By stating that Bahadur Shah Zafar’s remains will not be brought to India, Singh has admitted publicly what he has been saying in private — namely, that there is pressure on him, by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, to ‘go slow’ on 1857.

Coming from a formation that prides itself on Indian nationalism, this pressure exposes not only the narrow RSS vision of Indian nationhood — it also reveals how the RSS, to use the old Leftist jargon, is a pro-imperialist force.

This goes down well with the perception that the RSS-Sangh Parivar men avoided participating in the Freedom Struggle. Even the RSS would concede that 1857 presents a shining example of patriotism and Hindu-Muslim solidarity. Why then can the remains of Bahadur Shah Zafar — the leader of that struggle in which thousands and perhaps millions of Hindus perished fighting for a ‘Muslim’ king, and the latter, in deference to Hindu sentiments, banned cow slaughter — not be brought to India?

The answer is complex, though obvious. If brought to India, Zafar’s remains would be turned into a memorial, which, it is possible, might turn into a pilgrimage site for millions of Hindus and Muslims.

Harking back to the Sufi Indian tradition, Zafar’s mazaar would heal the Hindu-Muslim divide — for the RSS, this is indeed a nightmare situation. Zafar himself was a Sufi — he wrote verses, in which he described his visits to a Hindu temple, with qashqa (tilak) on the forehead and zunnar (sacred thread) around his neck.

While writing fiction in the name of history, British authors like William Dalrymple conveniently ignore this piece of information.

In 1857, Zafar did nothing extraordinary — he merely followed the Indian subcontinent’s tradition, where a king, whether Hindu or Muslim, looked upon his praja (people) as belonging to one category, irrespective of religion. In 1857, orthodox Chitpavan Brahmin leaders like Nana Saheb opened their proclamations with Islamic invocations.

Begum Hazrat Mahal and Khan Bahadur Khan issued direct appeals to Hindus in the name of Lord Ram and Krishna — all this was done without pretension, or a pseudo-secular attitude.

Ahmad Kharral, the leader of the Gugera-Multan-Rawalpindi insurrection, the major anti-British, 1857 rising in present-day Pakistan, had Sikh soldiers as his lieutenants.

New research is revealing astounding facts — the entire view that Sikhs sided with the British in 1857 is false. Patiala, Nabha, Jind and Kapurthala — the cis-Sutlej Sikhs — who sent soldiers against Zafar to Delhi, were even anti-Ranjit Singh. They sided with the British both during Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s lifetime, and the two Punjab wars.

After Ranjit Singh’s death in 1840, his Khalsa army actually took over the control of the Lahore Durbar — like Bengal army sepoys, Khalsa army soldiers too were ‘peasants in uniform’.

After being disbanded in 1849, they fanned out into the Punjab countryside — during 1857, Mohar Singh, a Khalsa army veteran, declared openly in Bahadur Shah Zafar’s favour, going so far as to declare a Khalsa-Mughal Raj in Ropar.

So, it was only the cis-Sutlej Sikhs that supported the British; but, here too, in 1858, at Dera Ismail Khan, in present-day Pakistan, the 10th Sikh Infantry revolted — British officers and Patiala, Nabha, Jind rulers state on record that they could not trust their soldiers, and that even cis-Sutlej Sikhs were ‘getting excited by news from Awadh and the Hindustani areas.’

This is sensational stuff, for the entire 10th Sikh Infantry revolt news has been suppressed — students of history are simply unaware of the major, pro-Bahadur Shah Zafar role, which included the Benaras-Jaunpur centred revolt of the Ludhiana regiment, Sikhs played during the Independence war. Zafar’s proclamations and the 1857 ‘national song’ mentions Sikhs naturally, along with Hindus and Muslims, as patriotic Indians.

No less revealing is the Bombay army role, and the Maharashtra-Gujarat-Karnataka risings — Bombay army infantry and cavalry units revolted in Kolhapur, Satara, Karachi, Bombay, Aurangabad, Nasirabad, and Ahmedabad. No one knows that Bombay infantry sepoys, one Hindu and one Muslim, were blown apart from a cannon’s mouth, in what today, stands as Mumbai’s Azad Maidan.

During the 1858 Konkan-West Coast guerrilla fight, which stretched from Raigad and Ratnagiri to Savantwadi, and then onto Udupi and Mangalore, Mahar, Maratha, Kannada and Tulu warriors fought shoulder to shoulder. Nearly every Indian district, whether in the UP-Bihar-MP belt, or Orissa, or Assam-Bengal, or West India, showcases an amazing pattern of ‘one Hindu, one Muslim’ martyr.

In Jharkhand, a plaque in Chatra even today, commemorates Jaimangal Pandey and Sheikh Nadir Ali.

In Maharashtra, Pathans and Arabs figure prominently in the 1857 Khandesh (Nasik-Jalgaon-Dhule) struggles launched by Bhils and Kolis. In Karnataka, the Gulbarga, Dharwar, Raichur risings saw Lingayat-Ramoshi-Maratha-Muslim participation.

Above all, in Ayodhya, at the site where the Babri Masjid was demolished, Mahant Ramdas and Maulavi Amir Ali, as well as Shambhu Prasad Shukla and Achchan Khan, two religious Hindus and two religious Muslims, were hanged side by side.

It is commonly believed and propagated that the Madras army and the Madras Presidency was bereft of risings — yet in Madras, at a place called Vaniyambadi, full of Labbai Muslims, the 8th Madras Cavalry rose — elsewhere, led by Thevar-Vellala sepoys, several the 37th Madras infantry men deserted. Then in Vellore, in 1858, Madras army sepoys killed their British officers.

In the Andhra-Telangana country, Girijan tribes of the coastal-Godavery belt rose under a Reddi leader and a Muslim-Pathan ex-soldier; in Adibalad and Warangal, and Cuddapah and Nellore in Rayalseema, Pathans and Sheikhs formed a small army with Gond and Kapu help.

