai. This, as every Indian knows, is a blatant lie. I have before me a list of terrorist attacks ever since the present impotent regime headed by an effete Prime Minister took charge of this country’s affairs after a scrambled election result helped the Congress to regain power at the Centre in the summer of 2004. The first attack was on August 16, 2004. The latest was on November 26, 2008. In between we have had terrorists visiting Delhi twice, raiding the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, attacking Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi, blowing up commuter trains in Mumbai, killing people at an amphitheatre in Hyderabad, blowing up bogies of the Samjhauta Express, and setting off bombs in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Assam. According to the propagandists of the Congress, none of this has happened!

The second issue raised by Saturday’s advertisement is about the Congress saluting the security personnel who have laid down their lives while fighting terrorists and protecting the nation. If any value is to be attached to the advertisement, we must conclude that the Congress is reluctant to salute Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma of Delhi Police who, like Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, was shot dead by terrorists. This is because the Congress wanted to send out, ever so slyly, a message to Muslim voters in Jamia Nagar for whom MC Sharma is not a hero but a villain because he dared raid a terrorist hideout in their locality. We must also presume, since there is no evidence to the contrary, that the advertisement was endorsed, if not cleared, by the Prime Minister. This speaks volumes about the integrity quotient of a man whose honesty, as claimed by his admirers, admittedly a rapidly disappearing exotic breed, is beyond reproach. Perhaps the Prime Minister needs to be reminded that only cowards take recourse to lies to cover up their failures.

Meanwhile, we had the occasion to hear the Prime Minister address a shaken nation 24 hours after the siege of Mumbai began. In his by now familiar laboured style, he expressed his “shock” at “the dastardly terror attacks. “I strongly condemn these acts of senseless violence,” he added. So what’s new? “I share the shock and distress of all those affected by these blasts,” the Prime Minister said on October 29, 2005, after the bombings in Delhi on Dhanteras. He was “shocked” on March 7, 2006, after the Sankat Mochan temple bombing. On July 12, 2006, he did not quite say that he was ‘shocked’ by the Mumbai commuter train bombings, but he did say, “No one can make India kneel” and promised that his “Government will do whatever is required” to deal with terrorism. On February 19, 2007, the Prime Minister was more than ‘shocked’ by the Samjhauta Express bombings — he was “anguished” and promised the “culprits will be caught”. On hearing about the serial bombings in Jaipur on May 13, 2008, the Prime Minister was again “shocked” and condemned “this dastardly attack”. On July 28, 2008, after visiting Ahmedabad following the serial bombings, he took care to mention that he accompanied Ms Sonia Gandhi before expressing “solidarity with the people of Gujarat”. On September 13, 2008, he “condemned the serial blasts in Delhi”; a month-and-a-half later, on October 30, 2008, he “strongly condemned” the Assam bombings.

The Prime Minister now mocks at the victims of terrorism and seeks to fool the people of this country by declaring, “We are not prepared to countenance a situation in which the safety and security of our citizens can be violated with impunity by terrorists... We will take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist attacks.” Having countenanced repeated terrorist attacks, which the Congress now brazenly pretends never took place, and silently witnessed the safety and security of our citizens being violated with impunity by terrorists, the Prime Minister now expects the people to believe that he shall join battle with the merchants of death. To prove that he means business, he had his Government, such as it is, to put out the bogus claim that he had summoned the Director-General of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and the Pakistani Government had meekly conceded his demand. In an interview to Karan Thapar for his television show, Devil’s Advocate, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has rubbished this claim. According to Mr Zardari, the Prime Minister, in a telephonic talk with him on Friday, had requested for sending a ‘director’ — a mid-level bureaucrat in the official hierarchy. “There was a miscommunication... We had announced that a director will come from my side... That is what was requested by the Prime Minister and that is what we agreed,” Mr Zardari said.

That the Prime Minister, after all his bluster, should settle for talks with a director of the Pakistan Government so as to “take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts” is a measure of his true intention.

OFBJP PRESS RELEASE, November 27th 2008


MUMBAI SHAKING AGAIN AND CONGRESS SLEEPING AS USUAL


OFBJP offers heart felt condolences to the families and friends of victims of Mumbai carnage perpetrated by Islamic terrorists, and expresses solidarity with the people of India in this trying time. Also, OFBJP salutes brave personnel of the security forces of India. No words are sufficient to express the shock and anguish against this loathsome and cowardice act of terrorism perpetrated by the Pakistani trained Islamic terrorists on the innocent people of India.



