Buying peace with jihadis
B Raman (Pioneer, 27 May 2008)
Rather than fight terrorists, the Pakistan Government is back to striking deals with them
Disturbing signals from Pakistan relating to the various deals being made with different jihadi outfits by the coalition Government headed by Mr Yousuf Raza Gilani should be a matter of great concern not only to India and the US, but also the international community. Among these signals are the indefinite adjournment of the hearing in the case relating to the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist of the Wall Street Journal at Karachi in January-February 2002.
In this case, the appeals filed by Omar Sheikh, the principal accused, against the death sentence awarded to him and by the state against the lenient sentences awarded to some other accused were being heard for the last more than five years. Even though the Anti-Terrorism Act of Pakistan lays down that all such appeals should be heard by the court on a day-to-day basis without any adjournment and disposed of in seven days, the case has been dragging on for over five years with frequent adjournments granted by the court under some pretext or the other. The state had not objected to these adjournments. Previously, the adjournments used to be for short periods at a time. Now, the hearing has been adjourned indefinitely without any objection being raised by the state prosecutor.
Reliable police sources in Sindh say that Omar Sheikh, at the request of the Gilani Government, is trying to persuade Jaish-e-Mohammad, headed by Maulana Masood Azhar, to agree to a ceasefire in the Swat Valley of the North-West Frontier Province. The JeM and the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), headed by Maulana Fazlullah, popularly known as FM radio mullah because of the FM radio station run by him, were operating jointly in the Valley against the Pakistani Army.
While the TNSM, which is a constituent of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), headed by Baitullah Mehsud, its Amir, has agreed to a ceasefire and reached a so-called peace agreement with the authorities of the NWFP, the JeM has refused to adhere to this agreement so far. The JeM is a member of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) and not of the TTP. The JeM and dissident elements from the TNSM, which are opposed to the peace agreement, blew up two girls schools and a gas pipeline, set fire to a house and attacked a police post at Nengolai near Mingora in the Swat Valley on May 21, 2008, killing a policeman. They also attacked Matta Police Station. These police sources say that Omar Sheikh has been taken to the Swat Valley to contact the JeM and the TNSM dissident elements and persuade them to accept the peace agreement.
One of the demands made by Baitullah and Fazlullah as a price for the peace agreement is that all those arrested during the commando raid in the Lal Masjid in Islamabad in July last year should be released and the criminal cases filed against them withdrawn. While the Gilani Government has not withdrawn the cases, it is no longer insisting on the quick disposal of the cases and has not been opposing bail applications moved on behalf of the accused. It is only a question of some weeks before all the accused, including Maulana Abdul Aziz, the principal accused, come out on bail and re-join the Masjid in their original positions. The Government has reportedly accepted the demand of Baitullah that the two madarsas -- one for boys and the other for girls -- attached to the Masjid should be allowed to function again without any hindrance.
As part of the peace agreement with the TNSM, the Government has not only agreed to enforce shari'ah in the entire Malakand Division of the NWFP, including the Swat Valley, but also to regularise the FM radio station operated by Fazlullah by granting formal permission. It has also agreed to grant similar permission to all other FM radio stations being run by mullahs and madarsas in the tribal belt, which are being used by the neo-Taliban for carrying on a vicious propaganda against the US and other NATO forces and against the Hamid Karzai Government in Kabul. Many of these radio stations have been repeatedly calling for the overthrow or assassination of Mr Karzai.
The Government has quietly withdrawn the orders issued by Gen Musharraf in the past for the registration of all madarsas as a condition for financial assistance to them by the Government. Similarly, all restrictions regarding the admission of foreign students have been withdrawn. The madarsas are once again being given financial assistance irrespective of whether they are registered or not. As part of the peace agreement with Fazlullah, the NWFP Government has agreed to give financial assistance for the establishment of an Islamic University in Imamdheri, the headquarters of the TNSM, to be run jointly by the Government and the TNSM.
The Government has agreed to return to the TNSM all its buildings and other real estate which had been occupied by the Army during the military operations against the TNSM.
Mr Tariq Azizuddin, Pakistan's Ambassador to Afghanistan, who was kidnapped by suspected neo-Taliban elements on February 11, was released on May 17. While the Gilani Government has been claiming that he was got released by the security forces during an operation and has denied any deal with the neo-Taliban, spokesmen of the TTP have asserted that in return for the release of the Ambassador, the Gilani Government has released Maulvi Obaidullah, former Defence Minister of the neo-Taliban and a close associate of Mulla Mohammed Omar, the Amir of the neo-Taliban, and 54 other members of the neo-Taliban, who were in different jails in the NWFP and Baluchistan. Local police sources say that in return for the release of the Ambassador, the Gilani Government has assured Mulla Omar that no further action would be taken against the neo-Taliban.
Mr Asif Ali Zardari, the co-chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), who used to demand a UN-sponsored investigation into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, has toned down his demand. The police have also reportedly been told to go slow in the investigation into the case in which the principal accused is Baitullah Mehsud. Baitullah has been demanding the release of all his men arrested during the commando action in the Lal Masjid and subsequently. The Government has already conceded his demand, though a formal peace agreement is yet to be signed.
The Pakistani media has claimed that as part of the peace deals with Fazlullah and Baitullah, the Government has agreed to withdraw the Army from the Swat Valley and the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and restore to the Frontier Corps the responsibility for the maintenance of law and order in the tribal belt. However, this has been strongly denied by the Government, which has been saying that there will be a re-location of the Army in the tribal belt, but not a withdrawal.
The restrictions on AQ Khan, the nuclear scientist, too, have been eased. While he continues to be under ostensible house arrest, he is allowed to visit friends and relatives, accompanied by security personnel.
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=oped&file_name=opd2%2Etxt&counter_img=2
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Hindutva raises the issue of terror: muslim cleric arrested for Jaipur terror blasts.
Hindutva raises the issue of terror: muslim cleric arrested for Jaipur terror blasts.
Hon'ble Min. of State, Prithviraj Chavan to note: Hindutva directly raises the issue of terror: how come a muslim cleric has been arrested by for Jaipur terror blasts? Modern Prithviraj, will you answer? Will you now call those who arrested the cleric as anti-terror Hindutva cops?
Being in PMO, have you ever read http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/index.html
It talks of islamist terror outside J&K and Northeast. What is Hindutva about this, Prithviraj? (See excerpt appended).
kalyan
Jaipur blasts: Cops arrest Muslim cleric
26 May 2008, 0848 hrs IST,TIMESOFINDIA.COM
NEW DELHI: A top Muslim cleric has been arrested from Bharatpur in connection with the Jaipur blasts, a private news channel reported on Monday.
Mohammad Ilias was arrested by police two days ago and has been brought to Jaipur for interrogation. Ilias is the Shahar Qazi of Bharatpur.
Cops raided the Shehar Qazi's premises and seized the madrassa computer. The mobile phone of Illias' wife was also seized.
Serial blasts had rocked Jaipur on May 13, claiming 66 lives. A little known terror outfit - Indian Mujahideen - has claimed responsibility of the attack through an email.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Jaipur_blasts_Cops_arrest_Muslim_cleric/articleshow/3072229.cms
Jaipur blasts suspect held in Delhi
22 May 2008, 0003 hrs IST,PTI
NEW DELHI: A man suspected to be involved in the Jaipur serial blasts, which killed over 60 people and injured more than 200, was arrested here late Wednesday, police said.
The militant, whose identity was not revealed, was nabbed from Chelmsford Road, the stretch leading to New Delhi Railway Station from Connaught Place, at around 8:30 pm.
The arrest by Delhi Police's Special Cell came following a tip off from intelligence agencies.
"There was an intelligence input that a militant is coming to Delhi," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Alok Kumar told reporters.
Kumar refused to provide the identity of the militant or where he came from.
"We have just started interrogating him. We cannot reveal everything now," he added.
The militant's arrest here comes in the backdrop of serial blasts in the Pink City last week.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/File_Jaipur_blasts_suspect_held_in_Delhi/articleshow/3060811.cms
Islamist Terrorism outside J&K and the Northeast
At least 270 people died in Islamist terrorist violence in locations outside J&K and the Northeast during 2006. The significant incidents included:
March 7: At least 21 civilians were killed and 62 others injured in three serial bomb explosions at a temple and railway station in Varanasi. Seven bombs were later defused, including four that had been planted on the Gowdolia-Dasashwamedh Ghat Road near the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Hours after the blasts, a suspected LeT terrorist was shot dead during an encounter with the police in the Gosaiganj area on the outskirts of Lucknow city.
April 14: Two bombs exploded inside the Jama Masjid at Delhi injuring approximately 14 persons, including a woman and a girl.
June 1: Three suspected LeT terrorists were shot dead during an abortive attempt to storm the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu organization, at Nagpur in Maharashtra.
July 11: At least 200 persons were killed and over 700 others injured in seven bomb blasts targeting the railway network in the city of Mumbai. First class compartments of local trains at Mira-Bayandhar, Jogeshwari, Mahim, Santacruz, Khar, Matunga and Borivli stations on the Western Railway were targeted.
September 8: Forty people killed and 65 sustain injuries in three bomb explosions at Malegaon town in the Nashik District of Maharashtra.
According to the MHA's Status Paper, the current strategy of Pakistan-based terrorist groups is to:
* Maintain a continuous flow of finances to sustain the terrorist networks in India
* Target vital installations and economic infrastructure in India
* Recruit and train local modules
* Attack soft targets like market places, public transport system, places of worship and congregation, etc.
* Provoke communal tensions to create a wedge between communities
* Supply hardware through land and sea routes
The Status Paper discloses that the LeT and JeM also use territory and elements in Bangladesh and Nepal for movement of terrorists and finances. Army chief J. J. Singh, on December 27, 2006, stated that "As terrorists are finding it hard to penetrate the fence and new anti-infiltration systems placed all along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and in Punjab… The areas bordering Nepal and Bangladesh are still porous and intelligence reports suggest that terrorists are trying to use them to infiltrate into India."
According to data compiled by the Institute for Conflict Management, at least 81 Inter-Services Intelligence-Jihadi modules have been disrupted just over the years 2004-2006, leading to hundreds of arrests across India – outside Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast – in locations that extend from Uttaranchal in the North, to Andhra Pradesh in the South, and from Gujarat in the West to West Bengal in the East. These modules had been tasked to target security and vital installations, communication links, and commercial and industrial centres, as well as to provoke instability and disorder by circulating large quantities of counterfeit currency and by drug trafficking. The National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had stated, on July 28, 2006, that Indian security and nuclear installations are under "very serious threat" from the LeT, which may be planning a "major assault".
Worse, terrorist attacks by Pakistan-backed groups have occurred in places as far as Delhi, Mumbai, Malegaon, and Varanasi in 2006. Terrorist attacks in places like Mumbai and Varanasi in 2006 and earlier at Bangalore (December 28, 2005) and New Delhi (October 29, 2005) are only the more visible evidence of a long-term war of attrition by Pakistani state agencies and their jihadi surrogates, intended to undermine India's political stability, by increasingly attacking its economic, scientific and technological strengths. The frequency, spread and, in some cases, intensity of these operations in other parts of the country has seen some escalation in the past years, as international pressure on Pakistan to end terrorism in J&K has diminished levels of 'deniable' engagement in that theatre, and as violence in J&K demonstrates a continuous secular decline since the events of September 11, 2001 in the US.
It is important to note, however, that despite occasional and inevitable terrorist 'successes', this relentless strategy – which has targeted virtually every concentration of Muslim populations in India for decades – has overwhelmingly failed to secure a base within the community, beyond a minuscule radical fringe. Further, the record of intelligence and security agency successes against such subversion and terror, although lacking the visibility and drama of a terrorist strike, is immensely greater than the record of the successes of this strategy.
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/index.html
Have you ever before seen this new definition of Hindutva? According to Prithvijar Chavan, Hindutva means raising the matter of terrorism.
Here is the evidence:
Question by Sheela Bhatt: In this election the BJP didn't raise Hindutva. Right?
Answer by Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan who was in charge of the Karnataka elections: They indirectly raised the Hindutva issue by raising the matter of terrorism! They tried to target a particular community alleging that they are responsible for terrorism. If you compare the record of the BJP and NDA government they have a pathetic record of tackling terrorism, still they kept on talking about the recent incidents. They had no other issue to talk about because their performance in the Karnataka government was pathetic so they kept talking about national issues in the assembly elections.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/may/25inter.htm
I think this comment by the 'Congress leader' Prithviraj Chavan takes the cake among all the intellectual gymnastics indulged in by columnists and political pundits. I was sick and tired of watching many TV channels and TV talk-show pundits, throughout the forenoon of 25 May 2008 as the election results started pouring in from 8 AM.
It is time for Sonia Gandhi to wind up her 10 Janpath residence and go into meditation in Orbassano to understand the nature of terror or even sending emissaries to meet LTTE operatives in Vellore jail and stop advising the politico-s about the communal politics which has become the UPA trademark.
It is a pity that the madam has such Congress pundits like Prithviraj Chavan, Hon'ble Minister of State (PMO) in PMO advising Hon'ble Manmohan. With such advisors, it ain't no wonder that UPA is leading a soft state, without any clue on methods of fighting terror. On the day the Foreign Minister visits Pakistan, a soldier gets killed in Jammu LOC and there was not even a whisper of a diplomatic note verbale to the Pakistan High Commissioner.
People like Prithviraj Chavan are to be complimented for recognizing the fact that it takes Hindutva to raise the issue of terrorism in the nation. Hurray, Hindutva.
kalyan
Hon'ble Min. of State, Prithviraj Chavan to note: Hindutva directly raises the issue of terror: how come a muslim cleric has been arrested by for Jaipur terror blasts? Modern Prithviraj, will you answer? Will you now call those who arrested the cleric as anti-terror Hindutva cops?
Being in PMO, have you ever read http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/index.html
It talks of islamist terror outside J&K and Northeast. What is Hindutva about this, Prithviraj? (See excerpt appended).
kalyan
Jaipur blasts: Cops arrest Muslim cleric
26 May 2008, 0848 hrs IST,TIMESOFINDIA.COM
NEW DELHI: A top Muslim cleric has been arrested from Bharatpur in connection with the Jaipur blasts, a private news channel reported on Monday.
Mohammad Ilias was arrested by police two days ago and has been brought to Jaipur for interrogation. Ilias is the Shahar Qazi of Bharatpur.
Cops raided the Shehar Qazi's premises and seized the madrassa computer. The mobile phone of Illias' wife was also seized.