In Kerala, Moplah agitators, helped by Ezhavas, the Kerala scheduled castes, and Namboodri Brahmins, staged risings in the Malabar region.

The India that 1857 represents is not the India where a Hindu police officer from Gujarat kills a Muslim in a fake, fascist, communal encounter. To confirm this, one only has to hark back to the May 12, 1857, speech given by Henry Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner of Oudh (Awadh) in Lucknow. Lawrence enumerated all the false, communal arguments, including that of ‘Hindu persecution under Muslim hands’, used even today by the RSS.

The similarity is striking and sickening — only one conclusion is possible –that, before 1857, India was a different land with a different culture. Plainly and simply, ‘modern’ caste and community differences are all British creations.

In the post-1857 period, it was not just the RSS that killed the 1857 legacy. A large Parsi-Marwari-Bania section, which supported the British in 1857, and dominated the Congress led Freedom Struggle, ensured the rollback of the 1857 Kshatriya-Pathan peasant-warrior India. It was this very Bania mentality that allowed India’s Partition.

India’s Bania secularism also failed to prevent the Babri mosque’s demolition, and India’s arm-twisting on the nuclear deal, and Muslim persecution, in effect, the maltreatment of the very forces that fought against the British in 1857. It is this India that refuses to honour its national heroes.

This article is based on the book War of Civilizations: India, South Asia, Europe and the World — 1857-1857, by Amaresh Misra, to be published soon by Rupa & Co.

Youths killed in blast were Bajrang Dal activists
Kanpur | Senin, Agust 25 2008 IST

The youths killed in yesterday’s blast at a private hostel in Vinayaknagar here were reported to be activists of Bajrang Dal Hindu organisation.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Awadh Bihari Dubey today said here the deceased Bhupendra Singh (32) was a member of Bajrang Dal seven years back. He however, had been inactive for the last few years.

Police, meanwhile, claimed Bhupendra and the other deceased Rajeev Mishra were engaged in making a bomb, which exploded.

A detonator, time-bomb, a haul of explosive material and other equipment used in making bombs were seized from the room, police said.

The land lord Shiv Sharan Mishra, a retired electric supply corporation engineer, said he did not share a good relationship with his only son Rajeev and was not on speaking terms with him since long.

Rajeev was working in a mobile company in the state capital and used to visit home only on week ends, Mr Mishra said.

Police have handed over the bodies to their families after postmortem.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed sources said the duo were active members of Bajrang Dal and used to train youths. Yesterday, a blast took place in a private hostel room in Kalyanpur area of the industrial city, killing two youths and injuring few others residing in adjacent rooms.

– (UNI) — 25DR27.

Two Bajarang Dal Activists killed while making a bomb

By Ram Puniyani

The Milli Gazette Online

By now the acts of terror, Islam and Muslims have become synonymous terms in popular imagination, propagated by US media globally and supplemented by Hindu right wing here at home. A large section of the media has added to the manufacturing of this stereotype. Most of the times the alleged terrorists are shot after the incident and their pockets very obligingly produce a letter of their identity and the intentions which are accepted without any probe. Most of the times the questions raised about the holes in the official version are ignored and forgotten over a period of time. Many a times the blasts come in handy for BJP to sweep the elections as happened in the aftermath of Akshardham attack in Gujarat. No doubt investigating the acts of terror are not easy, no doubt many of these terrorists are the left over of Al Qaeda and many other groups still carrying on their agenda of creating terror and rift in the society, no doubt some of these groups have bases in Pakistan or Bangla Desh. But is that the end of the tally?

On 6th August (2006) in the middle of the night, a powerful bomb exploded in remote place in Maharashtra, Nanded. The house where it exploded belongs to the RSS sympathizer with Bajarang Dal flag flying a top the house. The impact of the blast could be felt in the whole town, in the perimeter of two kilometers, some people felt as if it is an earth quake. The house where the blast took place, all the furniture was blown apart and two members of Bajarang Dal were killed on the spot and three other were seriously injured. It was a single explosion, not multiple one as happens with crackers.

Next day the local Superintendent of police was prompt to offer the cover to the Bajrang Dal and its activists by declaring that it was due to crackers, which have accidentally been exploded. The house search revealed the powerful bomb, I. E. D. with timer and remote control, after which the Inspector General of police had to concede that it was a bomb blat and that those involved in the blast are the members of Bajrang Dal. Local papers reported that a diary has been found at the spot, which has the details of bomb making techniques and other relevant information. The Local BJP MP started dishing out the subtle instructions by saying that innocent should not be implicated and that it was a minor incident.

The police, despite the severe implications of the incident are dealing with this blast with kid gloves. They did arrest some fourteen people, who were close to the one’s who died. But they all have been released as the charges framed, deliberately or by default, were under the minor clauses and not adequate to reflect the seriousness of the crime so according court granted the bail. Also the police/state pleader had no objections if the bail is granted to the arrested ones. Police is working on the theory as if such a massive exercise could have been done by a bunch of youth in an isolated manner. The Bajrang Dal chief and other activists of the Bajrang dal are roaming freely. Apart from the overall intentions of the bomb makers, one has also to examine the intentions of the bomb making in the context of the local events and the profile of Nanded. events. Nanded is a city where the major Sikh Gurudwra is located and Sikhs are present in substantial number. Just a month ago one Sikh girl and a Muslim youth eloped and got married. This incident left bitter feelings and tensions amongst the two communities. At the site of the bomb making false beard and moustache has been recovered. One has to recall that during last two years three major incidents of bomb blasts have taken place in the nearby towns of Parbhani, Purna and Jalna.