OFBJP is greatly concerned about the massive intelligence failure on part of the Indian government and demand the resignation of home minister Shivraj Patil. It is pathetic to see that the experts of anti-terror operations in Indian Police and Anti-Terrorism Squads (ATS) have been busy arresting, harassing and conspiring against innocent Hindu religious leaders for political considerations, while the real terrorists had been planning for over two months for the event of today enacted by bombing five star hotels and railway stations, taking hundreds of people hostage in Mumbai and killing over 100 persons. Dreadful terror attack by Pakistan trained Islamic Jehadists on multiple hotels and other places in Mumbai on 26.11.08 which claimed lives of hundred of innocent citizens is an eye opener for Indian security and anti terrorist squads, as even International Intelligence agencies are now confirming the involvement of globally connected terror networks like Al-Qaeda in Mumbai Bomb Blast, confirming that India is now been seen as a soft target for striking terror.



It is high time now that India’s ruling establishment headed by communal Congress and its allies learn that the cost of minority appeasement is no more being paid domestically and sooner or later India is going to be pushed into the category of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where no body knows who is running the country.



Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh led Congress has no shame as India became a soft target for the Islamic jehadists to settle their global conflicts on Indian soil. Congress Party led UPA alliance is busy indulging in their petty politics by way of implicating innocent female Hindu religious saints and patriotic Army personnel in terrorism and harassing and torturing them in all possible ways, while the real terrorists are allowed a free hand. This government and its security agencies have miserably failed in facing the real threat of Islamic terrorism.



Jehadi terrorism is now a subject of global concern and demands extraordinary determination, serenity and political will to uproot this menace. OFBJP and NRI community are very much concerned about India being turned into a soft target for terrorists and calls for a strong national consensus and mandate against the flawed and vote bank politics practiced by the communal and short sighted Congress party. OFBJP and the NRI community demand the restoration of strong anti terror laws and also demand the resignation of Shivraj Patil and R.R. Patil who failed the Nation in performing their duties.


OFBJP-USA: Media and Press Committee

Press Release
11/27/2008

OFBJP vehemently condemns the conspiracy of UPA Government to falsely implicate of Hindu religious leaders in Malegaon bomb blast case

The conduct of UPA ruled Maharastra government in the Malegaon bomb blast case surprised the NRI community across USA for its abhorrent tactics unheard of in a civilized democratic country. In a rush to falsely implicate some Hindu leaders in this case, the Congress party led Maharashtra Government surpassed even Taliban in their despicable inhuman torture methods reminding the dark period of Emergency.

The NRI community in USA could see through the game plan of communal Congress party that shows more hurry and eagerness to implicate Hindu religious leaders in the acts of terrorism to divert peoples’ attention from the Congress Governments total failure’ in dealing with the escalating Jehadi terrorism in the country. This is a politically motivated strategy of the ruling Congress party and its allies to appease Muslims for the sake of votes. They have been methodically adopting several measures to create a Muslim vote bank for their party since they came to power about 5 years ago.

In the process, they damaged the reputation of India across the Globe and now, they are hurting the reputation of NRI Hindu community across the world by coining the term “Hindu Terrorism” thus, bringing the Hindu community on par with the Islamic terrorists. Not even a Muslim country ever coined this term before. It is really a shame to have this communal government at the helm of affairs in India.

It is a matter of shame that in secular India, Hindu religious leaders are being falsely implicated in terrorism and being subject to the worst forms of torture and abuse of human rights and basic human dignity, compelling a female Hindu monk, Sadhvi Pragyan Singh Thakur to even think of committing suicide. No body would probably believe that it can happen in India, whose civilization, adored for its noble, tolerant and pluralistic culture, derived from Hindu religion and its saints. It is startling to read the torture story of Sadhvi Pragyan, Col. Purohit and others as narrated vividly in their affidavits submitted to the court.