Serial blasts had rocked Jaipur on May 13, claiming 66 lives. A little known terror outfit - Indian Mujahideen - has claimed responsibility of the attack through an email.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Jaipur_blasts_Cops_arrest_Muslim_cleric/articleshow/3072229.cms
Jaipur blasts suspect held in Delhi
22 May 2008, 0003 hrs IST,PTI
NEW DELHI: A man suspected to be involved in the Jaipur serial blasts, which killed over 60 people and injured more than 200, was arrested here late Wednesday, police said.
The militant, whose identity was not revealed, was nabbed from Chelmsford Road, the stretch leading to New Delhi Railway Station from Connaught Place, at around 8:30 pm.
The arrest by Delhi Police's Special Cell came following a tip off from intelligence agencies.
"There was an intelligence input that a militant is coming to Delhi," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Alok Kumar told reporters.
Kumar refused to provide the identity of the militant or where he came from.
"We have just started interrogating him. We cannot reveal everything now," he added.
The militant's arrest here comes in the backdrop of serial blasts in the Pink City last week.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/File_Jaipur_blasts_suspect_held_in_Delhi/articleshow/3060811.cms
Islamist Terrorism outside J&K and the Northeast
At least 270 people died in Islamist terrorist violence in locations outside J&K and the Northeast during 2006. The significant incidents included:
March 7: At least 21 civilians were killed and 62 others injured in three serial bomb explosions at a temple and railway station in Varanasi. Seven bombs were later defused, including four that had been planted on the Gowdolia-Dasashwamedh Ghat Road near the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Hours after the blasts, a suspected LeT terrorist was shot dead during an encounter with the police in the Gosaiganj area on the outskirts of Lucknow city.
April 14: Two bombs exploded inside the Jama Masjid at Delhi injuring approximately 14 persons, including a woman and a girl.
June 1: Three suspected LeT terrorists were shot dead during an abortive attempt to storm the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu organization, at Nagpur in Maharashtra.
July 11: At least 200 persons were killed and over 700 others injured in seven bomb blasts targeting the railway network in the city of Mumbai. First class compartments of local trains at Mira-Bayandhar, Jogeshwari, Mahim, Santacruz, Khar, Matunga and Borivli stations on the Western Railway were targeted.
September 8: Forty people killed and 65 sustain injuries in three bomb explosions at Malegaon town in the Nashik District of Maharashtra.
According to the MHA's Status Paper, the current strategy of Pakistan-based terrorist groups is to:
* Maintain a continuous flow of finances to sustain the terrorist networks in India
* Target vital installations and economic infrastructure in India
* Recruit and train local modules
* Attack soft targets like market places, public transport system, places of worship and congregation, etc.
* Provoke communal tensions to create a wedge between communities
* Supply hardware through land and sea routes
The Status Paper discloses that the LeT and JeM also use territory and elements in Bangladesh and Nepal for movement of terrorists and finances. Army chief J. J. Singh, on December 27, 2006, stated that "As terrorists are finding it hard to penetrate the fence and new anti-infiltration systems placed all along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and in Punjab… The areas bordering Nepal and Bangladesh are still porous and intelligence reports suggest that terrorists are trying to use them to infiltrate into India."
According to data compiled by the Institute for Conflict Management, at least 81 Inter-Services Intelligence-Jihadi modules have been disrupted just over the years 2004-2006, leading to hundreds of arrests across India – outside Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast – in locations that extend from Uttaranchal in the North, to Andhra Pradesh in the South, and from Gujarat in the West to West Bengal in the East. These modules had been tasked to target security and vital installations, communication links, and commercial and industrial centres, as well as to provoke instability and disorder by circulating large quantities of counterfeit currency and by drug trafficking. The National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had stated, on July 28, 2006, that Indian security and nuclear installations are under "very serious threat" from the LeT, which may be planning a "major assault".
Worse, terrorist attacks by Pakistan-backed groups have occurred in places as far as Delhi, Mumbai, Malegaon, and Varanasi in 2006. Terrorist attacks in places like Mumbai and Varanasi in 2006 and earlier at Bangalore (December 28, 2005) and New Delhi (October 29, 2005) are only the more visible evidence of a long-term war of attrition by Pakistani state agencies and their jihadi surrogates, intended to undermine India's political stability, by increasingly attacking its economic, scientific and technological strengths. The frequency, spread and, in some cases, intensity of these operations in other parts of the country has seen some escalation in the past years, as international pressure on Pakistan to end terrorism in J&K has diminished levels of 'deniable' engagement in that theatre, and as violence in J&K demonstrates a continuous secular decline since the events of September 11, 2001 in the US.
It is important to note, however, that despite occasional and inevitable terrorist 'successes', this relentless strategy – which has targeted virtually every concentration of Muslim populations in India for decades – has overwhelmingly failed to secure a base within the community, beyond a minuscule radical fringe. Further, the record of intelligence and security agency successes against such subversion and terror, although lacking the visibility and drama of a terrorist strike, is immensely greater than the record of the successes of this strategy.
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/index.html
Have you ever before seen this new definition of Hindutva? According to Prithvijar Chavan, Hindutva means raising the matter of terrorism.
Here is the evidence:
Question by Sheela Bhatt: In this election the BJP didn't raise Hindutva. Right?
Answer by Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan who was in charge of the Karnataka elections: They indirectly raised the Hindutva issue by raising the matter of terrorism! They tried to target a particular community alleging that they are responsible for terrorism. If you compare the record of the BJP and NDA government they have a pathetic record of tackling terrorism, still they kept on talking about the recent incidents. They had no other issue to talk about because their performance in the Karnataka government was pathetic so they kept talking about national issues in the assembly elections.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/may/25inter.htm
I think this comment by the 'Congress leader' Prithviraj Chavan takes the cake among all the intellectual gymnastics indulged in by columnists and political pundits. I was sick and tired of watching many TV channels and TV talk-show pundits, throughout the forenoon of 25 May 2008 as the election results started pouring in from 8 AM.
It is time for Sonia Gandhi to wind up her 10 Janpath residence and go into meditation in Orbassano to understand the nature of terror or even sending emissaries to meet LTTE operatives in Vellore jail and stop advising the politico-s about the communal politics which has become the UPA trademark.
It is a pity that the madam has such Congress pundits like Prithviraj Chavan, Hon'ble Minister of State (PMO) in PMO advising Hon'ble Manmohan. With such advisors, it ain't no wonder that UPA is leading a soft state, without any clue on methods of fighting terror. On the day the Foreign Minister visits Pakistan, a soldier gets killed in Jammu LOC and there was not even a whisper of a diplomatic note verbale to the Pakistan High Commissioner.
People like Prithviraj Chavan are to be complimented for recognizing the fact that it takes Hindutva to raise the issue of terrorism in the nation. Hurray, Hindutva.
kalyan
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Joint Command to fight terror. But Manmohan (aka Sonia substitute) can't be trusted.
Joint Command to fight terror. But Manmohan (aka Sonia substitute) can't be trusted.
The next terror attack could be from the sea
By Arun Kumar Singh (Deccan Chronicle, 19 May 2008)
Tuesday evening’s serial bomb blasts in Jaipur, in which over 60 people were killed, has demonstrated yet again how ill-equipped India is to handle the new complexities of terror warfare. A new command must be created to protect the nation.
Jaipur was the eleventh major terrorist strike on ‘soft’ targets in the past three years. The political leadership has stuttered out its usual statements about ‘resilience’ and ‘foreign hand’ ad nauseam, while the bureaucracy has predictably kept mum on what is a colossal failure of leadership and intelligence at both the Central and state levels. The Intelligence Bureau, in the meantime, has suggested that terrorists are planning seaborne attacks against the dozens of oil rigs, including production and support platforms, along both the coasts of India. This appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
An oil rig, like the proverbial iceberg, has a small portion visible above the surface — leaving the vulnerable parts beyond visibility. What cannot be seen are the supporting legs of the rigs, the labyrinth of pipelines with interconnecting control valves that ensure flow of crude oil from the rigs to the mainland or to single buoy moorings (SBMs), which, in turn, permit oil tankers to embark the same crude for transportation ashore. In some places, like the Gulf of Kutch, these SBMs are also used to enable incoming oil tankers to pump out their imported crude to refineries ashore. Supporting this gigantic effort is a large number of logistic ships (OSVs, or offshore support vessels), which provide food, handle personnel transfers (sometimes also done by helicopters), pollution control response, fire tender duties, etc.
The extreme vulnerability of the oil rigs was vividly displayed by the massive fire and total destruction of an oil production platform in Bombay High in July 2005 when an OSV accidentally collided with the rigs’ underwater pipeline. This resulted in a massive search and rescue operation by the Indian Navy, the Coast Guard and by civilian ships, followed by counter-pollution operations by the Coast Guard to prevent pollution along the Mumbai coastline. In addition to the financial loss, the nation had to face a massive drop in crude oil outflow from this offshore oilfield, located some 40 nautical miles off Mumbai port. This event will not have been missed by the new breed of maritime terrorists, who would also know that India has invested over Rs 1,60,000 crore in these rigs. There is an organisation to deal with offshore security threats to oil rigs, coastal refineries, coastal nuclear power plants and ports. The Coast Guard looks after peacetime security and is in regular touch with all stakeholders — the Navy, the port authorities, shipping, ONGC, Oil India and the intelligence agencies. Wartime threats are handled by the Navy.
In this era of ‘no-war, no-peace’, there is an ever-present threat to offshore and coastal installations. The threat from the sea can take various forms — trained ‘sea terrorists’ can attack by approaching the target in dhows or even submersibles, making the last mile in collapsible rubber boats, lay explosives in the most vulnerable parts and depart or carry out suicide attacks. Another alternative would be to bring an explosives-laden ship and collide it against the target, or sink it in the harbour approach to block the port. And, of course, terrorists can enter coastal targets by land and cover the last stretch, as in Israel, in microlite aircraft to get in.
In any such terror attack, the repercussions would be severe — economic, environmental and in sheer terms of shock. India’s economic prosperity lies in being completely secure at sea — 90 per cent of our trade, 70 per cent of our oil imports and 70 per cent of our indigenous oil and gas production comes from the sea.
The issue of modifying India’s national security-cum-intelligence apparatus to address new forms of warfare has been hammered to near-death. Little may have moved but the need for a completely new machinery to fight terrorism is becoming all the more relevant in everyday incidents as in Jaipur’s. We are simply not equipped to address terrorism.
There have been reports that the government is considering handing over the 2010 Commonwealth Games project to the Army keeping in view the failure of the bureaucracy and civil administration to deliver. The United States, in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, has been far more ruthless and successful in protecting its citizens. With Jaipur’s incident in focus, does it not look like it is time to hand over all anti-terrorist activities to three separate ‘empowered’ joint commands, which will include all elements of the military, paramilitary, police, intelligence, railways, ports, airports and any other agency that needs to be a part of the apparatus? These three commands can be headed by the Army, for land threats, the Navy for seaborne-coastal threats, and the Air Force to address aerial threats. There is also an urgent need to augment the force levels of the Navy and the Coast Guard. Each of these seagoing services should reach a strength of 200 ships, and each should double their aviation assets.
Laws to permit the Navy and Coast Guard to board and search suspicious ships need to be introduced at the earliest. The existing force levels — 75 ships and 45 aircraft for the Coast Guard; and 130 ships and about 200 aircraft for the Navy — are inadequate. Getting our counter-terror mechanism in place should take priority over time-worn intellectual debates. Also, at some point in the future, these joint commands could also be pressed into action to combat the Naxalite threat, which today spans 11 states. The protection of its citizens is the Centre’s primary duty. The buck stops there.
How seriously other nations take this threat is best exemplified by what I saw in the United States in 2005. All armed forces units were flying an additional flag — of a serpent with the inscription ‘Don’t Tread On Me’. This flag has been used by presidential proclamation only four times in 234 years. It was brought out during the wars that threatened the American nation — the War of Independence (1776-1781), the Civil War (1860-1865), the attack on Pearl Harbour (1942) and post 9/11 (2001).
India too faces this new form of warfare and its government cannot take the rather philosophical view that was once articulated by a television commentator, to my considerable amazement: ‘As everyone knows, there is no reality, but only points of view.’
Global terrorism is a hard reality, and it is here to stay, irrespective of individual perceptions and views. Dealing with this new form of asymmetric war will require the combined might and wisdom of all of India. We need not emulate the Americans by hoisting a second flag to remind our citizens (and leaders) that the nation is in a state of war. But we do need to get our act together, and quickly. The present form of asymmetric war being waged by international terrorists who serve no nation is, after all, too serious an issue to be left only to the politicians, bureaucrats and the overstretched intelligence agencies and paramilitary forces. Remember the old saying: ‘Steel fist in a velvet glove’? That is what we need.
Vice-Admiral Arun Kumar Singh retired as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam, in April 2007
http://deccan.com/Columnists/Columnists.asp?#The next terror attack could be from the sea
BJP questions Manmohan's bona fide in fighting terror
PTI | New Delhi (Pioneer, 19 May 2008)
A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pitched for a federal crime agency, the BJP on Sunday questioned his commitment to fight terror and said a new agency would be of no use unless it is armed with a POTA-type stringent anti-terror law.
"Manmohan Singh's bonafides in the war against terror are suspect," senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, while asking whether a federal agency under him to deal with terror crimes can really be trusted given his "track record" in the last four years.
"It is ironical that after being in prime ministerial office for four years the Prime Minister has finally woken up to the harsh and cruel reality that prevention and investigation of terrorism in India is on the verge of collapse," Jaitley said.
He said the repeal of POTA, not giving assent to similar anti-terror laws in BJP-ruled States, non-execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and "helping the accused being prosecuted under POTA for burning Sabarmati Express" raises a legitimate question whether a federal agency under Singh can really be trusted.
Jaitely asked, "does the Prime Minister's track record inspire confidence that he will implement his proposal for a federal agency against terror."
He also sought to know whether Singh will have the political courage to strengthen the content of India's anti-terrorist laws to make them more "terrorist-unfriendly".
Claiming that the Prime Minister and Congress had been opposing strong anti-terror law, he sought to know "will not the federal agency be helpless in investigating terrorist crimes if confessions of terrorists are inadmissible evidence and an easy bail is available to the terrorists under normal law".
Jaitley also sought to know what purpose would be achieved in merely changing the investigating agency, particularly when investigation and prevention of terrorism is to take place "under a law which is not terrorist-unfriendly".