The surprising aspects of the episode is, the soft peddling of the incident by the local police, the apathy of the guardian minister and the home minister of the state, the non cognizance of the event by the Central government and the national media, print and electronic both. Congress ruling coalition has its own calculations and it has never shown the will power to take the Hindutva forces on democratic grounds. There is nothing new about its showing disinterest in investigating the incident properly and bringing to book the volunteers of RSS, Bajrang Dal and other associates of this multi-headed hydra. Barring two investigations, one by a Nagpur based team of Secular Citizens Forum with PUCL and other by Mumbai based Forum against War and Terror, not much has been done to take the implications of the events seriously. Of course a section of local media has done good job but it has failed to attract the national attention. The contrasting scenario can very well be imagined. If by chance any Muslim would have been a part of the ghastly incident, by now hundreds of Muslims and many an organizations would have been rotting in the jail and all the national media and the concerned authorities would have swooped down the city and apprehended the culprits and detected/discovered the links with Al Qaeda/ISI and what not. No such probability exists here as by now state administrations and social common sense has associate terrorism and blasts with a particular religious community. The RSS and its affiliates who began with the lathi drill have come a long way, from lathi wielding to the making of the bomb and giving the training to its volunteers in using knives, disguised as Trishuls, guns and lately the bomb as this incident shows. At what time to use which of the weapons through which of the volunteers and than to disown the volunteer is nothing new for this outfit. Nathuram Godse, the killer of father of the nation was disowned, so was Dara Singh, the killer of Pastor Graham Stains. No wonder this episode in the remote interior of Mahrashtra may get suppressed, forgotten and a major source of terrorism will go uninvestigated with guilty remaining unpunished and the organization behind that continuing its divisive journey as before. (Issues in Secular Politics) [08-05-06].

Special Correspondent

http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/30/stories/2008083061311300.htm

New Delhi: Monthly magazine Communalism Combat has called for an immediate ban on the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for their “involvement in spreading terror across the country.”

The demand was made on Thursday at a press conference addressed jointly by Justice (retd.) B.G. Kolse Patil, former Director-General of Gujarat Police R.B. Sreekumar, film-maker Mahesh Bhatt and Editor of Communalism Combat Teesta Setalvad.

They said a ban on the two organisations assumed urgency in the wake of the mayhem spread by them in Orissa as well as revelations of their involvement in terror networks in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. They also called upon the government to constitute an official tribunal, comprising three sitting judges of the Supreme Court, to oversee investigations into all terror-related crimes.

Mr. Justice Kolse Patil said that though there was mounting evidence of the Bajrang Dal’s involvement in bomb-making activities, not a single case was pursued to its logical end.

Ms. Setalvad said a “mountain of damning evidence” was available to incriminate the Bajrang Dal in the bomb blasts that took place at the residence of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker in Nanded in Maharashtra in April 2006. As recently as last week, two Bajrang Dal activists died in an explosion while assembling bombs in Kanpur. The two men left behind explosive materials enough for several terror strikes, she alleged.

Ms. Setalvad spoke specifically of the Nanded bomb blast case that claimed the lives of Naresh Kondwar and Himanshu Panse, both active workers of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The case was handed over to the Anti-Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra on May 4, 2006.

Quoting from the two charge sheets filed by the ATS, Ms. Setalvad made the following points: Kondse and Panse were assembling bombs with the intention of targeting Muslim places of worship. The house where the bombs were manufactured belonged to RSS worker Laxman Rajkondwar. Diaries, important documents, suspicious maps and mobile numbers were unearthed from the house, which led the ATS to a terror trail spread over Parbhani, Jalna and Purna.

Ms. Setalvad said the ATS charge sheets revealed that as many as three dozen Bajrang Dal workers from all over Maharashtra received systematic training from experts in bomb-making and bomb explosion. Despite this clinching evidence, the CBI watered down the findings in its own charge sheet filed in 2008, allowing the accused to be released on bail.

Ms. Setalvad announced that she and the other speakers would soon move the Supreme Court in order to bring to its attention the discrepancy in the charge sheets of the ATS and the CBI.

Parvathi Menon

— Photo: AFP

TERRIFYING VIOLENCE: A vandalised church in Tengedapathar village in Kandhamal district. A mob shouting anti-Christian and Hindutva slogans targeted this church three days after the gang rape of a nun and attack on a priest in K.Nuagaon. Bhubaneswar: The Orissa government has failed to take any action, under the law of the land, against those who committed bestial crimes — the gang rape of a 28-year-old Catholic nun and the brutal attack on a Catholic priest who courageously resisted their attempts to force him to participate in the atrocity. These incidents took place on August 25 at K. Nuagaon, 12 km from the Baliguda subdivision in Kandhamal district. Both victims filed First Information Reports at the Baliguda police station. Sister Nirmala, Superior-General of the Missionaries of Charity, wrote to the Orissa Chief Minister and the Prime Minister specifying the atrocities.

The brutalisation of the nun and the priest by a mob raising anti-Christian, Hindutva slogans took place around 1 p.m. at the site of the Divya Jyothi Pastor Centre. The church was burnt the previous day in reprisal against the murder of an RSS activist, Lakshmanananda Saraswathi, and four of his associates on August 23. The gang rape of the young nun, whose “virginity [was] grossly violated in public” (and whose identity is being withheld by this newspaper to protect her privacy) took place in front of a police outpost with 12 policemen from the Orissa State Armed Police present and watching, according to Father Thomas Chellan, the priest who was dragged out and badly beaten.

“Around 1 p.m., a gang came and pulled me and the Sister out of the house where we had taken shelter and started assaulting us,” Father Chellan told The Hindu in a telephonic interview from Kerala where he is recuperating.