So far, the UPA led Maharastra government could not find a single iota of tangible evidence against these allegedly accused people. Their police wing called Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) spins a new story every day as if the script is pre-written by a film script writer. First of all, they said that the motor cycle was owned by Sadhvi, but it turned out that she already sold that to somebody else few years ago. Then, they told that Col. Purohit stole a 60 Kg of RDX from an army depot, carried it on his back alone and dumped that in a river from a train to collect it later (imagine that). Indian Army trashed this story as nobody can steal such a big bag from Army and RDX is never stored in army depots. Maharashtra government did not even care for the reputation of Indian Army. But that is not a wonder as the communal Congress party tried to take a communal census in the Army few years ago. For the sake of Muslim votes communal Congress can mortgage the Army and the national intersts.

Later, they said that Col. Purohit blew up Samjhauta Express using RDX. This baseless statement infuriated the investigation team of Samjhauta Express blast as it was already established in the courts that Ammonium Nitrate was used in that blast and proved beyond doubt, the hand of ISI in that blast. This way they damaged the credibility of India in the comity of nations. Later, they came up with another story that these alleged people hatched a plan to eliminate some leaders of RSS and then most hilarious statements of all is that RSS has links with ISI and SIMI.

The NRI Hindu community is wondering, to what extents ATS under political pressure could go on to implicate Hindu leaders and tarnish the fair name of India. OFBJP strongly condemns the way Hindu religious leaders are being victimized by way of political conspiracies under the rule of communal Congress party led UPA government. OFBJP further demands that the Maharashtra government and government of India must stop this dubious show of ATS which is damaging the reputation of country and hurting the NRI community globally and further demands to take suitable leagal action against the ATS officials involved in the conspiracy. OFBJP in USA, calls upon the Indian community across the world to rise against this conspiracy of falsely implicating Hindu religious leaders in fictitious cases.

Released By: OFBJP (USA) Media and Press Committee

Why are Hindus angry?
18 Nov 2008,
Tarun Vijay
Times of India


In Srinagar, a Muslim women’s organization – the Dukhtaran-e-Millat – vows to impose the strict Islamic code on women through violence and declares that it is in the interests of women. The leader of this outfit, Asiyah Andrabi, was jailed several times for working against the nation and for being a conduit for money to jihadi groups who used that help to kill Hindus and create disaffection among people against India. The US State Department Report of 1995 held a Dukhtaran-e-Millat activist responsible for a parcel bomb blast at the BBC office in Srinagar in which one person was killed and two injured.

The DeM has recently been linked to certain money laundering cases. Andrabi was booked under POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) for receiving ISI money through hawala channels. Whenever she speaks against India, there is no emotion or any sense of regret.

She was never subjected to a narco test nor did the media feel anything bad about her. Instead, women's groups interviewed her, called her the “new face of Muslim feminism”, and glossy magazines splashed her interviews with a tinge of revolutionary romanticism.

For Indian seculars, the Srinagar crowd working against India brings added fizz, a thrill and a heroism that has to be “understood” rather than condemned. Serious academic columns are published saying that if they are so passionately and aggressively pursuing separatism, why shouldn't we give the Kashmir valley to them?

It’s only when a lady monk is killed in Kandhamal or arrested in Nashik and appears to be wearing saffron rather than green that expressions become stern, the law becomes the guiding force, narco tests are immediately ordered and before anything can be even remotely established, the person is pronounced guilty. No women’s organization comes out openly to say she is a woman and hence the police must protect her honour and religious obligations at all cost.

Her father says she is innocent. No one gives any importance to that statement.

She cooperates during the narco test and nothing incriminatory is proved. The police say she practices yoga, hence the narco test didn't work.

The bike, the RDX, the targets – nothing is proved. Yet, she is tortured in police custody.

The women's commission that swung into action when an item girl used it to get cheap publicity and hot assignments maintains a studied silence.

The Human Rights Commission remains unfazed and the red sirens of the Marxist class look the other way. They had been demanding a pardon for Afzal although the Supreme Court convicted him. But the issues involved were of secular nature; hence they had to speak.

Nobody still knows what Pragya actually did or didn't do. She has to be severely dealt with just because the colour she wears is not registered as secular in the government's registry of protection where rapists, extortionists and scandalous criminals get a cabinet berth and a murder accused jailbird becomes a chief minister for being on the correct side politically.