He also accused the UPA Government of having a "scandalous record of having misled the CBI, an investigative agency of the Central Government for political purposes in the last four years."
"Systematically, cases against UPA leaders have been closed and the political opponents have been harassed by the CBI."
Jaitley accused the UPA Government of "deliberately" not giving Presidential assent to three BJP-ruled States - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat - to operationalise the laws against organised crimes, while such laws are operational in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh (both ruled by Congress) and Karnataka.
"The effect of this is going to be that cases relating to the Mumbai train blasts and the Malegaon blasts will be investigated under the MCOCA but when accused are arrested in relation to the Jaipur serial blasts, they will be investigated under the ordinary law where easy bails will be available and confessions of the terrorists will not be admissible evidence," he said.
"The crippling of the investigation in the Jaipur blasts is directly attributable to the political motivated withholding of Presidential assent by the UPA Government," Jaitley said.
The senior BJP leader also accused Manmohan Singh of using his "softness on terror for vote bank politics rather than for security considerations."
The BJP was willing to discuss the issue provided it involves not merely a change of the investigative agency but also the content of the law, he said.
"Our anti-terror laws will have to be made more effective and POTA will have to be re-introduced," he said.
Jaitley said the jurisdiction to legislate against terrorism is already with the Central Government and the constitutional validity of TADA was challenged before the Supreme Court on the ground that the law and order and public order are state subjects and the Centre cannot legislate with regard to the same.
"The Supreme Court has categorically held that the war against terrorism includes the war against sovereignty and defence of India and therefore the legislation against terror falls in the domain of the Central Government," he said.
Jaitley also said what prevented the Prime Minister in the last four years from acting in the matter remains an "obvious mystery" and that his government is not "serious in fighting terrorism".
"The Central Govern-ment has the legislative and Executive powers to introduce and to enact laws in this matter," he said.
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=NATION&file_name=nt3%2Etxt&counter_img=3
The next terror attack could be from the sea
By Arun Kumar Singh (Deccan Chronicle, 19 May 2008)
Tuesday evening’s serial bomb blasts in Jaipur, in which over 60 people were killed, has demonstrated yet again how ill-equipped India is to handle the new complexities of terror warfare. A new command must be created to protect the nation.
Jaipur was the eleventh major terrorist strike on ‘soft’ targets in the past three years. The political leadership has stuttered out its usual statements about ‘resilience’ and ‘foreign hand’ ad nauseam, while the bureaucracy has predictably kept mum on what is a colossal failure of leadership and intelligence at both the Central and state levels. The Intelligence Bureau, in the meantime, has suggested that terrorists are planning seaborne attacks against the dozens of oil rigs, including production and support platforms, along both the coasts of India. This appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
An oil rig, like the proverbial iceberg, has a small portion visible above the surface — leaving the vulnerable parts beyond visibility. What cannot be seen are the supporting legs of the rigs, the labyrinth of pipelines with interconnecting control valves that ensure flow of crude oil from the rigs to the mainland or to single buoy moorings (SBMs), which, in turn, permit oil tankers to embark the same crude for transportation ashore. In some places, like the Gulf of Kutch, these SBMs are also used to enable incoming oil tankers to pump out their imported crude to refineries ashore. Supporting this gigantic effort is a large number of logistic ships (OSVs, or offshore support vessels), which provide food, handle personnel transfers (sometimes also done by helicopters), pollution control response, fire tender duties, etc.
The extreme vulnerability of the oil rigs was vividly displayed by the massive fire and total destruction of an oil production platform in Bombay High in July 2005 when an OSV accidentally collided with the rigs’ underwater pipeline. This resulted in a massive search and rescue operation by the Indian Navy, the Coast Guard and by civilian ships, followed by counter-pollution operations by the Coast Guard to prevent pollution along the Mumbai coastline. In addition to the financial loss, the nation had to face a massive drop in crude oil outflow from this offshore oilfield, located some 40 nautical miles off Mumbai port. This event will not have been missed by the new breed of maritime terrorists, who would also know that India has invested over Rs 1,60,000 crore in these rigs. There is an organisation to deal with offshore security threats to oil rigs, coastal refineries, coastal nuclear power plants and ports. The Coast Guard looks after peacetime security and is in regular touch with all stakeholders — the Navy, the port authorities, shipping, ONGC, Oil India and the intelligence agencies. Wartime threats are handled by the Navy.
In this era of ‘no-war, no-peace’, there is an ever-present threat to offshore and coastal installations. The threat from the sea can take various forms — trained ‘sea terrorists’ can attack by approaching the target in dhows or even submersibles, making the last mile in collapsible rubber boats, lay explosives in the most vulnerable parts and depart or carry out suicide attacks. Another alternative would be to bring an explosives-laden ship and collide it against the target, or sink it in the harbour approach to block the port. And, of course, terrorists can enter coastal targets by land and cover the last stretch, as in Israel, in microlite aircraft to get in.
In any such terror attack, the repercussions would be severe — economic, environmental and in sheer terms of shock. India’s economic prosperity lies in being completely secure at sea — 90 per cent of our trade, 70 per cent of our oil imports and 70 per cent of our indigenous oil and gas production comes from the sea.
The issue of modifying India’s national security-cum-intelligence apparatus to address new forms of warfare has been hammered to near-death. Little may have moved but the need for a completely new machinery to fight terrorism is becoming all the more relevant in everyday incidents as in Jaipur’s. We are simply not equipped to address terrorism.
There have been reports that the government is considering handing over the 2010 Commonwealth Games project to the Army keeping in view the failure of the bureaucracy and civil administration to deliver. The United States, in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, has been far more ruthless and successful in protecting its citizens. With Jaipur’s incident in focus, does it not look like it is time to hand over all anti-terrorist activities to three separate ‘empowered’ joint commands, which will include all elements of the military, paramilitary, police, intelligence, railways, ports, airports and any other agency that needs to be a part of the apparatus? These three commands can be headed by the Army, for land threats, the Navy for seaborne-coastal threats, and the Air Force to address aerial threats. There is also an urgent need to augment the force levels of the Navy and the Coast Guard. Each of these seagoing services should reach a strength of 200 ships, and each should double their aviation assets.
Laws to permit the Navy and Coast Guard to board and search suspicious ships need to be introduced at the earliest. The existing force levels — 75 ships and 45 aircraft for the Coast Guard; and 130 ships and about 200 aircraft for the Navy — are inadequate. Getting our counter-terror mechanism in place should take priority over time-worn intellectual debates. Also, at some point in the future, these joint commands could also be pressed into action to combat the Naxalite threat, which today spans 11 states. The protection of its citizens is the Centre’s primary duty. The buck stops there.
How seriously other nations take this threat is best exemplified by what I saw in the United States in 2005. All armed forces units were flying an additional flag — of a serpent with the inscription ‘Don’t Tread On Me’. This flag has been used by presidential proclamation only four times in 234 years. It was brought out during the wars that threatened the American nation — the War of Independence (1776-1781), the Civil War (1860-1865), the attack on Pearl Harbour (1942) and post 9/11 (2001).
India too faces this new form of warfare and its government cannot take the rather philosophical view that was once articulated by a television commentator, to my considerable amazement: ‘As everyone knows, there is no reality, but only points of view.’
Global terrorism is a hard reality, and it is here to stay, irrespective of individual perceptions and views. Dealing with this new form of asymmetric war will require the combined might and wisdom of all of India. We need not emulate the Americans by hoisting a second flag to remind our citizens (and leaders) that the nation is in a state of war. But we do need to get our act together, and quickly. The present form of asymmetric war being waged by international terrorists who serve no nation is, after all, too serious an issue to be left only to the politicians, bureaucrats and the overstretched intelligence agencies and paramilitary forces. Remember the old saying: ‘Steel fist in a velvet glove’? That is what we need.
Vice-Admiral Arun Kumar Singh retired as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam, in April 2007
http://deccan.com/Columnists/Columnists.asp?#The next terror attack could be from the sea
BJP questions Manmohan's bona fide in fighting terror
PTI | New Delhi (Pioneer, 19 May 2008)
A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pitched for a federal crime agency, the BJP on Sunday questioned his commitment to fight terror and said a new agency would be of no use unless it is armed with a POTA-type stringent anti-terror law.
"Manmohan Singh's bonafides in the war against terror are suspect," senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, while asking whether a federal agency under him to deal with terror crimes can really be trusted given his "track record" in the last four years.
"It is ironical that after being in prime ministerial office for four years the Prime Minister has finally woken up to the harsh and cruel reality that prevention and investigation of terrorism in India is on the verge of collapse," Jaitley said.
He said the repeal of POTA, not giving assent to similar anti-terror laws in BJP-ruled States, non-execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and "helping the accused being prosecuted under POTA for burning Sabarmati Express" raises a legitimate question whether a federal agency under Singh can really be trusted.
Jaitely asked, "does the Prime Minister's track record inspire confidence that he will implement his proposal for a federal agency against terror."
He also sought to know whether Singh will have the political courage to strengthen the content of India's anti-terrorist laws to make them more "terrorist-unfriendly".
Claiming that the Prime Minister and Congress had been opposing strong anti-terror law, he sought to know "will not the federal agency be helpless in investigating terrorist crimes if confessions of terrorists are inadmissible evidence and an easy bail is available to the terrorists under normal law".
Jaitley also sought to know what purpose would be achieved in merely changing the investigating agency, particularly when investigation and prevention of terrorism is to take place "under a law which is not terrorist-unfriendly".
He also accused the UPA Government of having a "scandalous record of having misled the CBI, an investigative agency of the Central Government for political purposes in the last four years."
"Systematically, cases against UPA leaders have been closed and the political opponents have been harassed by the CBI."
Jaitley accused the UPA Government of "deliberately" not giving Presidential assent to three BJP-ruled States - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat - to operationalise the laws against organised crimes, while such laws are operational in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh (both ruled by Congress) and Karnataka.
"The effect of this is going to be that cases relating to the Mumbai train blasts and the Malegaon blasts will be investigated under the MCOCA but when accused are arrested in relation to the Jaipur serial blasts, they will be investigated under the ordinary law where easy bails will be available and confessions of the terrorists will not be admissible evidence," he said.
"The crippling of the investigation in the Jaipur blasts is directly attributable to the political motivated withholding of Presidential assent by the UPA Government," Jaitley said.
The senior BJP leader also accused Manmohan Singh of using his "softness on terror for vote bank politics rather than for security considerations."
The BJP was willing to discuss the issue provided it involves not merely a change of the investigative agency but also the content of the law, he said.
"Our anti-terror laws will have to be made more effective and POTA will have to be re-introduced," he said.
Jaitley said the jurisdiction to legislate against terrorism is already with the Central Government and the constitutional validity of TADA was challenged before the Supreme Court on the ground that the law and order and public order are state subjects and the Centre cannot legislate with regard to the same.
"The Supreme Court has categorically held that the war against terrorism includes the war against sovereignty and defence of India and therefore the legislation against terror falls in the domain of the Central Government," he said.
Jaitley also said what prevented the Prime Minister in the last four years from acting in the matter remains an "obvious mystery" and that his government is not "serious in fighting terrorism".
"The Central Govern-ment has the legislative and Executive powers to introduce and to enact laws in this matter," he said.
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=NATION&file_name=nt3%2Etxt&counter_img=3
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Jihadi terror victims: 3674 Indians (as of May 14, 2008 since Jan. 2004). Rulers are busy making money.
Jihadi terror victims: 3674 Indians (as of May 14, 2008 since Jan. 2004). Rulers are busy making money.
The UPA regime led by Sonia Gandhi and jaalra-ed by the Substitute Hon’ble PM Manmohan Singh consists of cuddlers of the merchants of death.
Media cries foul when there is a security breach for Sonia’s Karnataka election propaganda. Media keeps reckoning the count of victims of Jihadi terror, providing no comment on the role played by the cuddlers of the merchants of death.
Swapan is right. Of course, there is death of outrage. He adds: “India is confronted by home-grown, ideologically-driven terror. The Government doesn't want to admit it. Nor does it plan to act against it for fear of unsettling people who vote en bloc. It persists with its hypocrisy and double-speak on the cynical belief that the Kuffar-e-Hind is incapable of responding in a united way. ”
Swapan, the only unity of UPA is unity in staying in power and continuing to loot the nation’s treasury. Vote-bank? Aha, roll on to the Swiss bank. The list of account holders in Luxembourg LTG Group banks is yet to be called for by the Government; that list will be a revelation. The German Government has announced that it would share information on accounts held in the tax haven with any Government that wanted it. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/03/28/stories/2008032850180800.htm
This unity in skullduggery is a blot on Bharatam – that the people of Bharatam have allowed such a rogues’ gallery of chamcha-s to be in sattaa who do not care about securing the life and limb of citizens of the nation who have given to themselves a Constitution which has been reduced to a scrap of paper by the Belgian-honored lady who has contributed to making Belgium the third largest trading party of the country – after USA and UK. No wonder the Order of Leopold is perceived to be a glorious honour for the Italian-born prima donna.
kalyan
Blast bags were made in China
16 May 2008, 0625 hrs IST , TNN
JAIPUR: Investigations have revealed that the bags used for the blasts carried brand name Boneno, and are of Chinese make. They are not available in local markets, and may have been brought from outside.
IG Pankaj Singh told TOI that the explosives were strapped to handle-bars. Meanwhile, the police released sketches of three more suspects late on Thursday based on descriptions given by owners and attendants of the cycle shops from where the bombers had bought the vehicles of death.
On Thursday, they managed to identify at least four other shops, and the sketches were prepared on the basis of descriptions from the shop employees who sold off the bikes.
That the bikes were bought from separate shops was confirmed by the fact that all of them carried locks of different make.
Singh said that the sketches were credible because the buyer in all the cases remained in the shop for almost an hour to get the lock installed giving the shop staff ample time to have a good look at his face.
In all five sketches released till now, the man shown is about 20-25 years old. The cops said that, going by the way they spoke, none of them seemed to be a native of Rajasthan. They all bought the bike without haggling.
Police sources also said that at least 5-6 bikes were sold on May 13, the day of the blast. While 3 of the cycles were of Avon make, 2 were Atlas. The remaining for bikes were all of separate make Hercules, Penny, Surya and Apollo. In the Boneno bags, the bomb parcel was hidden under newly bought underwears of a very popular brand. In one of the bicycles, it was wrapped in the April 4 edition of local newspaper Daily News.