“My appeals to the policemen who were standing nearby and watching only resulted in further beating. At one point the nun slipped away to plead with the police for help but she was dragged back by the mob and her blouse torn,” he said. The nun was gang raped in a nearby building, and he was doused with kerosene by the mob, which threatened to set him on fire. They were saved by a group of youth who took them to the police outpost where “one among the attackers was present with the police between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.,” Father Chellan said.

News of the K. Nuagaon atrocity was conveyed through mobile phones to several priests and nuns hiding in the forests, fearing for their lives as the anti-Christian hunt was on. The victims were taken to the Baliguda police station around 9 p.m. where they lodged First Information Reports. “I believe the Sister wrote in her complaint that she was raped,” Father Chellan said.

The atrocity, about which the State government has not gone public, has outraged and terrified Christian organisations working in Kandhamal district. News of it was brought to the notice of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik by Raphael Cheenath, Archbishop of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar diocese.

Sister Nirmala wrote letters to the Orissa Chief Minister and the Prime Minister on this and other brutal attacks on Christians in Orissa. In her letter, dated August 28, 2008, to Chief Minister Patnaik, she took up “a very sad incident, soon after the eruption of the violence” of “one young sister, consecrated to God, who was administrator of an institute, being hunted out of her hiding place and stripped naked by the mob and her virginity grossly violated in public, without any help from the police present there.”

In her appeal for protection to Christians, Sister Nirmala urged the Chief Minister to “ask the Central Govt. for as many extra forces from the Centre as they are willing to give and you need.”

When contacted, Praveen Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Kandhamal district, told The Hindu that investigations into the episode by a Deputy Superintendent of Police were on and “the law will take its course.” He confirmed that no arrests have been made in connection with the incidents.

Prafulla Das

— Photo: By Special Arrangement

After the arson: Firefighters douse the flames at an orphanage at Khuntpalli village in Orissa where protesters burnt alive a 20-year-old woman. BHUBANESWAR: Orissa was on the boil on Monday during a bandh called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal in protest against the killing of VHP leader Swami Lakshmanananda.

Protesters burnt alive a 20-year-old woman in an orphanage at Khuntpalli village in Bargarh district. In Kandhamal district, where the Swami and four others were killed by suspected Maoists on Saturday night, a villager was burnt to death.

Many churches, prayer houses and other Christian institutions were attacked in Kandhamal, Bargarh, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, Boudh, Sundargarh and Jajpur districts. At least two prayer houses were damaged in the capital city.

Director-General of Police Gopal Chandra Nanda said the woman who was killed in the orphanage was a student. Asked whether the victim was a nun, he said it was yet to be ascertained.

As regards the death of a villager in Kandhamal, Mr. Nanda said the police had received information, but were yet to reach the spot.

Unconfirmed reports said the victim, Rasanand Pradhan, who was suffering from paralysis, could not escape when many houses in the Christian-majority village were set on fire.

Road and rail traffic was affected all over the State during the bandh. Banks, markets and business establishments remained closed, while government offices recorded thin attendance. Educational institutions were closed.

In the Assembly, the Naveen Patnaik government faced an embarrassing situation when Bharatiya Janata Party legislators trooped into the well and stalled the proceedings demanding the immediate arrest of those involved in the killing of the Swami.

Simultaneously, the Opposition Congress demanded a discussion on the “deteriorating” law and order situation. They demanded the resignation of the Biju Janata Dal-BJP coalition government for its failure to maintain law and order.

Speaker Kishore Kumar Mohanty adjourned the House for the day after he failed to persuade the BJP members to allow the proceedings to continue.

The Congress, however, gave notice for moving a no-confidence motion against the government on Tuesday.

ibnlive.com

BOILING POINT: The orphanage in Bargarh district which set on fire on Monday.

Bhubaneswar: A woman was burnt to death and a priest injured when a mob set fire to an orphanage run by Christian missionaries in a village in Bargarh district of Orissa on Monday during a statewide shutdown called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

Suspected Sangh Parivar activists first chased away around 20 children at the orphanage in Khuntapali village and then set it ablaze at around 1600 hrs. A 25-year-old woman, who worked as a teacher-cum-caretaker at the orphanage, was killed in the fire. First reports from the village had said the woman was a nun.

A priest who was trapped in the burning building was badly burnt and is now recovering in a hospital.

In the past Hindu extremists in Orissa have attacked Christian missionaries. In 1999 an Australian missionary, Graham Staines, and his two sons were killed by a mob that set their car on fire.

The VHP had called the statewide bandh in Orissa to protest against the murder of its leader in Kandhamal district on Saturday.

Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a member of VHP’s central advisory committee, and four other people were killed at his Jalespata ashram in Kandhamal district on Saturday evening after suspected Maoist rebels opened fire on them.

Over a dozen churches and prayer halls were torched, police outposts attacked and about 15 vehicles damaged in the communally sensitive Kandhamal district during the bandh.

The administration imposed curfew in Baliguda and Phulbani towns in Kandhamal district, but people defied the order when Saraswati’s body was brought in a procession to his ashram. Those in the procession attacked churches and prayer houses, eyewitnesses said.

More than 1,000 security personnel were deployed in the region. Officials said the curfew would continue in both towns till Tuesday.

PTI reports that churches were also attacked in Khurda, Bargarh, Sundergarh, Sambalpur, Koraput, Boudh, Mayurbhanj and Jagatsinghpur districts.

A paralytic patient identified as Rasananda Pradhan was killed by a mob in Rupa village in Kandhamal on Sunday night. Pradhan was trapped when the mob set houses in the village on fire.

“Two people have died in two separate incidents. This is most unfortunate,” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters.

“The situation is under control and we are closely monitoring it,” he said, adding that he had asked the central government for more security forces.

Most government and private offices witnessed thin attendance as thousands staged demonstrations and burnt tyres in several villages, towns and on national highways. Almost all shops and petrol pumps remained closed and many were stranded at bus stops.