First they said an army officer used 60 kg of RDX to blow up the Samjhauta Express. Then the denial comes; no RDX was used, it was ammonium nitrate, oh no perhaps IEDs. Then the Mecca Masjid blasts are linked with Malegaon, then the Hyderabad police issue an official statement that nothing has been found to link the two. The motorbike, the disfigured numbers on the chassis, the absconding person, the real mastermind, the saffron terror guru ... Remember when the Kanchi Shankaracharya was arrested, what kind of charges were levelled against him? Rape, murder, financial fraud and womanizing. And women came foreword to issue statements about how they were “lured”. What happened afterwards? Even “nothing” won’t convey the nothingness of the entire plot.

But the damage to the great seat of Hindu reverence had been done.
After Kanchi and the Kandhamal murders, a new tool in form of Hindu terrorism has been crafted to make the Batla House terror gang happy.

Not a single Hindu will ever condone terrorism. It's not in our genes. Our blood group in this matter is different. If someone does it he is guilty of doing an un-Hindu act. Anyone caught and proven guilty must be severely dealt with. But why humiliate a majority community that defines the character of the nation for election gains?

Words, cacophony, a celebrative secular media's new 24-hour preoccupation – lynch the saffron, light the party fire.

Just one incident and look how Batla House terrorism, Jamia's protective belligerence, Assam blasts, Pakistani flags carried in Bodo areas by Muslim infiltrators, the Ram Setu destruction and affidavits that humiliate Hindus, everything got under cover. Only the newly manufactured “Hindu terrorism” is reigning in the national debate as a new fashion statement.

The invention of “Hindu terrorism” helped the government get out of a defensive shell and be extraordinarily active to crack a whip against “bad elements”.

It had never displayed this action-oriented thrill when the Delhi blasts occurred or the Jaipur blasts claimed more than 60 lives. No Maulana was arrested or caricatured in the media as the bloody green terror guru or ghastly Islamic terrorism.

No, they said, terror has no religion hence these blasts, though done with a holy book surrounded by AK47s, and long quotes from it to justify the blasts and the killings of Hindus shouldn't be sourced to religion. These must not be explained away as Islamic terror, but just the work of some misguided people who are giving a bad name to a peaceful, brotherly way of worship.

Fine.

But when they see saffron, everyone loves to tie them with the speeding bus of law enforcement and constitutional propriety and beat them black and blue to prove a secular manliness of dhimmitude variety.

Pragya says she was tortured in police custody but no one took any notice of that. Why?

Even the most dreaded women criminals have been accorded human rights protection. Pragya is no criminal, she doesn't advocate violence against the state, she is not a traitor, she doesn't impose any kind of obscurantist code on women nor does she use acid, like Andarabi, to make other women fear her dictates. She has not said she is out to kill others to bring about any kind of religious order. But she is tortured and no one says it a gross violation of human rights. Is she not to be given the protection that every woman is entitled to?

Those who write against the nation, insult our heritage and support secession, get applauds and awards. But those who die for the nation and protect the civilisational flow are tortured in police custody.

That's the brevity and power of a state that's in reality headed by a woman and is being actually run by another.

More than 60,000 Hindus have been killed by Islamic jihadis, in the name of their religion and not a single Hindu stood up to say: Enough is enough, I will now see the wicked are punished and innocents are protected.
There is a list of more than 200 Hindu temples razed or desecrated in the Kashmir valley. No Hindu Kashmiri vowed to establish a Hindu terror group to take revenge because the state apparatus has failed to provide them safety.

Seema, a six-year-old girl, was found lying unconscious in a pool of blood in Doda when Islamic terrorists came to her house in the thick of night at 2.30 am, woke up her father, mother and her 11-year-old brother, killing them after brutal torture. They used big knives to cut them into pieces.

Still no Hindu terror group was formed to teach them a lesson.

A two-and-a-half-year old boy who was crying for milk as his mother was shot dead by Islamic terrorists in Wandhama attracted the attention of the jihadis and the bullets silenced him too.

Even then, Hindus didn't become terrorists.

The great socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia use to say – India has three dreams – Ram, Krishna and Shiva. The abodes, the principal temples of the global Hindus dedicated to these three dreams of India were destroyed and desecrated by Islamic invaders. Go to Google and see how the Shiva temple in Kashi has been turned into a mosque in such a style that the pillars of the old Hindu temple remain clearly visible to show Hindus that here was once the temple they used to worship, which has been converted into a mosque.