The cops said that the ball bearings were of a "particularly damaging variety" and were placed in a "curve" in such a way that when the bomb exploded the shrapnel burst out ahead, and not up, causing maximum damage till close to 100 feet. That they were planted in congested bazars only added to their lethality.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3045563.cms
Chronology of major bomb attacks in India
13 May 2008, 2353 hrs IST , AFP
NEW DELHI: The following is a list of recent major bomb blasts in India that police suspect were linked to sectarian groups:
May 13, 2008: At least 60 people killed and 150 wounded in what police said was a terror attack in the popular tourist city of Jaipur in Rajasthan.
November 23, 2007: At least 13 people were killed from serial blasts outside courts in three cities in Uttar Pradesh.
August 25, 2007: At least 43 people killed and more than 70 others injured as two bombs rock a crowded outdoor auditorium and a popular eatery in Hyderabad.
May 18, 2007: At least 10 killed and more than a dozen injured in blast at 17th century Mecca mosque in Hyderabad.
February 19, 2007: Sixty-eight people killed and dozens more injured after four explosions on board the Lahore-bound Samjhauta Express.
September 8, 2006: Thirty-eight people killed and more than 100 injured in three nearly simultaneous blasts, including one in a mosque, in the town of Malegaon in Maharashtra.
July 11, 2006: Seven bomb blasts in a period of 11 minutes on Mumbai's suburban trains. A total of 186 people were killed and more than 800 injured.
April 14, 2006: Fourteen people, including a woman and a girl, injured in two explosions at New Delhi's Jama Masjid, after Friday evening prayers.
March 7, 2006: Twenty-eight killed and 62 injured after three bombs rip through the holy city of Varanasi.
October 29, 2005: More than 60 people killed and nearly 200 injured when three bombs explode ahead of Diwali in New Delhi.
August 25, 2004: Six people die in two car bomb blasts in Mumbai.
March 13, 2003: Eleven people killed in a bomb attack aboard a commuter train in Mumbai.
September 24, 2002 : At least 31 people killed in a militant attack on a temple in Gujarat.
December 13, 2001: Fourteen people die, including five gunmen, in an attack on Parliament.
October 1, 2001: Forty people killed in a suicide attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3037370.cms
Only zero tolerance can end terror
Swapan Dasgupta (Pioneer May 18, 2008)
The serial blasts in Jaipur on May 14 were apparently the 21st successful operation (outside Jammu & Kashmir) by radical Islamists against the people of India. The 70 or so people who died horrible deaths last Tuesday joined the 3,674 Indians who are known to have been killed by a galaxy of terrorists in the 50-month period from January 2004. The statistics, diligently collated by The Times of India, suggest that India is second only to Iraq in the number of people killed by terrorists. The "merchants of death" have never had it so good.
The story of Incredible India is truly remarkable. It would be difficult discovering too many societies where a Government tries to cover up its pathetic helplessness by projecting the organised killings of the aam aadmi --commuters on suburban trains, scientists attending seminars, housewives shopping for Diwali and devotees worshipping at temples -- as karma and cruel fate. In normal democratic societies, the existence of well-organised terror networks would have prompted outrage. In India, it has prompted a curious response: A blend of capitulation and denial.
The capitulation has been shamefully brazen. In trying to dispel the assertion that terrorists don't deserve human rights, the UPA Government has gone out of its way to assert that terror suspects shouldn't suffer any discrimination. The architect of the Coimbatore bomb blasts, for example, turned his prison cell into a massage parlour before the authorities engineered his acquittal. The convicted perpetrator of the attack on Parliament idles away his time in prison with the full knowledge that the Government lacks the anatomical wherewithal to carry out the punishment awarded to him by courts.
For liberal India -- UPA represents its most disfigured face -- the important thing about terror is to deny its existence as far as possible. It has become almost a ritual for the Centre to greet every jihadi orgy with the assertion that we must not be provoked into enacting strong anti-terrorist legislation. For the English-language TV channels, the so-called "spirit of Mumbai" or the tale of Jaipur's "resilience", is invariably contrasted with the savage response of Gujarat to the carnage in Godhra.
It's one thing to invoke the gritty, stiff upper-lip approach as a byword for quiet determination. It's another thing to believe, like the infamous Mohammed Shah, that Delhi is still a fair distance away, and declare an unending happy hour for terrorist marauders. To mindlessly repeat after every outrage that terrorists are "cowards" is to miss the point. The issue is not about the lack of personal integrity of the bombers. It's about why the Centre has been emasculated by the terrorists.
It can hardly be the case that even someone as vacuously inept as Home Minister Shivraj Patil approves these attacks on what the Indian Mujahedeen email called the Kuffar-e-Hind (infidels of India). Like the inflation monster which threatens to eat up the Congress electorally in Karnataka, terrorists have alienated the UPA Government from large chunks of urban India. Yet, why is the Congress hellbent on courting unpopularity by persisting with its appeasement of terror?
After every terrorist atrocity, every religious head worth his name has invariably denounced the terrorists and prayed earnestly for peace. A massive conference was organised in Deoband some months ago to inform the terrorists that killing innocent civilians is theologically unsound. Therefore, if electoral support is what the UPA is after -- a legitimate preoccupation in a democracy -- why isn't the Manmohan Singh Government hitting the terrorists hard, and where it hurts? Logically speaking, by adopting a robust anti-terror policy the Government could have clawed its way back on popularity charts.
Unfortunately, there is a striking mismatch between reality as projected by breathless TV anchors and the truth in real life. There has been mounting evidence to show that the bombers are not foreign disruptionists who merely "sneak" into India, carry out an operation and then disappear into their cubby holes in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The post-mortem of every terrorist outrage points to local networks of radical extremism that act as facilitators. The leadership of the Student's Islamic Movement (they have dispensed with the "India" suffix) isn't foreigners; they are people who can quite legitimately claim Indian passports.
India is confronted by home-grown, ideologically-driven terror. The Government doesn't want to admit it. Nor does it plan to act against it for fear of unsettling people who vote en bloc. It persists with its hypocrisy and double-speak on the cynical belief that the Kuffar-e-Hind is incapable of responding in a united way.
No wonder there is growing liberal indignation at Rajasthan Government's decision to deport illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. If people have entered India without valid papers, they deserve to be expelled -- whether Bangladesh likes it or not. The compulsion is greater if it is established that Bangladeshi ghettos have served as sanctuaries for HUJI and other terror groups. Yet, just days after the outrage there is liberal clamour to keep many corners of Rajasthan forever Bangladeshi.
An effective anti-terror policy can be built on a combination of effective policing and social deterrence. That India needs a dedicated federal counter-terrorism body is undeniable. It is heartening that even the Congress has come around to this position. However, efficient policing and accurate Intelligence have to be complemented by all-round vigilance. A zero tolerance policy on terrorism implies creating an environment that discourages local support to bombers. All deterrence is based on fear of recrimination. Anti-terror strategies in India are hamstrung because support networks of terror enjoy political patronage. Our cities will become safer once the bombers and facilitators realise that every crime will be met by active intolerance.
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story1%2Etxt&counter_img=1
The UPA regime led by Sonia Gandhi and jaalra-ed by the Substitute Hon’ble PM Manmohan Singh consists of cuddlers of the merchants of death.
Media cries foul when there is a security breach for Sonia’s Karnataka election propaganda. Media keeps reckoning the count of victims of Jihadi terror, providing no comment on the role played by the cuddlers of the merchants of death.
Swapan is right. Of course, there is death of outrage. He adds: “India is confronted by home-grown, ideologically-driven terror. The Government doesn't want to admit it. Nor does it plan to act against it for fear of unsettling people who vote en bloc. It persists with its hypocrisy and double-speak on the cynical belief that the Kuffar-e-Hind is incapable of responding in a united way. ”
Swapan, the only unity of UPA is unity in staying in power and continuing to loot the nation’s treasury. Vote-bank? Aha, roll on to the Swiss bank. The list of account holders in Luxembourg LTG Group banks is yet to be called for by the Government; that list will be a revelation. The German Government has announced that it would share information on accounts held in the tax haven with any Government that wanted it. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/03/28/stories/2008032850180800.htm
This unity in skullduggery is a blot on Bharatam – that the people of Bharatam have allowed such a rogues’ gallery of chamcha-s to be in sattaa who do not care about securing the life and limb of citizens of the nation who have given to themselves a Constitution which has been reduced to a scrap of paper by the Belgian-honored lady who has contributed to making Belgium the third largest trading party of the country – after USA and UK. No wonder the Order of Leopold is perceived to be a glorious honour for the Italian-born prima donna.
kalyan
Blast bags were made in China
16 May 2008, 0625 hrs IST , TNN
JAIPUR: Investigations have revealed that the bags used for the blasts carried brand name Boneno, and are of Chinese make. They are not available in local markets, and may have been brought from outside.
IG Pankaj Singh told TOI that the explosives were strapped to handle-bars. Meanwhile, the police released sketches of three more suspects late on Thursday based on descriptions given by owners and attendants of the cycle shops from where the bombers had bought the vehicles of death.
On Thursday, they managed to identify at least four other shops, and the sketches were prepared on the basis of descriptions from the shop employees who sold off the bikes.
That the bikes were bought from separate shops was confirmed by the fact that all of them carried locks of different make.
Singh said that the sketches were credible because the buyer in all the cases remained in the shop for almost an hour to get the lock installed giving the shop staff ample time to have a good look at his face.
In all five sketches released till now, the man shown is about 20-25 years old. The cops said that, going by the way they spoke, none of them seemed to be a native of Rajasthan. They all bought the bike without haggling.
Police sources also said that at least 5-6 bikes were sold on May 13, the day of the blast. While 3 of the cycles were of Avon make, 2 were Atlas. The remaining for bikes were all of separate make Hercules, Penny, Surya and Apollo. In the Boneno bags, the bomb parcel was hidden under newly bought underwears of a very popular brand. In one of the bicycles, it was wrapped in the April 4 edition of local newspaper Daily News.
The cops said that the ball bearings were of a "particularly damaging variety" and were placed in a "curve" in such a way that when the bomb exploded the shrapnel burst out ahead, and not up, causing maximum damage till close to 100 feet. That they were planted in congested bazars only added to their lethality.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3045563.cms
Chronology of major bomb attacks in India
13 May 2008, 2353 hrs IST , AFP
NEW DELHI: The following is a list of recent major bomb blasts in India that police suspect were linked to sectarian groups:
May 13, 2008: At least 60 people killed and 150 wounded in what police said was a terror attack in the popular tourist city of Jaipur in Rajasthan.
November 23, 2007: At least 13 people were killed from serial blasts outside courts in three cities in Uttar Pradesh.
August 25, 2007: At least 43 people killed and more than 70 others injured as two bombs rock a crowded outdoor auditorium and a popular eatery in Hyderabad.
May 18, 2007: At least 10 killed and more than a dozen injured in blast at 17th century Mecca mosque in Hyderabad.
February 19, 2007: Sixty-eight people killed and dozens more injured after four explosions on board the Lahore-bound Samjhauta Express.
September 8, 2006: Thirty-eight people killed and more than 100 injured in three nearly simultaneous blasts, including one in a mosque, in the town of Malegaon in Maharashtra.
July 11, 2006: Seven bomb blasts in a period of 11 minutes on Mumbai's suburban trains. A total of 186 people were killed and more than 800 injured.
April 14, 2006: Fourteen people, including a woman and a girl, injured in two explosions at New Delhi's Jama Masjid, after Friday evening prayers.
March 7, 2006: Twenty-eight killed and 62 injured after three bombs rip through the holy city of Varanasi.
October 29, 2005: More than 60 people killed and nearly 200 injured when three bombs explode ahead of Diwali in New Delhi.
August 25, 2004: Six people die in two car bomb blasts in Mumbai.
March 13, 2003: Eleven people killed in a bomb attack aboard a commuter train in Mumbai.
September 24, 2002 : At least 31 people killed in a militant attack on a temple in Gujarat.
December 13, 2001: Fourteen people die, including five gunmen, in an attack on Parliament.
October 1, 2001: Forty people killed in a suicide attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3037370.cms
Only zero tolerance can end terror
Swapan Dasgupta (Pioneer May 18, 2008)
The serial blasts in Jaipur on May 14 were apparently the 21st successful operation (outside Jammu & Kashmir) by radical Islamists against the people of India. The 70 or so people who died horrible deaths last Tuesday joined the 3,674 Indians who are known to have been killed by a galaxy of terrorists in the 50-month period from January 2004. The statistics, diligently collated by The Times of India, suggest that India is second only to Iraq in the number of people killed by terrorists. The "merchants of death" have never had it so good.
The story of Incredible India is truly remarkable. It would be difficult discovering too many societies where a Government tries to cover up its pathetic helplessness by projecting the organised killings of the aam aadmi --commuters on suburban trains, scientists attending seminars, housewives shopping for Diwali and devotees worshipping at temples -- as karma and cruel fate. In normal democratic societies, the existence of well-organised terror networks would have prompted outrage. In India, it has prompted a curious response: A blend of capitulation and denial.
The capitulation has been shamefully brazen. In trying to dispel the assertion that terrorists don't deserve human rights, the UPA Government has gone out of its way to assert that terror suspects shouldn't suffer any discrimination. The architect of the Coimbatore bomb blasts, for example, turned his prison cell into a massage parlour before the authorities engineered his acquittal. The convicted perpetrator of the attack on Parliament idles away his time in prison with the full knowledge that the Government lacks the anatomical wherewithal to carry out the punishment awarded to him by courts.
For liberal India -- UPA represents its most disfigured face -- the important thing about terror is to deny its existence as far as possible. It has become almost a ritual for the Centre to greet every jihadi orgy with the assertion that we must not be provoked into enacting strong anti-terrorist legislation. For the English-language TV channels, the so-called "spirit of Mumbai" or the tale of Jaipur's "resilience", is invariably contrasted with the savage response of Gujarat to the carnage in Godhra.
It's one thing to invoke the gritty, stiff upper-lip approach as a byword for quiet determination. It's another thing to believe, like the infamous Mohammed Shah, that Delhi is still a fair distance away, and declare an unending happy hour for terrorist marauders. To mindlessly repeat after every outrage that terrorists are "cowards" is to miss the point. The issue is not about the lack of personal integrity of the bombers. It's about why the Centre has been emasculated by the terrorists.