Train services were affected across the state, J P Mishra, spokesperson of the east coast railway, told IANS. “Passenger and goods trains were not allowed to move from stations.” Road traffic was also badly hit and vehicles were attacked.

In Bhubaneswar, Sangh Parivar activists fanned out in large numbers in order to enforce the bandh and blocked important roads and intersections.

The unrest was reflected in the Orissa Assembly as well with ruling and opposition legislators clashed over the killing.

The opposition Congress demanded suspension of the question hour and an immediate discussion on the law and order problems in the state; and the BJP, an ally of the BJD government, demanded suspension of proceedings for the day in view of the shutdown.

Saraswati was leading a campaign against cow slaughter and religious conversion in Kandhamal. The district has a population of around 600,000, including 150,000 Christians, and has witnessed clashes between Hindus and Christians in the past.

Saraswati’s supporters had been holding protests since Saturday night, blocking trains and vehicles.

The state government on Sunday ordered a judicial probe into the killings and announced compensation for the victims. Authorities also constituted a special police team to investigate the murders.

(With inputs from IANS and PTI)

A watertight case claimed by the prosecution in the horrific July 2006 Mumbai train blasts seems anything but that, with many accused reporting torture, finds AJIT SAHI

Warzone: A fire officer in the wreck of a train Photo:AP

TIFFIN IN hand, Saeed Shaikh reached the gates of Mumbai’s central prison on Arthur Road at 10.30 a.m. on June 28 this year as he’d done every day for eighteen months. It was a special meal of mutton that Saeed was bringing his father, Sohail, who had been incarcerated in the high-security jail for two years now without bail as one of the 13 people arrested for plotting and carrying out the Mumbai train blasts of July 11, 2006 that killed 187 people. A low-income darner and a faith healer from Pune, Sohail had failed to get bail, like the other accused, even from the Bombay High Court although the only evidence against him was a confession that he had long denied having made to the police. If anything, Sohail and the others had constantly complained of torture at the hands of the jail staff but had failed to secure any relief from the courts.

That day, as he reached the jail, Saeed sensed something was wrong. Over a hundred policemen had massed at the gate. The daily mulakat, the across-the-window brief conversations allowed between visitors and the accused, had been abruptly ended. Officials at the gate refused the lunch boxes from Saeed and the others, who were allowed by a court two years ago to bring home-cooked food for their relatives who are the accused in this case. Two police wireless vans were parked at the gate. “I heard some people say that the ‘railway ones’ are being thrashed inside,” Saeed told TEHELKA in an interview during a visit to the High Court where he has filed a petition over his father’s torture. The ‘railway ones’ is colloquially used to refer to the accused of the Mumbai train blasts.

Saeed had heard that a police van had emerged from inside the prison shortly before he had reached, and sped away. At 1.30 pm, the gates suddenly opened and another van sped out. A third followed 20 minutes later. “I saw abba [father] through the grill at the back of this last vehicle,” Saeed says quietly. “He was soaked in blood.” The father, too, saw his son for a fleeting moment and shouted: “We’ve all been badly beaten.” The relatives later found out that the jail authorities had thrashed dozens of accused of three different cases, then divided them into three groups and sent them to prisons in other cities. Naturally, the anxious relatives asked to be taken to the prison authorities but were rebuffed.

A prime accused in the Mumbai train blasts case is a medical doctor, Tanveer Ahmad Ansari. As with most of the alleged SIMI activists held in criminal cases across India, he, too, has a history with the police: he was arrested on the day SIMI was first banned in September 2001. (The police had claimed that the next day when the magistrate gave bail to him and six others, they shouted slogans “hailing SIMI” and were promptly rearrested. Seven years later, both cases are still pending trial.)

Shortly after one of the vans carrying Tanveer had left, his brother, Ishtiyaq Ahmed, saw that police van at a crossing while returning on his motorcycle from Mumbai’s satellite town of Bhiwandi. As he desperately tried to talk to his brother through the van’s narrow windows, Tanveer told him: “We have been beaten badly. My hand is broken.” Another accused, Kamal Ansari, had a bandage around his right hand. A third accused, Majid, had his head plastered. On July 12, Ishtiyaq traveled to the Nagpur prison to meet his brother. He found that Tanveer’s left hand was fractured, his right shoulder was badly hurt, and he had sores all over his body. In the two weeks since the attacks, no medical examination had been conducted on any of the accused.

ON JULY 7, 2008, Sohail Shaikh’s son, Saeed, filed a petition at the High Court alleging that his father and around 39 other prisoners (including those accused in other cases such as the bombing at Malegaon city and of an alleged arms haul in Aurangabad) were “assaulted brutally for almost two hours with batons, lathis, belts and stones”. He alleged that about 75 jail employees as well as other convicts egged on by them had attacked these accused when they refused to leave the prison unless they were shown the court orders mandating their transfer.

“(Over) the last six months there was (an) escalation of torture and humiliation of the accused by prison staff,” the petition said. The High Court asked the jail authorities to file a report on the allegations. Over a month later, the case proceeds at the usual slow pace, bogged down with more and more fact-finding.

In fact, the accused of the July 2006 Mumbai train blasts case have long alleged torture and harassment, saying the police have been pressuring them to turn “approvers” so that they can implicate the other accused. They say the anger of the police and the jail authorities has soared as none of them has broken down and turned an approver. On March 25, another accused, Ehtesham Siddiqui, was severely assaulted by the policemen who brought him to the court from the jail. The trial court asked him to speak but, says a relative, he “was too scared to do so”. Gaining courage a week later, he filed a detailed statement on the assault.