Yet for the last four centuries no Hindu has turned a terrorist to take revenge in Kashi.

Now when elections are underway, the government is in shambles showing utter unworthiness to govern and protect patriotic people. Suddenly every single person arrested for terrorism is a saffron, a Hindu and nothing is appearing on the channels or in Sunday magazine features except the “grave danger of Hindu terrorism” and the army getting the saffron “tilak” of terror.

Even the Ghaznis, Ghauris and Abdalis haven't done so much of character assassination of a majority community as this government has done just to garner a few Muslim votes.

Is it fair?

Will it not create a reaction among those who have been chanting mantras of global peace and fraternity and praying for the welfare of all, irrespective of faith or colour? Pushed to a corner, restricted from crying and blackholed like the Jews during the Nazi regime, will it not be a bit too naive to expect that Hindus will remain silent and offer their necks for the secular sacrificial ritual of election gains? Their temples are bombed, their children are killed, their property is looted, their orchards are burnt, their motherland is disfigured and assaulted, yet the state declares a war on their sensitivities, the media muffles their voice and bans all for a for them to express their views. On the contrary, it shows the victims as aggressors, humiliating them in the eyes of the real attackers.

Nature abhors such Siberian gags. Peace is strengthened by justice alone.

The way Pragya has suddenly become a hero must make sane people sit up and take note of the wave passing through the Hindu heartland. Tsunamis don't send advance emails before they strike.

The author is the Director, Dr Syamaprasad Mookerjee Research Foundation.

For Congress Muslim Votes are more important than the lives of innocent Indians

THE INDIAN JIHADI NET-INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR---PAPER NO. 465
By B.Raman
November 1, 2008

The number of fatalities in the serial explosions in Assam on the forenoon of October 30,2008, has since gone up to 75, with the death of some of the injured in the hospitals. Another about 300 persons are undergoing treatment in the hospitals and some of them are stated to be in a serious condition.

2. According to the Police, there was a total of nine blasts timed to take place in four different cities or towns in the State between 11 and 11-30 AM.The most devastating in terms of casualties (35 killed), property damage and psychological effect on the people were the three in Guwahati, the Capital. In all these three cases, the improvised explosive device (IED) was kept in the boot of cars. The use of the boot of a car for keeping the explosives enabled the perpetrators to keep more explosive material than one could in a bicycle or in a tiffin box. In the Ahmedabad blasts of July,26,2008, the explosive device was kept in a car in the incident near a local hospital. Motor-vehicle- borne IEDs also cause more casualties due to the splinter effect and large fires, which have a traumatic effect on the local population. Many who rang me up after the Guwahati explosions remarked that the scene with cars burning reminded them of what they had been seeing on the TV about similar incidents in Baghdad. This kind of trauma one did not witness during the earlier serial explosions in three towns of Uttar Pradesh in November last year, in Jaipur in May,2008, in Bangalore and Ahmedabad in July, in New Delhi in September and in Agartala in October. The three cars had been kept parked with the IED near a vegetable and fruit market at Ganeshguri below a fly-over, in front of the office of the Kamrup Deputy Commissioner, and near a police station in the Fancy Bazaar. The Ganeshguri area is near the high security complex of the capital.

3. There were three explosions in the town of Kokrajhar in which 21 persons were killed. The IEDs were kept inside bags. A bag left in a local fish market seemed to have caused the largest number of casualties. Kokrajhar is the town headquarters of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). There were recently violent attacks on illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by sections of the Bodo tribals.Eleven persons were killed in two explosions in the Barpeta area. There was one explosion in the Bongaigon area, which does not appear to have caused any fatality. According to one report, the IED left in the Bongaigon area, which initially failed to explode, exploded after the police found it and were trying to defuse it. Ten persons were injured.

4. Forensic experts have not yet identified the explosives used, but the local police have been suspecting that the perpetrators had probably used a mix of the RDX and TNT. If they had used a high-power explosive like RDX and kept it in the boot of a car, the number of instant fatalities must have been more. Anyhow, one has to await the forensic report.

5. The traumatic nature of the explosions, the like of which Assam-----particularly Guwahati---- had not seen before caused an outburst of public anger against the authorities for failing to prevent the explosions. This necessitated the imposition of a curfew in some parts of the capital.

