Terrorism - Articles

Hindu Terror: A More Serious Threat

The arrest of Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit, a serving army officer in connection with the 29 September Malegaon blasts is a serious issue. The possible involvement of Hindu groups and individuals in terror attacks is a shocking revelation with the Mumbai Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) arresting Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Major (Retd) Ramesh Upadhyay and Sameer Kulkarni for their alleged links to these bomb blasts in which six people died. Contrary to the usual assertions by Indian security agencies that Muslim outfits are behind all terrorist strikes, the recent bomb blasts are likely to be the handiwork of anti-Muslim, revenge-seeking Hindutva groups.

The arrest of Purohit is based on four messages that he had sent to Upadhyay discussing how to escape the ATS. Also, the role of Nashik-based Bhonsala Military School has come under the scanner. The ATS got a breakthrough when it traced the two-wheeler (GJ-05 1920) used in the Malegaon bomb blast, which was registered in Pragya's name. She is a former active member of the BJP's student front, Akhil Bharthiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), and was the national executive secretary of Durga Vahini, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) women's wing. Upadhyay is the working president of the voluntary organization, Abhinav Bharat, in Pune, which was formed to combat terrorism. Kulkarni too inked with Abhinav Bharat and is a former member of the ABVP

Over the last three years, attacks on the mosque-cum-graveyard in Malegaon in July 2006 on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat in which 38 people died and scores were injured, blasts during Friday prayers in Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid in May 2007, bomb explosion near the Jama Masjid in Delhi in April 2006, blasts in the Ajmer Sharif in October 2007, and the ones in Malegaon and Modasa in September 2008 indicate that non-Muslim individuals and organizations are also involved in terror attacks. Though initial suspicions pointed to the involvement of SIMI, a section of security experts and Muslim organizations had expressed their doubts whether Muslims could have been involved in these incidents.

In April 2006, two Bajrang Dal workers died in Nanded while making bombs. Artificial beards and typically Muslim clothes were recovered from the site, and one of the survivors stated that Hindus should be conducting blasts. The blasts in Parbhani and Jalana followed this pattern and the Samjhauta Express case was similar. Again on 24 August 2008, two Bajrang Dal workers in Kanpur died while making bombs. Given the involvement of the VHP and Bajrang Dal in militant activities, the spread of terror in the country seems far more serious, lethal and organized than Islamic terror.

The suspected role of former military personnel in providing training and the recovery of military-grade explosives like RDX from the blast sites have added to these concerns. A collusion between Hindu radical groups and the army, retired or serving is a matter of grave concern. The ATS has revealed that a series of meetings took place between Pragya Thakur and Upadhyay. This is a new face of terror, which, if not checked, would add a deadly dimension to terrorism in this country. The use and exploitation of military expertise for terror purposes by Hindu extremist groups and individuals could lead to polarization in Indian society and expansion of the Hindu right, making it difficult for the terror network to be uprooted. Swaminathan S Anklesariya Aiyar, in fact, once pointed out while cautioning against assuming that "terrorism is a Muslim monopoly" that "[i]n terms of membership and area controlled, secular terrorists are far ahead of Muslim terrorists" (The Times of India, 23 July 2006).

There is yet another angle to these acts. The new Hindu terror group is highly conspiratorial, since it carried out the blasts through proxies. For example, the use of Muslim symbols, signs, and stickers shows that it meant to transfer the blame on the Muslim community, which is grappling with the terror tag. In Malegaon, a bomb-laden motorcycle was parked near the now-defunct first floor office of SIMI to transfer the blame upon it. At Modasa, Islamic stickers were stuck on its seat to mislead the police that the blasts were committed by some Islamic group. This was deliberately done to strengthen the belief that Muslims are involved in every bomb blast, and is a dangerous strategy. On 30 August 2008, VHP leader Ramvilas Vedanti got his disciples to send him e-mail letters threatening his life, in the name of SIMI and Indian Mujahideen. The UP police discovered the truth that the fake letters were used to get Z-class security cover for Vedanti, but the police did not take any action against these disciples or Vedanti.

While many missing links in the investigations of various bomb blasts need to be woven in to reach definite conclusions, playing politics with these issues will only aggravate the situation further.