The trouble for these accused began on July 11, 2006, when seven bombs went off in the evening in 1st class compartments of seven local trains of Mumbai over a few minutes. Within hours, the government had said it suspected the hand of the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit, Lashkar-e-Tayaba. Within a day, SIMI’s name was being mentioned as connected with the blasts.

The police filed seven cases for the seven blasts. The next day, these cases were transferred to the Anti-Terrorism Squad of Mumbai Police and bunched together. Two months later, the ATS applied the draconian Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act 1999 (MCOCA), which is the state’s equivalent of the now-lapsed Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). Like POTA, a key feature of MCOCA is that it allows judges to accept a confession made by an accused before a police officer as evidence in the trial against him.

Sure enough, the investigating officer, Sadashiv Patil’s investigations “revealed” that SIMI members were involved in the blasts as “major conspirator/ offender”. While 13 accused were arrested, another 15, including 10 Pakistanis, were shown as absconding. Nine of these ten Pakistanis are random names like Kasam Ali and Ammu Jaan with “full name and address not known”. Two more Pakistani nationals have been shown as “deceased”. The conspiracy goes all the way back to 1999 when, according to the ATS, the key Pakistani national, Azam Cheema alias Babaji of Bahawalpur, hatched conspiracies against India with some of the Indian Muslims who have now been arrested. Cheema allegedly supplied “money, men and explosives”.

The chargesheet in this case is as thin on evidence as thick it is in size, running as it does into a staggering 10,000 pages. For example, the ATS says that the prime accused among the arrested, Dr Tanveer Ansari, travelled in May 2004 from Mumbai by air to Teheran from where he was taken to Bahawalpur in Pakistan, and then to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, where he trained in “handling and use of arms and explosives in a Laskhar-e- Tayaba training camp”. Ansari returned in July 2004 “by the same route”. Of course, there is no evidence of this besides the assorted confessions, since denied several times over.

The most stunning allegation against Ansari is that he “procured considerable quantity of liquid chemicals viz. Acetone, Hydrogen Peroxide and Sulphuric Acid in order to cause explosion out of the combination of these chemicals. The bottles of these chemicals were stored by him in a locker of Saboo Siddiqui Hospital in Nagpada (a Mumbai locality), which have been taken charge of…” It is certainly common knowledge that such chemicals are used in a variety of “non-explosive” uses, ranging from cleaning toilets to nail polish. Besides, hospitals routinely store these chemicals for their everyday use.

Three months after the blasts, the ATS claims, one of the accused led it to a spot near railway tracks in Dahisar, a locality far north of Mumbai, where “a bag containing cooker gas gates (sic), whistles, electrical wires, plastic box with printed circuit board were recovered…” — three months after the blasts.

BEYOND THIS, there is little evidence on offer. The allegations of the ATS against each of the accused are elaborate: travels for terrorist training, hatching conspiracies, raising funds (including through hawala transactions that are anyway impossible to document), arranging the explosive materials, making the bombs, carrying the bombs to the stations and planting them in trains. The only small problem is that nearly all of it is based on the confessions of the accused.

Once again, the accused have confessed in batches together. Three accused made confessions on the same day: October 7, 2006. Four others followed the next day. Subsequently, 10 retracted their confessions. One has denied ever making it.

Accused Ehtesham Siddiqui is charged with having “supervised” the assembling of the explosive devices and planting the explosive bag in one of the trains whose blast killed 31 people. Siddiqui is accused of having joined a meeting a week prior to the blasts in Ujjain that had been called by SIMI leader Safdar Nagori (whose story is profiled on page 23). ATS says the meeting decided to fight “against VHP, RSS, Bajrang Dal”. The police also provide a look into his personal life to bolster their case: “In April 2005, he was married but he could not go well with his wife owing to his extreme and orthodox thoughts and ultimately his wife left him within six months of his marriage.”

Investigating officer Sadashiv Patil admits that his breathtaking prose on the multi-layered conspiracy running across several countries since 1999 is totally premised on confessions. In his deposition before the SIMI Tribunal headed by Delhi High Court judge Geeta Mittal during July 9-12, 2008, Patel wrote: “During the course of the investigations, statements of aforesaid 10 arrested accused related to SIMI were also recorded by the investigating machinery which clearly reveals role played by them as a member of SIMI organisation in the said anti-national attack…” For example, an accused named Faizal Ataur Shaikh, “as per his own confessional statement, has gone to Pakistan…”

What is sinister is that confessions of some of the accused made to the police were recorded under MCOCA, whose provisions allow such confessions to be used as evidence against these accused although they later told the magistrate at the first available opportunity that they were tortured to sign those confessions, or that they never made any such confessions.

Even more sinister is that the identify of numerous prosecution witnesses, whose statements “equally revealed active involvement” of SIMI members, have been hidden — under orders from the trial judge (called the MCOCA court) hearing this case! The pretext is that the protection and the safety of these witnesses require hiding their identity. Such witnesses are now named only as F-129 or AD-894 or A-52 — and yet, there testimonies will be allowed to stand in the trial.

Indeed, the modus operandi of the ATS appears quite clear. The list of 13 accused arrested in the case shows two dates of arrest for each one. Therein lies a tale. The first date of arrest of Faisal Ataur Shaikh is July 27, 2006. Till September 30, 2006, the police did not show him to be at all involved with the blasts, saying that he had “led a cell” that had surveyed for the other group that was to carry out the blasts. But that day onwards, the police began to claim he was among the actual perpetrators. His second date of arrest comes then.

The most interesting part is that even the alleged confessions of many don’t say that they are members of SIMI.

Let’s return to the torture. On October 6, 2006, the prosecution told a magistrate that seven of the accused cannot be produced before him as they were “being interrogated”, even though the police had been ordered to do so. The reason, says SIMI lawyer, is that they were badly tortured and the bruises on their bodies would have revealed that to the magistrate. Accused Faisal Ataur Shaikh was not even allowed to meet his lawyer although the latter moved several applications.