6. While Assam has been seeing for some years well synchronised serial blasts----either in different places in the same town or in different towns simultaneously--- those blasts were carried out with low-intensity explosives with low lethality. The synchronisation, the lethality and the expertise in assembling the IEDs exhibited in the October 30 blasts show the availability of higher lethality explosives and better expertise in using them. It is the assessment of the local police officers that the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), the ethnic terrorist group which has been fighting for an independent Assam, does not have the kind of material and expertise used on October 30. Only jihadi organisations----of local as well as Bangladeshi origin--- have such material and expertise. Among such organisations are the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami of Bangladesh known as HUJI (B) to distinguish it from the HUJI of Pakistan and the Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen (JUM), which had carried out nearly 450 synchronised explosions of low intensity IEDs in different places in Bangladesh on August 17,2005. The JUM's activities in Bangladesh are in a state of disarray following the arrest, trial and execution of some of its principal leaders by the Bangladesh authorities last year. While the Bangladesh authorities have been able to neutralise its top leadership, its middle-level leadership, infrastructure and trained cadres are still intact. Its capability for carrying out serial blasts of the nature seen on October 30 is unimpaired. The leadership, infrastructure and trained cadres of the HUJI (B) are also intact.

7. The Assamese police authorities, therefore, suspect that the explosions were more likely to have been carried out by one of these organisations or both, with the role of the ULFA, if at all there was any, limited to providing local logistics. The ULFA itself, through a spokesman based in Assam, has strongly denied that it had organised the explosions. The denial might have been motivated by the strong public anger over the blasts.

8.An organisation identifying itself by the abbreviation ISF (IM) has claimed responsibility for the blasts in a text message sent to a local TV channel in Guwahati. The authorities think that these abbreviations stand for Islamic Security Force (Indian Mujahideen). A local jihadi organisation by the name Islamic Security Force had come to notice in 2002, but it had not indulged in such activities so far. The text message might have been sent from a stolen mobile. Before the recent Olympics in Beijing, there was an explosion in a bus in Kunming. The perpetrator of that blast had also claimed responsibility in a text message sent from a cell phone. He could not be traced by the local authorities.

9.Before the visit of L.K.Advani, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to Shillong on September 28 and 29, 2008, the local police and media reportedly received two E-mail messages holding out threats against him. One of these messages was from a local law student by name Mominul Haque. He was identified as the suspected originator of this message and arrested. The second message purported to be from what was described as the North-East branch of the IM. It was reportedly received by a local media house on September 25. The originator of the message gave his name as Ali Hussain Badr, field commander of the IM in the North-East. The message said: "Our main objective is to blow Advani to pieces. Our suicide bombers are ready for this prestigious assignment. Advani's Hindutva demand seems to push India into a fascist mould and, as is well known, the proclaimed and identified main enemy of the architects of Hindutva (are) the Muslims and the Christians. Apart from the Babri Masjid demolition to the Gujarat massacre and the recent attacks on churches in Orissa, Karnataka, and some parts of Madhya Pradesh, Advani has always tried to portray the Muslims and Christians as inveterate enemies of the Hindus.This will be history in the making in the state of Meghalaya when our suicide bombers will rock Shillong. Stop us if you can. We have already set our foot in Shillong to kill Advani." The Shillong Police took added precautions and no terrorist strike took place during Advani's visit. The serial blasts in Agartala took place two days after his visit to Shillong.

10 It is difficult to comment on the authenticity of these messages sent in the name of the IM because the originators had not given any indicator of authenticity. After the Jaipur and Ahmedabad blasts, the originators had given such indicators in the form of pics of the IEDs at the spot where they were left.

11. For the present, I am inclined to agree with the assessment of the local police that there is a greater evidence of jihadi involvement than ULFA involvement. The ULFA, being an ethnic terrorist organisation, generally takes care to target mainly non-Assamese from other parts of India such as Biharis and Sindhis working and living in Assam. It avoids indiscriminate placing of the IEDS which might kill Assamese as well as non-Assamese Indian nationals. The jihadis kill indiscriminately.The October 30 killings appear to have been indiscriminate

12. If one carefully analyses the various serial blasts which have taken place in different parts of India since November,2007, one could notice an organic, mushroom-like growth of jihadi terrorist cells in different parts of India----- self-radicalised, self-motivated, self-organised with self-planning and self-execution of the strikes---- with each cell motivated by its own local grievances, but with all these cells having an as yet invisible connectivity with a single brain and a single source of inspiration orchestrating them. The police of Ahmedabad, Delhi and Mumbai have been able to identify and arrest the individual perpetrators, but they still do not have an idea of the brain and the command and control of these perpetrators.