It can hardly be the case that even someone as vacuously inept as Home Minister Shivraj Patil approves these attacks on what the Indian Mujahedeen email called the Kuffar-e-Hind (infidels of India). Like the inflation monster which threatens to eat up the Congress electorally in Karnataka, terrorists have alienated the UPA Government from large chunks of urban India. Yet, why is the Congress hellbent on courting unpopularity by persisting with its appeasement of terror?
After every terrorist atrocity, every religious head worth his name has invariably denounced the terrorists and prayed earnestly for peace. A massive conference was organised in Deoband some months ago to inform the terrorists that killing innocent civilians is theologically unsound. Therefore, if electoral support is what the UPA is after -- a legitimate preoccupation in a democracy -- why isn't the Manmohan Singh Government hitting the terrorists hard, and where it hurts? Logically speaking, by adopting a robust anti-terror policy the Government could have clawed its way back on popularity charts.
Unfortunately, there is a striking mismatch between reality as projected by breathless TV anchors and the truth in real life. There has been mounting evidence to show that the bombers are not foreign disruptionists who merely "sneak" into India, carry out an operation and then disappear into their cubby holes in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The post-mortem of every terrorist outrage points to local networks of radical extremism that act as facilitators. The leadership of the Student's Islamic Movement (they have dispensed with the "India" suffix) isn't foreigners; they are people who can quite legitimately claim Indian passports.
India is confronted by home-grown, ideologically-driven terror. The Government doesn't want to admit it. Nor does it plan to act against it for fear of unsettling people who vote en bloc. It persists with its hypocrisy and double-speak on the cynical belief that the Kuffar-e-Hind is incapable of responding in a united way.
No wonder there is growing liberal indignation at Rajasthan Government's decision to deport illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. If people have entered India without valid papers, they deserve to be expelled -- whether Bangladesh likes it or not. The compulsion is greater if it is established that Bangladeshi ghettos have served as sanctuaries for HUJI and other terror groups. Yet, just days after the outrage there is liberal clamour to keep many corners of Rajasthan forever Bangladeshi.
An effective anti-terror policy can be built on a combination of effective policing and social deterrence. That India needs a dedicated federal counter-terrorism body is undeniable. It is heartening that even the Congress has come around to this position. However, efficient policing and accurate Intelligence have to be complemented by all-round vigilance. A zero tolerance policy on terrorism implies creating an environment that discourages local support to bombers. All deterrence is based on fear of recrimination. Anti-terror strategies in India are hamstrung because support networks of terror enjoy political patronage. Our cities will become safer once the bombers and facilitators realise that every crime will be met by active intolerance.
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story1%2Etxt&counter_img=1
Friday, March 14, 2008
"We love death, they love life" -- islamism (Kanchan Gupta)
OIC's sinister message
by Kanchan Gupta (Pioneer, 15 March 2008)
The Organisation of Islamic Conference, whose membership is understandably restricted to 57 Islamic countries, at its meeting in Dakar, Senegal, over Thursday and Friday, has released a report that stands out for its remarkable casuistry. The 'Observatory Report on Islamophobia', a bulky document that lists a variety of imaginary grievances to make the point that Islam is being defamed and Muslims are being discriminated against, is of a piece with the OIC's untiring efforts to promote imagined victimhood as a convenient cover to justify Islamist terror.
In the past, the OIC has lashed out at India for 'suppressing' Muslim aspirations in Jammu & Kashmir; it has now lashed out at the entire world (barring, of course, those countries where Islam rules) for "defamation of Islam and racial intolerance of Muslims". The bulk of the OIC's anger is directed at "Western societies", but that is essentially because it wishes to play to the gallery and reflect the "concerns of the Islamic ummah". The report, however, should cause concern across the world, not least because it seeks a "binding legal instrument" that will delegitimise "negative political and media discourse" on issues with which Islam and Muslims are intimately associated, severely restrict freedom of expression, and force universal acceptance of, if not compliance with, all that is claimed in the name of Islam.
A fortnight before the official unveiling of this compendium of rant against the free world and denunciation of open and plural societies, the OIC Ambassadorial Group at the United Nations issued a statement on Islamophobia in New York on February 29. The statement is a summary of the obnoxious contents of the OIC report; its tone is belligerent and dismissive of dissenting opinion. "The Group is particularly and deeply alarmed by the intensification of the campaign against Islam, as it impairs Muslims' enjoyment of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and impedes their ability to observe, practice and manifest their religion freely and without fear of coercion, violence or reprisal," the statement says.
The statement and the report, however, are deliberately silent on non-Muslims being denied the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion - for instance, as has been denied to the Pandits of Kashmir Valley and is now being denied to Hindus in Islamic countries like Malaysia - and thus impeding their ability to observe, practice and manifest their religion freely and without fear of coercion. This is not surprising as the OIC is known for speaking with a forked tongue. Nor is it surprising that it should seek to bring into popular usage a neologism like 'Islamophobia' that serves its sinister agenda, while insisting that others like 'Islamofascism', along with 'radical Islam' and 'Islamic terrorism', must be banned from public discourse. Those who persist with using these terms shall be seen as, and held guilty of, Islamophobia. Terror has a new identity.
Ironically, what Europe is now being accused of owes its origin to entirely misplaced European, more specifically British, faith in 'multiculturalism' which has become the magic password to escape censure for indulging in Islamofascism, the ideology of those who subscribe to radical Islamism. The world first heard of Islamophobia when the Runnymede Trust set up the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia in 1996, much before New York's Twin Towers and the London Underground were bombed. It is no less ironical that the commission's report, 'Islamophobia: A challenge for us all', was released in 1997 in the House of Commons by then Home Secretary Jack Straw. In October 2006, Mr Straw was pitilessly denounced by those who claim to be victims of Islamophobia in Britain and abroad for daring to describe the Islamic veil as a "visible statement of separation and of difference".
By 2004, it was felt necessary to denounce Islamophobia to keep Islamofascists in good humour. In May that year the Council of Europe summit formally "condemned Islamophobia". Seven months later, Mr Kofi Annan, who brought shame and disgrace to his office as UN Secretary-General, gave it the stamp of international recognition by presiding over a conference on 'Confronting Islamophobia'. Between then and now, it has become fashionable to condemn any criticism of radical Islamism and fanaticism of the variety practiced and exported by Saudi Arabia, as Islamophobia, much the same way it is considered politically correct to describe the terrorism of Hamas and Hizbullah as "resistance against Zionism".
The truth is that Islamophobia is not about 'undue fear of Islam'. Well-known scholar Daniel Pipes, who is known to berate those who use Islam to justify their perversions, but not Islam (that has not prevented the OIC from naming him, along with Samuel P Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, and eminent historian Bernard Lewis, as an Islamophobe) says, "While prejudice against Islam certainly exists, Islamophobia deceptively conflates two distinct phenomena: Fear of Islam and fear of radical Islam." So, those who feel repelled by the ideology of radical Islamism and fear the terrible consequences of not putting down its practitioners, are also accused of Islamophobia. Similarly, it has become a convenient tool to silence critics of Islam and reformists within the ummah. It equates freedom to question with racism.
Worse, it gives fanatics the right to abuse others and vilify their faith, secure in the knowledge that anybody who dares protest will be branded an Islamophobe. When Britain toyed with the idea of adopting a law against hate speech, this point was made eloquently by Mr Azzam Tamimi, a senior member of the Muslim Association of Britain, who insisted that while the law should gag critics of Islam, it should not prevent Muslims from berating other religions since it is their 'duty' to do so, or from glorifying Palestinian suicide bombers because, as he put it, "We love death, they love life." Mr Tamimi, curiously, is a leading light of the 'Stop the War Coalition'.
Similarly, criticism of textbooks used in a London school funded by Saudi Arabia, describing Jews as "repugnant" and Christians as "pigs", would be considered Islamophobia, as would any attempt to rein in Islamist terrorist outfits anywhere in the world. When the British Government tried to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, it struck back by launching a 'Stop Islamophobia' campaign on British campuses. Apart from referring to the 9/11 terrorists as the "magnificent 19", as was done by its prominent leader Omar Bakri Mohammed, who later floated Al-Mohajiroun and now sends out e-mail 'advising' Muslim youth from his hideout in Lebanon, Hizb ut-Tahrir is guilty of practising anti-Semitism, abusing Hindus and Hinduism, and preaching that "suicide bombers go straight to heaven". To stand up to Hizb ut-Tahrir, therefore, amounts to Islamophobia.
Closer home, the Students Islamic Movement of India, which has been banned for being a terrorist organisation, insists that it is being targeted because its members are scrupulous adherents of Islam. Hence, if the OIC report is to be taken seriously and its definition of Islamophobia accepted, the order banning SIMI is a manifestation of Islamophobia. The Government of India is equally guilty of Islamophobia for providing dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen with a resident permit. And, those in media who refuse to endorse the humiliation of Gudiyas and the persecution of Imranas by the ulema, and believe there is a connection between radical Islamism and Islamist terrorism, stand accused of "targeting Muslims and Islam".
We can afford to ignore the ringing message from Dakar only at the expense of the values that set us apart from those who decree that a woman who has been raped should be publicly flogged, if not stoned to death.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=kanchan%2Fkanchan163.txt&writer=kanchan
by Kanchan Gupta (Pioneer, 15 March 2008)
The Organisation of Islamic Conference, whose membership is understandably restricted to 57 Islamic countries, at its meeting in Dakar, Senegal, over Thursday and Friday, has released a report that stands out for its remarkable casuistry. The 'Observatory Report on Islamophobia', a bulky document that lists a variety of imaginary grievances to make the point that Islam is being defamed and Muslims are being discriminated against, is of a piece with the OIC's untiring efforts to promote imagined victimhood as a convenient cover to justify Islamist terror.
In the past, the OIC has lashed out at India for 'suppressing' Muslim aspirations in Jammu & Kashmir; it has now lashed out at the entire world (barring, of course, those countries where Islam rules) for "defamation of Islam and racial intolerance of Muslims". The bulk of the OIC's anger is directed at "Western societies", but that is essentially because it wishes to play to the gallery and reflect the "concerns of the Islamic ummah". The report, however, should cause concern across the world, not least because it seeks a "binding legal instrument" that will delegitimise "negative political and media discourse" on issues with which Islam and Muslims are intimately associated, severely restrict freedom of expression, and force universal acceptance of, if not compliance with, all that is claimed in the name of Islam.
A fortnight before the official unveiling of this compendium of rant against the free world and denunciation of open and plural societies, the OIC Ambassadorial Group at the United Nations issued a statement on Islamophobia in New York on February 29. The statement is a summary of the obnoxious contents of the OIC report; its tone is belligerent and dismissive of dissenting opinion. "The Group is particularly and deeply alarmed by the intensification of the campaign against Islam, as it impairs Muslims' enjoyment of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and impedes their ability to observe, practice and manifest their religion freely and without fear of coercion, violence or reprisal," the statement says.
The statement and the report, however, are deliberately silent on non-Muslims being denied the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion - for instance, as has been denied to the Pandits of Kashmir Valley and is now being denied to Hindus in Islamic countries like Malaysia - and thus impeding their ability to observe, practice and manifest their religion freely and without fear of coercion. This is not surprising as the OIC is known for speaking with a forked tongue. Nor is it surprising that it should seek to bring into popular usage a neologism like 'Islamophobia' that serves its sinister agenda, while insisting that others like 'Islamofascism', along with 'radical Islam' and 'Islamic terrorism', must be banned from public discourse. Those who persist with using these terms shall be seen as, and held guilty of, Islamophobia. Terror has a new identity.
Ironically, what Europe is now being accused of owes its origin to entirely misplaced European, more specifically British, faith in 'multiculturalism' which has become the magic password to escape censure for indulging in Islamofascism, the ideology of those who subscribe to radical Islamism. The world first heard of Islamophobia when the Runnymede Trust set up the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia in 1996, much before New York's Twin Towers and the London Underground were bombed. It is no less ironical that the commission's report, 'Islamophobia: A challenge for us all', was released in 1997 in the House of Commons by then Home Secretary Jack Straw. In October 2006, Mr Straw was pitilessly denounced by those who claim to be victims of Islamophobia in Britain and abroad for daring to describe the Islamic veil as a "visible statement of separation and of difference".
By 2004, it was felt necessary to denounce Islamophobia to keep Islamofascists in good humour. In May that year the Council of Europe summit formally "condemned Islamophobia". Seven months later, Mr Kofi Annan, who brought shame and disgrace to his office as UN Secretary-General, gave it the stamp of international recognition by presiding over a conference on 'Confronting Islamophobia'. Between then and now, it has become fashionable to condemn any criticism of radical Islamism and fanaticism of the variety practiced and exported by Saudi Arabia, as Islamophobia, much the same way it is considered politically correct to describe the terrorism of Hamas and Hizbullah as "resistance against Zionism".
The truth is that Islamophobia is not about 'undue fear of Islam'. Well-known scholar Daniel Pipes, who is known to berate those who use Islam to justify their perversions, but not Islam (that has not prevented the OIC from naming him, along with Samuel P Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, and eminent historian Bernard Lewis, as an Islamophobe) says, "While prejudice against Islam certainly exists, Islamophobia deceptively conflates two distinct phenomena: Fear of Islam and fear of radical Islam." So, those who feel repelled by the ideology of radical Islamism and fear the terrible consequences of not putting down its practitioners, are also accused of Islamophobia. Similarly, it has become a convenient tool to silence critics of Islam and reformists within the ummah. It equates freedom to question with racism.
Worse, it gives fanatics the right to abuse others and vilify their faith, secure in the knowledge that anybody who dares protest will be branded an Islamophobe. When Britain toyed with the idea of adopting a law against hate speech, this point was made eloquently by Mr Azzam Tamimi, a senior member of the Muslim Association of Britain, who insisted that while the law should gag critics of Islam, it should not prevent Muslims from berating other religions since it is their 'duty' to do so, or from glorifying Palestinian suicide bombers because, as he put it, "We love death, they love life." Mr Tamimi, curiously, is a leading light of the 'Stop the War Coalition'.
Similarly, criticism of textbooks used in a London school funded by Saudi Arabia, describing Jews as "repugnant" and Christians as "pigs", would be considered Islamophobia, as would any attempt to rein in Islamist terrorist outfits anywhere in the world. When the British Government tried to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, it struck back by launching a 'Stop Islamophobia' campaign on British campuses. Apart from referring to the 9/11 terrorists as the "magnificent 19", as was done by its prominent leader Omar Bakri Mohammed, who later floated Al-Mohajiroun and now sends out e-mail 'advising' Muslim youth from his hideout in Lebanon, Hizb ut-Tahrir is guilty of practising anti-Semitism, abusing Hindus and Hinduism, and preaching that "suicide bombers go straight to heaven". To stand up to Hizb ut-Tahrir, therefore, amounts to Islamophobia.