SIMI counsel Jawahar Raja thus confronted Sadashiv Patil at the Tribunal hearings in July:
Raja: On November 9, seven accused retracted their confessions.
Patil: They did, but these have been recorded under MCOCA (so they are valid).
Raja: The accused have repeatedly filed complaints of torture.
Patil: Yes, they have. But they are all false.
Raja: Did you write to Investigating Officers of the 2001 SIMI ban cases to crosscheck the names of SIMI members?
Patil: It was not necessary.
And the Kafkaesque trial thus goes on. •

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh attacks the BJP just like Sushma Swaraj attacked the Congress. ‘Investigate the timings of the blasts’, he tells NEHA DIXIT

You have made a statement that serial blasts take place in the country only when the BJP is in trouble.

What I have said is that the timing of the bomb blasts is quite uncanny. Why does it always happen when the BJP is in trouble? That needs investigation. I am not charging anyone.

What do you mean when you say the BJP is in trouble?

When the TEHELKA issue was to be discussed in Parliament, the House was adjourned for three days. Then when the expose was to be discussed, the Parliament attack took place. When the Godhra incident took place, Congress was doing exceedingly well in the local body elections and Narendra Modi had won by only 6,000 votes as a chief minister and that too with great difficulty. During the recent Karnataka election, there was a bomb blast in Hubli on the very first day of polling. Similarly, two days before the polling in the second phase in Karnataka elections, there was a bomb blast in Jaipur. It really needs an investigation.

Is your statement a response to Sushma Swaraj’s accusation against the Centre?

No, there is no question of that. I have been citing these instances about the blasts for a long time.

But Sushma Swaraj was criticised by the Congress … Sushma Swaraj alleged that the Congress is involved directly. I have not said that. And does she have any facts?

I have facts of RSS, VHP making bombs.

Do you have evidences to prove that BJP, VHP and RSS is involved in making bombs.

Yes. In fact, in 1992 there was a bomb blast in the VHP office in Madhya Pradesh, where one VHP member died and two were injured while making bombs. Then in 2002, there was a bomb blast in a temple in Mhow. When the police arrested the VHP activists after investigation, they confessed that they were even given training to manufacture bombs. I have a videocassette of that confession. Again, in 2006, in Nanded, there was a bomb blast in the house of a RSS activist where two RSS activists died. After that in March 2008, there were bomb blasts at two places in Tamil Nadu. Then too VHP activists were arrested by the Tamil Nadu police who confessed that they were involved. And how did the Gujarat police suddenly find eighteen bombs planted on trees in Surat?

So are you saying that the BJP is behind the recent serial blasts?

No, I am not saying anything. All that I am saying is that the timing is uncanny. RSS, VHP activists have been caught making bombs, material for preparing bombs have been found at their office and there are three-four clear cases where they have been arrested and a case has been registered. Why isn’t anyone looking into this?.

Shouldn’t all parties unite against terrorism?

Absolutely, but when you target only Muslims, it’s not correct.

Then why is the blame-game still on?

It is on because we have evidence to say that people who talk about nationalism and nationalist feelings should not be involved in making bombs. The BJP believes in divisive politics. They cannot survive without dividing Hindus and Muslims. Each time something happens, they come back to Hindutva.

I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures and now I look at them as multi-skilled, multi-talented, resilient women whose brand of sisterhood makes Western feminism pale into insignificance.

POLITICIANS AND JOURNALISTS just love to write about the oppression of women in Islam … without even talking to the females beneath the veil.

They simply have no idea how Muslim women are protected and respected within the Islamic framework which was built more than 1400 years ago.

Yet, by writing about cultural issues like child brides, female circumcision, honor killings and forced marriages they wrongly believe they are coming from a point of knowledge.

And I am sick of Saudi Arabia being cited as an example of how women are subjigated in a country where they are banned from driving.

The issues above have simply nothing to do with Islam yet they still write and talk about them with an arrogant air of authority while wrongly blaming Islam. Please do not confuse cultural behavior with Islam.

I was asked to write about how Islam allows men to beat their wives. Sorry, not true. Yes, I’m sure critics of Islam will quote random Qur’anic verses or ahadith but all are usually taken out of context. If a man does raise a finger to his wife, he is not allowed to leave a mark on her body … this is another way of the Qur’an saying; “Don’t beat your wife, stupid”.
Now let’s take a glance at some really interesting statistics, hmm. I can almost hear the words pot, kettle, black. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, four million American women experience a serious assault by a partner during an average 12-month period.
On the average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands and boyfriends every day . . . that is nearly 5,500 women battered to death since 9/11.

Some might say that is a shocking indictment on such a civilized society, but before I sound too smug, I would say that violence against women is a global issue. Violent men do not come in any particular religious or cultural category. The reality is that one out of three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. Violence against women transcends religion, wealth, class, skin color and culture.

However, until Islam came on the scene women were treated as inferior beings. In fact we women still have a problem in the West where men think they are superior. This is reflected in our promotion and wages structure right across the spectrum from cleaners to career women who make it into the boardroom.

Western women are still treated as commodities, where sexual slavery is on the rise, disguised under marketing euphemisms, where womens’ bodies are traded throughout the advertising world. As mentioned before, this is a society where rape, sexual assault, and violence on women is commonplace, a society where the equality between men and women is an illusion, a society where a womens’ power or influence is usually only related to the size of her breasts.

I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures and now I look at them as multi-skilled, multi-talented, resilient women whose brand of sisterhood makes Western feminism pale into insignificance. My views changed after the truly terrifying experience of being arrested by the Taleban for sneaking into Afghanistan in September 2001 wearing the bhurka.