13.The intelligence agencies and the police have been repeatedly taken by surprise and there are many inadequacies in their performance.But I find it cruel to keep criticising them all the time because they can be effective only if the political leadership allows them to be effective. Despite the wave of serial blasts and mass casualties caused by the jihadis from our Muslim population, the present political leadership in the Government of India and the Congress (I) continues to be in a denial mode. For them, the Muslim votes in the forthcoming elections are more important than the lives of innocent men, women and children. They are not prepared to admit that some Muslim youth in our own Muslim population have taken to jihadi terrorism of Al Qaeda kind. To admit that would amount to admitting that their policy of mollycoddling the Muslims has proved counterproductive and is threatening the unity of the country and its well-being. One can see evidence of this disturbing mindset in the case of the Assam blasts of October 30 too. While the professionals have been saying that the jihadis have done it, the political leadership is not mentally prepared to blame the Indian jihadis.

14. In the face of the inaction by the Government of India, the Indian Mujahideen is growing, like the Internet, organically----- with nobody knowing where is the beginning of this Jihadi Net, where is its end, how the various jihadi cells are connected with each other and who is facilitating their connectivity. It is a frightening scenario.

15. The Annexure gives extracts from my earlier articles on the subject.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)

ANNEXURE
1.Despite the recent arrests by the police of Gujarat, Delhi and Mumbai of elements associated with the IM and the SIMI in connection with the serial blasts of the past, explosions continue to take place in a widespread area across the country. This clearly indicates that while the perpetrators of the previous blasts have been identified and in some cases arrested, the jihadi iceberg and its command and control are yet to be identified. The analytical reports regarding the IM and its linkages being carried by the media on the basis of police and intelligence briefings show that our police and intelligence agencies have been shifting from one speculative assessment to another. ( 2-10-08 Mushrooming Terrorism: Now Agartala http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers29/paper2866.html )

2.Pleasing the Muslims at any price----by closing our eyes to the depredations of the jihadi terrorists in our midst--- in order to retain their support during the election has become an important driving force of the electoral strategy of the ruling coalition. If hundreds of innocent civilians have to die as a result, so be it. Keeping the Muslims happy is more important than protecting the lives and property of the citizens of this country. Another disturbing trend has not received the attention it deserved. Many members of the Cabinet of Manmohan Singh and many leaders of the ruling coalition are reportedly unhappy with the intelligence agencies and the Police for speaking of home-grown jihadi terrorism. They are also reportedly unhappy with the Prime Minister himself for drawing attention to this in his address to the Governors' conference. They want that the focus should continue to be on Pakistan and the terrorists sponsored by Pakistan and that one should not highlight the role of the Indian Muslims in the global jihad. They are worried that the talk of home-grown jihadi terrorism might increase pressure on the Government to step up the monitoring of developments in the Indian Muslim community and identify and neutralise the Indian Muslims taking to jihadi terrorism. ( 20-9-08 JIHADIS HOLD INDIA TO RANSOM http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers29/paper2850.html )

3.If these blasts continue in this manner with the police and the intelligence agencies being perceived not only by our public, but also by foreign Governments and investors as helpless, it could come in the way of our efforts to invite more foreign investment. The foreign investors have till now shown signs of continuing confidence in the capability of our Police and security agencies to prevail over the terrorists sooner than later. But, if such incidents continue at regular intervals, this confidence could be shaken. (19-9-08 Counter-Terrorism: Act Now. http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers29/paper2848.html )

4.It should be apparent by now firstly, that we have only identified the tip of the jihadi iceberg in our midst. The iceberg itself remains unexposed. Secondly, we have not yet been able to identify the command and control of the IM. Thirdly, like Al Qaeda, the IM is divided into a number of autonomous cells each capable of operating independently without being affected by the identification and neutralisation of the cells involved in previous blasts. (13-9-08 Self-Styled Indian Mujahideen Strikes in New Delhi http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers29/paper2844.html )