Closer home, the Students Islamic Movement of India, which has been banned for being a terrorist organisation, insists that it is being targeted because its members are scrupulous adherents of Islam. Hence, if the OIC report is to be taken seriously and its definition of Islamophobia accepted, the order banning SIMI is a manifestation of Islamophobia. The Government of India is equally guilty of Islamophobia for providing dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen with a resident permit. And, those in media who refuse to endorse the humiliation of Gudiyas and the persecution of Imranas by the ulema, and believe there is a connection between radical Islamism and Islamist terrorism, stand accused of "targeting Muslims and Islam".
We can afford to ignore the ringing message from Dakar only at the expense of the values that set us apart from those who decree that a woman who has been raped should be publicly flogged, if not stoned to death.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=kanchan%2Fkanchan163.txt&writer=kanchan
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The naked truth of Emperor Aurangzeb's virtual clothes
We should thank the Prince Nawab of Arcot for reminding us about Aurangzeb 1) by opposing the Chennai exhibit and 2) by calling upon state terror to harass the exhibitors.
Here is a vivid account by V. Sundaram summarising what Aurangzeb did. Nawab saab, these are undeniable facts of history so superbly documented by Prafull Goradia, facts which will not go away and come back to haunt for a long, long time, despite the unleashing of state terror.
History may be bunk, but ain’t no bunker for sharp-shooters or jihadis to hide. Not even for Emperor Aurangzeb in his jihadi nakedness.
kalyan
Aurangazed and Islamic compassion-III
V SUNDARAM | Tue, 11 Mar, 2008 , 02:54 PM (News Today)
Unfortunately, we the citizens of Hindustan have had to suffer a continuous history of conquests and foreign rule for over seven centuries. It will take long time for the Hindu mindset to be raised from servitude to mastery.
Gobind Dev temple whose top half was beheaded by urangzeb and the rest converted into a mosque. (Photo graph: March, 2001)
http://newstodaynet.com/images/stories/columns/sharpshot/2008-images/1103-sun3.gif
Hindus can move faster if they have an understanding of their history. It would then be feasible to diagnose the slavery complex of the helpless Hindus of India and more particularly that haunts the upper fringes of Hindu society. Among the intelligentsia, there are many anti-Hindu Hindus. That is why Shri. Prafull Goradia in his great work HINDU MASJIDS asks this sharp question: ‘If the upper echelon of society is embarrassed about its collective identity, namely Hindu, how can the society regain its pride and self-confidence?’
Islamic iconoclasm has been the major misfortune of Hindustan from 800 AD to 1800 AD. Hindu Temples, by the hundred, if not by the thousand, were desecrated and then converted into Mosques and dargahs. Or, they were destroyed and their rubble was used to build Mosques. In all cases, the Hindu Deities were buried under Mosque entrances so that they could easily be trampled upon by those who came to offer prayers. How the Islamic iconoclasts deliberately wounded Hindu sentiments for centuries and how much they traumatized the indigenous Hindu Civilization can only be a matter of conjecture. But the large scale destruction of Hindu Temples by Muslim Rulers as a matter of high State Policy is a solid fact. According to our Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-hating, pseudo-secular anti-National Politicians and disgraceful Members of Parliament belonging to the Congress, Communist, RJD, DMK and other Political Parties, this act of temple destruction indeed brought out Islamic culture and human compassion at its noblest.
Aurangaze bofficers destroying the Keshavarai Temple at Mathura in 1669-1970. In its place a lofty Mosque erected.
http://newstodaynet.com/images/stories/columns/sharpshot/2008-images/1103-sun1.gif
Prafull Goradia gives this interesting account of how The Gobind Dev Temple in Mathura was beheaded in order to assuage the ego of that most compassionate of Mughal Rulers called Aurangazeb. The temple today is 55 feet tall. Before its upper part was destroyed on Aurangazeb’s orders in anticipation of his visit to Vrindavan in 1670 AD, the Mandir (temple) was reputed to be twice that height. On its roof, after the destruction, a Mehrab or Prayer Hall was erected and the iconoclastic Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb offered namazz. About two centuries later, FS Growse, who belonged to the Bengal Civil Service and was Collector and District Magistrate of Mathura District, had the Mehrab removed.
Prafull Goradia describes this act of FS Growse as ‘SHUDDHI BY British’. Growse had two reasons for ordering the removal of Mehrab. First, because it was an eyesore, and second, it was a public-spirited endeavour to redeem whatever original character was left of the temple two centuries after Aurangazeb’s savage act of its destruction. Although the original idol remained at Jaipur, another set of deities was installed by the pujaris or priests. Since then, the temple has had a flat roof. Probably, no other desecrated temple had been the subject of so much repair and refurbishment by British Rulers. Of supreme importance was the fact of the temple (Mandir) being resituated to Hindu devotees by FS Growse. As Prafull Goradia puts it: ‘It was the greatest act of Shuddhi or purification performed much before Swamy Dayananda Saraswathi re-introduced Vedic procedures. Growse therefore deserves a place in the Hall of Hindutva’.
The Gobind Dev Temple at Vrindavan, Mathura, is indeed massive. Its plinth is 105 feet by 117 feet. It is estimated that the original height was about 110 feet without which it would not have been possible to see the mashaal or torch either from Agra or from Delhi. This temple was built in 1590 AD by Maharaja Maan Singh of Jaipur. Fortunately, the idol of Sri Krishna or Gobind had been removed to Jaipur by the Pujarist in anticipation of Aurangazeb’s proposed visit for destroying that temple in 1670 AD. The roof of this magnificent temple was destroyed by Aurangazeb and in its place a Mehrab (Prayer Hall) was constructed as illustrated in the photograph in History of Indian and Eastern Architechture by James Fergusson. Aurangazeb himself inaugurated this Mehrab by offering Prayers.
Let me now describe in some detail how this great temple was destroyed by Aurangazeb and his Officers. All except two statuettes were defaced, including the one at the door of what is now the temple, after crossing the foyer hall. The destruction was not confined to the upper floors. It extended to the hundreds of defaced statuettes that even today adorn the temple walls outside as well as inside, the ceilings or doors. The iconoclasts (Aurangazeb and his henchmen) overlooked two small statuettes, one of Lord Sri Krishna and the other of Radha, on the outside of the left wall as one faces the temple.
An American Historian of Indian Architecture, George Mitchell, has concluded that the original sanctum sanctorum was destroyed. To quote his exact words: ‘Once the garbhagriha has been turned down, there was little point in further wreckage....It seems to me that only those with some understanding of the ritual significance of the garbhagriha would have been capable of desecrating a temple in this careful manner.’
The beheaded Gobind Dev Temple in Mathura turned Mosque with a Mehrab (Prayer Hall) on top built for humanist Aurangazeb to pray. Reproduced from History of Indian and Eastern Architecture by James Fergusson, John Murray, London, 1899. The above Mehrab was removed by F.S. Growse, District Collector and Magistrate, Mathura District after 1870.
http://newstodaynet.com/images/stories/columns/sharpshot/2008-images/1103-sun2.gif
Prof R Nath in his History of Mughal Architecture (1985) introduces the subject of the Gobind Dev Temple by quoting Aurangazeb’s Decree of April 1669 which said “Eager to establish Islam (Aurangazeb) issued orders to the Governors of all the Provinces to demolish the Schools and Temples of the Hindu infidels and with the utmost urgency put down the teaching and the public practice of these disbelievers. The great Temple of GOBIND DEV FELL A VICTIM TO ICONOCLASTIC VANDILSM WITHIN A YEAR OF THE DECREE. ITS INNER SANCTUM AND ITS SUPERSTRUCTURE WERE ALMOST ENTIRELY DESTROYED. THE MAIN HALL WAS ALSO DAMAGED. SCULPTED FIGURES ON THE DVARASAKHA WERE LITERALLY DEFACED’.
What made Aurangazeb and his Islamic marauders destroy this beautiful Temple in Vrindavan in Mathura? FS Growse gave an answer in his article in Calcutta Review in 1882: ‘Aurangazeb had often remarked about a very bright light shining in the far distant south east horizon and in reply to his enquiries regarding it, was told that it was a light burning in a temple of great wealth and magnificence at Vrindavan. He accordingly resolved that it should be put out and soon after some troops were sent to the place who plundered and threw down as much of the temple as they could and then erected on the top of the ruins a Mosque wall where, in order to complete the desecration, the Emperor is said to have offered up his Prayers.’
Aurangazeb’s Islamic ego was thus gratified. According to James Fergusson, very unfortunately for the Hindus of India and the artistic heritage of al civilized mankind, this act of wanton destruction of Gobind Dev Temple at Mathura took along with it one of the most elegant Temples in India. What did Growse have to say about this? He said ‘I should myself have thought that solemn are imposing was a more appropriate term than elegance for so massive a building and that the suggestions that might be derived from its study were many rather than few.’
According to Prafull Goradia a number of motives have been attributed to the Islamic Invaders who desecrated or destroyed Hindu Temples, looting its treasures, subduing the populace by arousing dread, informing the area that an Islamic Sultan had replaced the Hindu Raja. There is, however, no other instance of a temple being desecrated because it defied the ego of an Emperor.
http://newstodaynet.com/col.php?section=20&catid=33
Here is a vivid account by V. Sundaram summarising what Aurangzeb did. Nawab saab, these are undeniable facts of history so superbly documented by Prafull Goradia, facts which will not go away and come back to haunt for a long, long time, despite the unleashing of state terror.
History may be bunk, but ain’t no bunker for sharp-shooters or jihadis to hide. Not even for Emperor Aurangzeb in his jihadi nakedness.
kalyan
Aurangazed and Islamic compassion-III
V SUNDARAM | Tue, 11 Mar, 2008 , 02:54 PM (News Today)
Unfortunately, we the citizens of Hindustan have had to suffer a continuous history of conquests and foreign rule for over seven centuries. It will take long time for the Hindu mindset to be raised from servitude to mastery.
Gobind Dev temple whose top half was beheaded by urangzeb and the rest converted into a mosque. (Photo graph: March, 2001)
http://newstodaynet.com/images/stories/columns/sharpshot/2008-images/1103-sun3.gif
Hindus can move faster if they have an understanding of their history. It would then be feasible to diagnose the slavery complex of the helpless Hindus of India and more particularly that haunts the upper fringes of Hindu society. Among the intelligentsia, there are many anti-Hindu Hindus. That is why Shri. Prafull Goradia in his great work HINDU MASJIDS asks this sharp question: ‘If the upper echelon of society is embarrassed about its collective identity, namely Hindu, how can the society regain its pride and self-confidence?’
Islamic iconoclasm has been the major misfortune of Hindustan from 800 AD to 1800 AD. Hindu Temples, by the hundred, if not by the thousand, were desecrated and then converted into Mosques and dargahs. Or, they were destroyed and their rubble was used to build Mosques. In all cases, the Hindu Deities were buried under Mosque entrances so that they could easily be trampled upon by those who came to offer prayers. How the Islamic iconoclasts deliberately wounded Hindu sentiments for centuries and how much they traumatized the indigenous Hindu Civilization can only be a matter of conjecture. But the large scale destruction of Hindu Temples by Muslim Rulers as a matter of high State Policy is a solid fact. According to our Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-hating, pseudo-secular anti-National Politicians and disgraceful Members of Parliament belonging to the Congress, Communist, RJD, DMK and other Political Parties, this act of temple destruction indeed brought out Islamic culture and human compassion at its noblest.
Aurangaze bofficers destroying the Keshavarai Temple at Mathura in 1669-1970. In its place a lofty Mosque erected.
http://newstodaynet.com/images/stories/columns/sharpshot/2008-images/1103-sun1.gif
Prafull Goradia gives this interesting account of how The Gobind Dev Temple in Mathura was beheaded in order to assuage the ego of that most compassionate of Mughal Rulers called Aurangazeb. The temple today is 55 feet tall. Before its upper part was destroyed on Aurangazeb’s orders in anticipation of his visit to Vrindavan in 1670 AD, the Mandir (temple) was reputed to be twice that height. On its roof, after the destruction, a Mehrab or Prayer Hall was erected and the iconoclastic Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb offered namazz. About two centuries later, FS Growse, who belonged to the Bengal Civil Service and was Collector and District Magistrate of Mathura District, had the Mehrab removed.
Prafull Goradia describes this act of FS Growse as ‘SHUDDHI BY British’. Growse had two reasons for ordering the removal of Mehrab. First, because it was an eyesore, and second, it was a public-spirited endeavour to redeem whatever original character was left of the temple two centuries after Aurangazeb’s savage act of its destruction. Although the original idol remained at Jaipur, another set of deities was installed by the pujaris or priests. Since then, the temple has had a flat roof. Probably, no other desecrated temple had been the subject of so much repair and refurbishment by British Rulers. Of supreme importance was the fact of the temple (Mandir) being resituated to Hindu devotees by FS Growse. As Prafull Goradia puts it: ‘It was the greatest act of Shuddhi or purification performed much before Swamy Dayananda Saraswathi re-introduced Vedic procedures. Growse therefore deserves a place in the Hall of Hindutva’.
The Gobind Dev Temple at Vrindavan, Mathura, is indeed massive. Its plinth is 105 feet by 117 feet. It is estimated that the original height was about 110 feet without which it would not have been possible to see the mashaal or torch either from Agra or from Delhi. This temple was built in 1590 AD by Maharaja Maan Singh of Jaipur. Fortunately, the idol of Sri Krishna or Gobind had been removed to Jaipur by the Pujarist in anticipation of Aurangazeb’s proposed visit for destroying that temple in 1670 AD. The roof of this magnificent temple was destroyed by Aurangazeb and in its place a Mehrab (Prayer Hall) was constructed as illustrated in the photograph in History of Indian and Eastern Architechture by James Fergusson. Aurangazeb himself inaugurated this Mehrab by offering Prayers.
Let me now describe in some detail how this great temple was destroyed by Aurangazeb and his Officers. All except two statuettes were defaced, including the one at the door of what is now the temple, after crossing the foyer hall. The destruction was not confined to the upper floors. It extended to the hundreds of defaced statuettes that even today adorn the temple walls outside as well as inside, the ceilings or doors. The iconoclasts (Aurangazeb and his henchmen) overlooked two small statuettes, one of Lord Sri Krishna and the other of Radha, on the outside of the left wall as one faces the temple.