During my 10-day captivity I struck a deal that if they let me go I would read the Quran and study Islam. Against all the odds, it worked and I was released. In return I kept my word but as a journalist covering the Middle East I realized I needed to expand my knowledge of a religion which was clearly a way of life.

And no. I’m not a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. To be a victim you have to bond with your captors. During my imprisonment I spat, swore, cursed and abused my jailers as well as refusing their food and going on hunger strike. I don’t know who was happier when I was released – them or me!

Reading the Quran was, I thought, going to be a very simple academic exercise. I was stunned to discover that ut clearly stated women are equal in spirituality, education and worth. A woman’s gift for child birth and child-rearing is very much recognised as a quality and attribute. Muslim women say with pride they are homemakers and housewives.

Furthermore The Prophet (pbuh) said that the most important person in the home was The Mother, The Mother, The Mother. In fact he also said that heaven lies at the feet of the mother. How many women make it into the top 100 power lists for simply being a “great mother”?

With Islam choosing to remain at home and raise children takes on a new dignity and respect in my eyes, similar to those sisters among us who choose to go out to work and have careers and professions.

I then began looking at inheritance, tax, property and divorce laws. This is where Hollywood divorce lawyers probably get their inspiration from. For instance the woman gets to keep what she earns and owns while the man has to stump up half his worth.

Isn’t it funny the way the tabloid media gets very excited over the prospect of some pop or film stars pre-nuptial wedding agreement? Muslim women have had wedding contracts from day one. They can choose if they want to work or not and anything they earn is theirs to spend while the husband has to pay for all the household bills and the upkeep of his family.

Just about everything that feminists strived for in the 70s was already available to Muslim women 1400 years ago.

As I said, Islam dignifies and brings respect to motherhood and being a wife. If you want to stay at home, stay at home. It is a great honor to be a home maker and the first educater of your children.

But equally, the Quran states if you want to work, then work. Be a career woman, learn a profession become a politician. Be what you want to be and excel in what you do as a Muslim because everything you do is in praise of Allah (swt).

There is an excessive, almost irritating concentration or focus on the issue of Muslim womens’ dress particularly by men (both Muslim and non-Muslim).

Yes, it is an obligation for Muslim women to dress modestly but, in addition, there are many other important issues which concern Muslim women today.

And yet everyone obsesses over the hijab. Look, it is part of my business suit. This tells you I am a Muslim and therefore I expect to be treated with respect.

Can you imagine if someone told a Wall Street executive or Washington banker to put on a t-shirt and jeans? He would tell you his business suit defines him during work hours, marks him out to be treated seriously.

And yet in Britain we have had the former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw describing the nikab – the face veil revealing only the eyes – as an unwelcome barrier. When, oh when, will men learn to keep their mouths shut over a woman’s wardrobe?

We also had Government Ministers Gordon Brown and John Reid express disparaging remarks about the nikab – both these men come from over the Scottish Borders where men wear skirts!!

Then we had a series of other parliamentarians enter the fray describing the nikab as a barrier for communication. What a load of nonsense. If this was the case can anyone explain to me why cell phones, landlines, emails, text messaging and fax machines are in daily use? Who listens to the radio? No one switches off the wireless because they can not see the face of the presenter.

The majority of sisters I know who choose to wear the nikab are actually white, Western reverts who no longer want the unwelcome attention of those few leering men who will try and confront females and launch into inappropriate behavior. Mind you, there are a couple of London sisters I know who say they wear the nikab at anti-war marches because they can’t stand the smell of spliffs.

I am afraid Islamophobia has become the last refuge of the racist scoundrel. But the cowardly, chauvinistic attacks launched – largely by men – is unacceptable to Muslimahs as well as their secular, female sisters from the left.

I was a feminist for many years and now, as an Islamic feminist, I still promote womens’ rights. The only difference is Muslim feminists are more radical than their secular counterparts. We all hate those ghastly beauty pageants, and tried to stop laughing when the emergence of Miss Afghanistan in bikini was hailed as a giant leap for women’s liberation in Afghanistan.

I’ve been back to Afghanistan many times and I can tell you there are no career women emerging from the rubble in Kabul. My Afghan sisters say they wish the West would drop its obsession with the bhurka. “Don’t try turning me into a career woman, get my husband a job first. Show me how I can send my children to school without fear of them being kidnapped. Give me security and bread on the table,” one sister told me.

Young feminist Muslimahs see the hijab and the nikab as political symbols as well as a religious requirement. Some say it is their way of showing the world they reject the excesses of Western lifestyles such as binge drinking, casual sex, drug-taking etc.

Superiority in Islam is accomplished through piety, not beauty, wealth, power, position or sex.

Now you tell me what is more liberating. Being judged on the length of your skirt and the size of your cosmetically enhanced breasts, or being judged on your character, mind and intelligence?

Glossy magazines tell us as women that unless we are tall, slim and beautiful we will be unloved and unwanted. The pressure on teenage magazine readers to have a boyfriend is almost obscene.

Islam tells me that I have a right to an education and it is my duty to go out and seek knowledge whether I am single or married.

No where in the framework of Islam are we told as women that we must do washing, cleaning or cooking for men – but it is not just Muslim men who need to re-evaluate women in their home. Check out this 1992 exert from a Pat Robertson speech revealing his views on empowered women. And then you tell me who is civilized and who is not.

He said: “FEMINISM ENCOURAGES WOMEN TO LEAVE THEIR HUSBANDS, KILL THEIR CHILDREN, PRACTICE WITCHCRAFT, DESTROY CAPITALISM AND BECOME LESBIANS”.

Here is an American man living in a pre-Islamic age who needs to modernize and civilize. People like him are wearing a veil and we need to tear that veil of bigotry away so people can see Islam for what it is.
]]> http://therealarticles.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/how-i-came-to-love-the-veil/feed/ 2 ali