An American Historian of Indian Architecture, George Mitchell, has concluded that the original sanctum sanctorum was destroyed. To quote his exact words: ‘Once the garbhagriha has been turned down, there was little point in further wreckage....It seems to me that only those with some understanding of the ritual significance of the garbhagriha would have been capable of desecrating a temple in this careful manner.’
The beheaded Gobind Dev Temple in Mathura turned Mosque with a Mehrab (Prayer Hall) on top built for humanist Aurangazeb to pray. Reproduced from History of Indian and Eastern Architecture by James Fergusson, John Murray, London, 1899. The above Mehrab was removed by F.S. Growse, District Collector and Magistrate, Mathura District after 1870.
http://newstodaynet.com/images/stories/columns/sharpshot/2008-images/1103-sun2.gif
Prof R Nath in his History of Mughal Architecture (1985) introduces the subject of the Gobind Dev Temple by quoting Aurangazeb’s Decree of April 1669 which said “Eager to establish Islam (Aurangazeb) issued orders to the Governors of all the Provinces to demolish the Schools and Temples of the Hindu infidels and with the utmost urgency put down the teaching and the public practice of these disbelievers. The great Temple of GOBIND DEV FELL A VICTIM TO ICONOCLASTIC VANDILSM WITHIN A YEAR OF THE DECREE. ITS INNER SANCTUM AND ITS SUPERSTRUCTURE WERE ALMOST ENTIRELY DESTROYED. THE MAIN HALL WAS ALSO DAMAGED. SCULPTED FIGURES ON THE DVARASAKHA WERE LITERALLY DEFACED’.
What made Aurangazeb and his Islamic marauders destroy this beautiful Temple in Vrindavan in Mathura? FS Growse gave an answer in his article in Calcutta Review in 1882: ‘Aurangazeb had often remarked about a very bright light shining in the far distant south east horizon and in reply to his enquiries regarding it, was told that it was a light burning in a temple of great wealth and magnificence at Vrindavan. He accordingly resolved that it should be put out and soon after some troops were sent to the place who plundered and threw down as much of the temple as they could and then erected on the top of the ruins a Mosque wall where, in order to complete the desecration, the Emperor is said to have offered up his Prayers.’
Aurangazeb’s Islamic ego was thus gratified. According to James Fergusson, very unfortunately for the Hindus of India and the artistic heritage of al civilized mankind, this act of wanton destruction of Gobind Dev Temple at Mathura took along with it one of the most elegant Temples in India. What did Growse have to say about this? He said ‘I should myself have thought that solemn are imposing was a more appropriate term than elegance for so massive a building and that the suggestions that might be derived from its study were many rather than few.’
According to Prafull Goradia a number of motives have been attributed to the Islamic Invaders who desecrated or destroyed Hindu Temples, looting its treasures, subduing the populace by arousing dread, informing the area that an Islamic Sultan had replaced the Hindu Raja. There is, however, no other instance of a temple being desecrated because it defied the ego of an Emperor.
http://newstodaynet.com/col.php?section=20&catid=33
Monday, March 10, 2008
Aurangzebs of the state attacking hard-won freedoms
Aurangzebs of the state attacking hard-won freedoms
Here are two accounts. One is by V. Sundaram presenting the facts on Aurangzeb’s destruction of Hindu temples. The other is by Francois Gautier presenting the facts of culture (read communal) policing in Chennai which should attract appropriate legal and administrative sanctions, assuming that the rule of law is in vogue in the state.
When the fence eats away the field, who is to safeguard the crop?
The organizers of the exhibit should be complimented for awakening the nation to the faces of terror which have stalked the nation for several centuries.
A nation which forgets its past and does not draw lessons from the eveil deeds of the past rulers, the nation is likely to repeat its history.
Dhanyavaadah for the extraordinary courage and fortitude displayed by the organizers standing up to state terror mimicking the jihadi terrors -- of the past and ongoing.
kalyan
Aurangazeb and Islamic compassion-II
V SUNDARAM | Mon, 10 Mar, 2008 , 02:50 PM
.
‘Aurangazeb as he was’ exhibition organized by FACT in Chennai showed two paintings about the destruction of Keshavarai Temple at Mathura carried out by Aurangazeb in Jan-Feb 1670 (See Exhibit 12 below) and how in its place a lofty Mosque was erected.
The idols, the author of Maasir-i-Alamgiri informs us, were carried to Agra and buried under the steps of the mosque built by Begum Sahiba in order to be continually trodden upon, and the name of Mathura was changed to Islamabad. The painting (See Exhibit 13 below) is thus no fancy imagination of the artist but depicts what actually took place.
Exhibits 12 and 13 http://newstodaynet.com/images/stories/columns/sharpshot/2008-images/pg4-sundaram-photo-2.gif
The Muslim Invaders and Rulers of India belonged to different ages, races and parts of the globe. They spoke in different languages. But their behaviour-pattern remained and still remains consistently uniform. The very reason for such remarkable uniformity of behaviour lies in the Quran, the Hadis and the Sunnah which they quote and follow with pride. There are two aspects of the creed of Islam. One is the Doctrinal aspect as embodied in the Islamic Scriptures viz, the Holy Quran (The Revelation of Allah), the Hadis (The Revelation of the Prophet) and the Sunnah (The Way of Life as shown by the Prophet). The other is “Jihad” i.e. Islam in action. Both -these aspects are intertwined with one another and it is the Holy Quran that inspires, ordins and guides Jihad, the Islamic ‘struggle’ in the way of Allah.
The Islamic Jihad in every nook and corner of the world stands for the same – intolerance to and slaughter of non-Muslims, loot and arson of the ‘kafirs’ property and rape of their women. From the Mujaheeds of the battle of Badr to toda’s Osaama bin Laden, the spirit remains unchanged. And from the mutilation of Lt. Saurav Khalia to the Church-bomb-blast at Djakarta (25.12.2000) and New York World Trade Centre (11.9.2001) the pattern remains the same. Allah has said in the Quran “Slay the idolaters whenever you find them, and take them, confine them, and lie in weight for them in every place of ambush” (Surah 9: Ayat 5). Likewise we have in Surah 8: Ayat 39 this message: “Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion reigns supreme”. Apart from the religious Ordinances, Carnal gratification is another strong impetus that inspires a Mujaheed to participate in Jihad. There is assurance in Surah 78: Ayat 30 to the effect that if a Mujaheed gets killed, 72 Hauries (women of tender age with large round breasts) and 28 young boys weight to satiate his libido in Jannat (Paradise). The Holy Qural promises that “Surely for the God – fearing awaits a place of security, garden and vineyards and maidens with swelling bossoms.”
Will Durant, in his internationally acclaimed book “The Story of Civilization”, has stated: The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale for its evident moral is that Civilization is a precious good whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from outside are multiplying within.”
Swami Vivekananda presented the following picture of Islamic havoc in India as follows: “When the Muslims first came to India, there were according to their historical records, 60 crores of Hindus in India. This calculation suffers from under estimation than exaggeration; for lots of people perished through the persecution of the Muslims. But today the same Hindus have dwindled into 20 crores” (Complete Works, Volume V, PP 233).
Muslim Regimes, throughout the world have an unparallel record of terrorism and torture, murder and mayhem described in gory details by contemporary Muslim chroniclers themselves. Subjecting all non-Muslims to horrendous atrocities, plundering their wealth, abducting their women and destroying their places for worship—these munificent deeds have been considered sacred duties of every Muslim in Islamic theology and practice. Such acts of violence, inhuman torture and barbarism, have been inspired by the Quran itself which says” “Allah revealed His Will to the Angels saying ‘I shall be with you, give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, main them in every limb. “(Surah 8: Ayat 12)
Aurangazeb drew his inspiration for the destruction of Hindu Temples from the Quran. Sita Ram Goel in his authoritative work ‘Hindu Temples, What Happened to Them’ has given detailed epigraphic evidence regarding the destruction of Keshavarai Temple by Aurangazeb in Mathura. He cites from the Persian inscription reproduced and translated into English by F.S. Growse in his Mathura: A District Memoir (3rd Edition of 1883). Growse was District Collector of Mathura in 1883. Here is the epigraphic evidence:
“In the reign of Shah Alamgir Muhuddin Walmillah, the King of the World, Aurangazeb, who is adorned with justice, the lustre of Islam shone forth to the glory of God: for Abd-un-Nabi Khan built this beautiful Mosque. The second Holy Temple caused the idols to go down in worship. Truth came and error vanished.” This is how they described how a Mosque was erected at the same site where Keshavari Temple stood and which was demolished on Aurangazeb’s orders in Jan-Feb 1670.
In his path-breaking book HINDU MASJIDS’, Shri Prafull Goradia, a profound scholar and Former BJP Member of Parliament has fully documented the destruction of Hindu Temples by Muslim Rulers from 700 AD to the end of the 18th century. Aurangazeb comes out as a cruel, wicked and barbarous destroyer of Hindu Temples. I will be giving details from this book in these articles in serial form:
To quote the words of Prafull Goradia from his introduction: “Hindu Masjids personify the deep chasm, or the sharp conflict between the Hindu Ethos and Muslim Zoolatry. The conflict must be resolved. Why are we anxious? For the simple reason that without resolution, India cannot acquire the spirit of collective honour. And without national pride, the country cannot leap forward. Individual citizens may flourish or shine, as they do even now, whether at home or overseas. But the collective performance of the country disappoints.”
It is the bounden duty of all responsible citizens and historians to let the people of India know about the brutal and actual facts about their collective past. If an endeavour directed towards this nobel end can be viewed as a criminal act which tends to disturb or derange communal peace and harmony, then all that I can say is that such an attitude only smacks of a black-mailing form of terrorism. All true scholars and patriotic Indians should derive their inspiration from these words: “Without courage there can be no truth and without truth, there can be no other virtue”.
http://newstodaynet.com/printer.php?id=5738
(An article by Francois Gautier which was published in the centre page of New Indian Express, 10-3-08)
Freedom gagged
by francois gautier
ON the March 7,2008, in Lalit Kala Academi, Chennai, Assistant Commissioner of Police K N Murali, took off the wall an exquisite miniature painting, which showed the destruction of the Somnath temple (which has been razed six times) and threw it on the ground, shattering it. Then his men started removing all the paintings from the wall, further damaging many of them. On that day, the morale and the reputation of the Tamil Nadu police must have sunk to a new low: of bowing down to their master's wishes and those of a few fanatics, of forsaking moral decency and all the qualities that a police officer should embody.
The previous day the Nawab of Arcot visited the exhibition and lashed out at FACT volunteers accusing them of "misrepresenting facts." He was particularly enraged by two miniatures — the first depicted Aurangzeb's army destroying the Somnath temple and the second showed the destruction of the Kesava Rai temple in Mathura. We are told that he has direct access to the CM's office and that orders to the police to clamp down on exhibition came down from there. Otherwise, Mr Murali would not have dared to go so far, so brazenly.
Soon, the nawab sent a group of goons, allegedly from TMMK (Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam) and MNP (Manitha Neethi Paasarai) to pick up arguments with the volunteers, most of them elderly women from decent family backgrounds.
They came back again on 7th afternoon when I was there, screaming on, top of their voices in Tamil and in English that this exhibition was absolutely false and that unless it was closed immediately they would come back in force the next day (Friday) to break it down. I tried to reason with them, that these were all documents from Government archives, that I could explain everything to them, that we could even debate on TV, but they shouted even louder and got more threatening. When all these arguments were going on the police did not bother to come up. (The hall is on the first floor.)
Then the goons closeted themselves with Mr Murali, two other officers and Mr Palaniappan, the secretary of the LKA, in his office and when I barged in, Mr Murali told me he was closing down the exhibition. I decided to rush to the Commissioner's office in Egmore to plead for a stay order. But meanwhile Mr Murali swung into action: he terrorised the harmless ladies calling them "stooges of a white dog," threw two paintings on the ground and ordered his policemen to remove the rest. Then he arrested four volunteers (Mrs. Saraswathi, Mrs. Vijayalakshmi, Mrs. Malathi and Mr. B.R. Haran) and took them to the Thousand Lights police station. There ACP termed Mr. Francois as a "Foreign Terrorist" and threatened to book the volunteers "for helping and assisting him to incite communal violence in the otherwise peaceful Tamil Nadu."
What was all the noise about? Lalit Kala Academi was showing an exhibition: "Aurangzeb as he was according to his own records." This is an artistic exhibition on Aurangzeb, the great Mughal emperor using his own records and firmans (edicts), many of which are still preserved in Indian museums, such as the Bikaner archives.
Aurangzeb was truly a pious Muslim, copying the Koran himself, stitching Muslim skullcaps and enforcing strict laws, according to his own documents, which we were careful to show. How come Aurangzeb is such a hero with the Nawab of Arcot and his henchmen? Forget what he did to Hindus: re-imposing the humiliating jiziya tax, forbidding them from riding horses, elephants or palanquins and ordering all temples destroyed (Among them the Krishna's birth temple in Mathura, the rebuilt Somnath temple on the coast of Gujarat, the Vishnu temple replaced with the Alamgir mosque now overlooking Benares and the Treta-ka-Thakur temple in Ayodhya), he was also a monster to his own family, having his father poisoned, his two brothers killed, and imprisoning his own son.
This exhibition was sponsored by FACT, which I created in 2003, when I received at the hands of the Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha the Natchiketa Award of Excellence in Journalism. With the Prize money, my Indian wife Namrita and myself mounted an exhibition on the plight of the Kashmir! Pandits, four hundred thousand of them having become refugees in their own country.
This exhibition travelled around India and then in the world and was shown in Capitol Hill, Washington, in July 2005, leading to a bipartisan resolution on the Human Rights of the Kashmir! Pandits in the US Congress. Another exhibition on the persecution of Hindus, Christians and Buddhists in Bangladesh was inaugurated in Mumbai on November 18, 2006. We have also a huge show on Shivaji 'a Hero for Modern, India' in Mumbai on March 12 in Ravindra Natya Mandir.
A lot of historical research and artistic efforts have gone into the making of this exhibition. It is also an effort to help a dying craft, of the painters of Rajasthan, that of miniature painting. Each original painting, which portrays a historically documented incident in the times of Aurangzeb, has been done in the original Mughal style and is signed and dated. Professor V. S. Bhatnagar of the Rajasthan University, Jaipur, has contributed the historical research part.
We are hiring a lawyer to file a case on FACT's behalf on five counts:
1) Assistant Commissioner of Police K N Murali, took two of the paintings, which showed the destruction of the Somnath temple and threw them on the ground. I hear six more paintings have been damaged and we have no news of the exhibition as it has been sealed. It costs 8 lakhs to do (all original miniature paintings not counting my time).
2) We paid LalitKalaAcademi a lot of money and they cancelled the show.
3) The police took in a police van three innocent ladies to the police station after 6 p.m. which is illegal.
4) The police totally sided with the goons, closeting themselves in the manager's office for one hour.
5) Mr Murali threatened the ladies repeatedly that they were 'terrorists.'
6} Lastly, we will file a case against Lalit Kala Academi for damage to our paintings, infringement upon our freedom of expression and we will demand that they reopen the exhibition in their premises so that the people of Chennai may have the opportunity to make their own judgment about it.
This exhibition is not about raking up the past or "creating communal disharmony," it is about Indian children, Hindus and Muslims alike knowing their own past and making sure it does not happen again. For Aurangzeb's shadow and legacy is still very much present in India.
It was there in Kashmir when all the Hindus were forced by terror to leave their homeland; it is there when Indian Muslims help plant bombs in Mumbai trains, Varanasi, or Delhi; it was there in Chennai when a few Muslim rowdies hold at ransom an entire state and its political apparatus. This is why we had that exhibition.
Francois Gautier is political correspondent in South Asia for “LaFigaro” for eight years. He is now the editor in chief of Paris-based Le revue de l’Inde (lesbelleslettre.com)
http://newindpress.com/newspages.asp?page=m&Title=Main+Article&
Here are two accounts. One is by V. Sundaram presenting the facts on Aurangzeb’s destruction of Hindu temples. The other is by Francois Gautier presenting the facts of culture (read communal) policing in Chennai which should attract appropriate legal and administrative sanctions, assuming that the rule of law is in vogue in the state.
When the fence eats away the field, who is to safeguard the crop?
The organizers of the exhibit should be complimented for awakening the nation to the faces of terror which have stalked the nation for several centuries.
A nation which forgets its past and does not draw lessons from the eveil deeds of the past rulers, the nation is likely to repeat its history.
Dhanyavaadah for the extraordinary courage and fortitude displayed by the organizers standing up to state terror mimicking the jihadi terrors -- of the past and ongoing.
kalyan
Aurangazeb and Islamic compassion-II
V SUNDARAM | Mon, 10 Mar, 2008 , 02:50 PM
.
‘Aurangazeb as he was’ exhibition organized by FACT in Chennai showed two paintings about the destruction of Keshavarai Temple at Mathura carried out by Aurangazeb in Jan-Feb 1670 (See Exhibit 12 below) and how in its place a lofty Mosque was erected.
The idols, the author of Maasir-i-Alamgiri informs us, were carried to Agra and buried under the steps of the mosque built by Begum Sahiba in order to be continually trodden upon, and the name of Mathura was changed to Islamabad. The painting (See Exhibit 13 below) is thus no fancy imagination of the artist but depicts what actually took place.
Exhibits 12 and 13 http://newstodaynet.com/images/stories/columns/sharpshot/2008-images/pg4-sundaram-photo-2.gif
The Muslim Invaders and Rulers of India belonged to different ages, races and parts of the globe. They spoke in different languages. But their behaviour-pattern remained and still remains consistently uniform. The very reason for such remarkable uniformity of behaviour lies in the Quran, the Hadis and the Sunnah which they quote and follow with pride. There are two aspects of the creed of Islam. One is the Doctrinal aspect as embodied in the Islamic Scriptures viz, the Holy Quran (The Revelation of Allah), the Hadis (The Revelation of the Prophet) and the Sunnah (The Way of Life as shown by the Prophet). The other is “Jihad” i.e. Islam in action. Both -these aspects are intertwined with one another and it is the Holy Quran that inspires, ordins and guides Jihad, the Islamic ‘struggle’ in the way of Allah.
The Islamic Jihad in every nook and corner of the world stands for the same – intolerance to and slaughter of non-Muslims, loot and arson of the ‘kafirs’ property and rape of their women. From the Mujaheeds of the battle of Badr to toda’s Osaama bin Laden, the spirit remains unchanged. And from the mutilation of Lt. Saurav Khalia to the Church-bomb-blast at Djakarta (25.12.2000) and New York World Trade Centre (11.9.2001) the pattern remains the same. Allah has said in the Quran “Slay the idolaters whenever you find them, and take them, confine them, and lie in weight for them in every place of ambush” (Surah 9: Ayat 5). Likewise we have in Surah 8: Ayat 39 this message: “Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion reigns supreme”. Apart from the religious Ordinances, Carnal gratification is another strong impetus that inspires a Mujaheed to participate in Jihad. There is assurance in Surah 78: Ayat 30 to the effect that if a Mujaheed gets killed, 72 Hauries (women of tender age with large round breasts) and 28 young boys weight to satiate his libido in Jannat (Paradise). The Holy Qural promises that “Surely for the God – fearing awaits a place of security, garden and vineyards and maidens with swelling bossoms.”
Will Durant, in his internationally acclaimed book “The Story of Civilization”, has stated: The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale for its evident moral is that Civilization is a precious good whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from outside are multiplying within.”
Swami Vivekananda presented the following picture of Islamic havoc in India as follows: “When the Muslims first came to India, there were according to their historical records, 60 crores of Hindus in India. This calculation suffers from under estimation than exaggeration; for lots of people perished through the persecution of the Muslims. But today the same Hindus have dwindled into 20 crores” (Complete Works, Volume V, PP 233).
Muslim Regimes, throughout the world have an unparallel record of terrorism and torture, murder and mayhem described in gory details by contemporary Muslim chroniclers themselves. Subjecting all non-Muslims to horrendous atrocities, plundering their wealth, abducting their women and destroying their places for worship—these munificent deeds have been considered sacred duties of every Muslim in Islamic theology and practice. Such acts of violence, inhuman torture and barbarism, have been inspired by the Quran itself which says” “Allah revealed His Will to the Angels saying ‘I shall be with you, give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, main them in every limb. “(Surah 8: Ayat 12)
Aurangazeb drew his inspiration for the destruction of Hindu Temples from the Quran. Sita Ram Goel in his authoritative work ‘Hindu Temples, What Happened to Them’ has given detailed epigraphic evidence regarding the destruction of Keshavarai Temple by Aurangazeb in Mathura. He cites from the Persian inscription reproduced and translated into English by F.S. Growse in his Mathura: A District Memoir (3rd Edition of 1883). Growse was District Collector of Mathura in 1883. Here is the epigraphic evidence:
“In the reign of Shah Alamgir Muhuddin Walmillah, the King of the World, Aurangazeb, who is adorned with justice, the lustre of Islam shone forth to the glory of God: for Abd-un-Nabi Khan built this beautiful Mosque. The second Holy Temple caused the idols to go down in worship. Truth came and error vanished.” This is how they described how a Mosque was erected at the same site where Keshavari Temple stood and which was demolished on Aurangazeb’s orders in Jan-Feb 1670.
In his path-breaking book HINDU MASJIDS’, Shri Prafull Goradia, a profound scholar and Former BJP Member of Parliament has fully documented the destruction of Hindu Temples by Muslim Rulers from 700 AD to the end of the 18th century. Aurangazeb comes out as a cruel, wicked and barbarous destroyer of Hindu Temples. I will be giving details from this book in these articles in serial form:
To quote the words of Prafull Goradia from his introduction: “Hindu Masjids personify the deep chasm, or the sharp conflict between the Hindu Ethos and Muslim Zoolatry. The conflict must be resolved. Why are we anxious? For the simple reason that without resolution, India cannot acquire the spirit of collective honour. And without national pride, the country cannot leap forward. Individual citizens may flourish or shine, as they do even now, whether at home or overseas. But the collective performance of the country disappoints.”
It is the bounden duty of all responsible citizens and historians to let the people of India know about the brutal and actual facts about their collective past. If an endeavour directed towards this nobel end can be viewed as a criminal act which tends to disturb or derange communal peace and harmony, then all that I can say is that such an attitude only smacks of a black-mailing form of terrorism. All true scholars and patriotic Indians should derive their inspiration from these words: “Without courage there can be no truth and without truth, there can be no other virtue”.
http://newstodaynet.com/printer.php?id=5738
(An article by Francois Gautier which was published in the centre page of New Indian Express, 10-3-08)
Freedom gagged
by francois gautier
ON the March 7,2008, in Lalit Kala Academi, Chennai, Assistant Commissioner of Police K N Murali, took off the wall an exquisite miniature painting, which showed the destruction of the Somnath temple (which has been razed six times) and threw it on the ground, shattering it. Then his men started removing all the paintings from the wall, further damaging many of them. On that day, the morale and the reputation of the Tamil Nadu police must have sunk to a new low: of bowing down to their master's wishes and those of a few fanatics, of forsaking moral decency and all the qualities that a police officer should embody.
The previous day the Nawab of Arcot visited the exhibition and lashed out at FACT volunteers accusing them of "misrepresenting facts." He was particularly enraged by two miniatures — the first depicted Aurangzeb's army destroying the Somnath temple and the second showed the destruction of the Kesava Rai temple in Mathura. We are told that he has direct access to the CM's office and that orders to the police to clamp down on exhibition came down from there. Otherwise, Mr Murali would not have dared to go so far, so brazenly.
Soon, the nawab sent a group of goons, allegedly from TMMK (Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam) and MNP (Manitha Neethi Paasarai) to pick up arguments with the volunteers, most of them elderly women from decent family backgrounds.
They came back again on 7th afternoon when I was there, screaming on, top of their voices in Tamil and in English that this exhibition was absolutely false and that unless it was closed immediately they would come back in force the next day (Friday) to break it down. I tried to reason with them, that these were all documents from Government archives, that I could explain everything to them, that we could even debate on TV, but they shouted even louder and got more threatening. When all these arguments were going on the police did not bother to come up. (The hall is on the first floor.)
Then the goons closeted themselves with Mr Murali, two other officers and Mr Palaniappan, the secretary of the LKA, in his office and when I barged in, Mr Murali told me he was closing down the exhibition. I decided to rush to the Commissioner's office in Egmore to plead for a stay order. But meanwhile Mr Murali swung into action: he terrorised the harmless ladies calling them "stooges of a white dog," threw two paintings on the ground and ordered his policemen to remove the rest. Then he arrested four volunteers (Mrs. Saraswathi, Mrs. Vijayalakshmi, Mrs. Malathi and Mr. B.R. Haran) and took them to the Thousand Lights police station. There ACP termed Mr. Francois as a "Foreign Terrorist" and threatened to book the volunteers "for helping and assisting him to incite communal violence in the otherwise peaceful Tamil Nadu."
What was all the noise about? Lalit Kala Academi was showing an exhibition: "Aurangzeb as he was according to his own records." This is an artistic exhibition on Aurangzeb, the great Mughal emperor using his own records and firmans (edicts), many of which are still preserved in Indian museums, such as the Bikaner archives.
Aurangzeb was truly a pious Muslim, copying the Koran himself, stitching Muslim skullcaps and enforcing strict laws, according to his own documents, which we were careful to show. How come Aurangzeb is such a hero with the Nawab of Arcot and his henchmen? Forget what he did to Hindus: re-imposing the humiliating jiziya tax, forbidding them from riding horses, elephants or palanquins and ordering all temples destroyed (Among them the Krishna's birth temple in Mathura, the rebuilt Somnath temple on the coast of Gujarat, the Vishnu temple replaced with the Alamgir mosque now overlooking Benares and the Treta-ka-Thakur temple in Ayodhya), he was also a monster to his own family, having his father poisoned, his two brothers killed, and imprisoning his own son.
This exhibition was sponsored by FACT, which I created in 2003, when I received at the hands of the Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha the Natchiketa Award of Excellence in Journalism. With the Prize money, my Indian wife Namrita and myself mounted an exhibition on the plight of the Kashmir! Pandits, four hundred thousand of them having become refugees in their own country.
This exhibition travelled around India and then in the world and was shown in Capitol Hill, Washington, in July 2005, leading to a bipartisan resolution on the Human Rights of the Kashmir! Pandits in the US Congress. Another exhibition on the persecution of Hindus, Christians and Buddhists in Bangladesh was inaugurated in Mumbai on November 18, 2006. We have also a huge show on Shivaji 'a Hero for Modern, India' in Mumbai on March 12 in Ravindra Natya Mandir.
A lot of historical research and artistic efforts have gone into the making of this exhibition. It is also an effort to help a dying craft, of the painters of Rajasthan, that of miniature painting. Each original painting, which portrays a historically documented incident in the times of Aurangzeb, has been done in the original Mughal style and is signed and dated. Professor V. S. Bhatnagar of the Rajasthan University, Jaipur, has contributed the historical research part.
We are hiring a lawyer to file a case on FACT's behalf on five counts:
1) Assistant Commissioner of Police K N Murali, took two of the paintings, which showed the destruction of the Somnath temple and threw them on the ground. I hear six more paintings have been damaged and we have no news of the exhibition as it has been sealed. It costs 8 lakhs to do (all original miniature paintings not counting my time).
2) We paid LalitKalaAcademi a lot of money and they cancelled the show.
3) The police took in a police van three innocent ladies to the police station after 6 p.m. which is illegal.
4) The police totally sided with the goons, closeting themselves in the manager's office for one hour.
5) Mr Murali threatened the ladies repeatedly that they were 'terrorists.'
6} Lastly, we will file a case against Lalit Kala Academi for damage to our paintings, infringement upon our freedom of expression and we will demand that they reopen the exhibition in their premises so that the people of Chennai may have the opportunity to make their own judgment about it.
This exhibition is not about raking up the past or "creating communal disharmony," it is about Indian children, Hindus and Muslims alike knowing their own past and making sure it does not happen again. For Aurangzeb's shadow and legacy is still very much present in India.
It was there in Kashmir when all the Hindus were forced by terror to leave their homeland; it is there when Indian Muslims help plant bombs in Mumbai trains, Varanasi, or Delhi; it was there in Chennai when a few Muslim rowdies hold at ransom an entire state and its political apparatus. This is why we had that exhibition.
Francois Gautier is political correspondent in South Asia for “LaFigaro” for eight years. He is now the editor in chief of Paris-based Le revue de l’Inde (lesbelleslettre.com)
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