Colours of Terrorism?

The attack on RSS headquarters allegedly by terrorists belonging to LeT preceded by large haul of arms from Aurangabad and Malegaon in Maharashtra has brought into short focus the dangers posed by Jehadi terrorism and its sprawling homegrown network. As observers of this trend have noted the new recruits to this fanatic groups seem to have been ‘radicalised by their backward status and decades of communal violence’. The immediate provocation also seems to be the intention to avenge the Gujarat pogrom. (Breeding Ground, Praveen Swami, June 2, 2006, Frontline).

It is worth noting that the phenomenon of Jihadi terrorism making its presence felt also seems to have been accompanied by spurt in similar actions by ‘hindu extremist’ groups at least in that part of India. Perhaps to drive home this point, Mr R.R. Patil, the deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, while addressing the media in the aftermath of attack on RSS headquarters, raised the issue of Nanded bomb blasts and the activities by Hindu extremist groups. According to a despatch by PTI which was carried by DNA :

...The Deputy Chief Minister also said police have collected vital clues that link the Nanded blast held some months ago, with the Parbhani blast earlier this year. Patil said the possibility of Hindu extremist being responsible for the two blasts cannot be ruled out. (DNA, PTI Thursday, June 01, 2006 17:35 IST)

A cursory glance at the news reports emanating from the area makes it evident that the deputy CM who is also incharge of the home portfolio was not making political points to score over his opponents. A newspaper report in Lokmat (24 th May 2006) datelined Aurangabad which provided details of the press conference held by the police commissioner rather corroborates what Mr R.R. Patil meant :

The police commissioner Uddhav Kamble informed the media that the police is investigating the interconnections between the Nanded Pipe Bomb blasts done by Bajrang Dal activists and the bomb blasts in Aurangabad in 2001 and 2002.
There was a bomb blast near Ganesh temple in Nageshwarwadi in Aurangabad on 18 th May 2001. When the case was still being investigated there was another bomb blast near VHP office in Nirala market on 17 th November 2002 followed by a bomb blast near Mahadev temple in Khadkeshwar. … ( translated from original Marathi- author)

Afterall what is so significant about these Nanded Bomb blasts which has helped put RSS and its affiliated organisations on the defensive.

It has been more than two months that Nanded, Maharashtra, a town described as being communally sensitive witnessed bomb explosion ( 6 th April 2006) in a house belonging to an old activist of RSS. To be precise, it was the time when L.K.Advani’s (now abandoned)Bharat Suraksh Yatra was to enter the state of Maharashtra. The initial investigations done by the police made it very clear that the deceased and the injured belonged to Bajrang Dal, an affiliated organisation of the RSS . Looking at the minute details one could infer that serious plans were afoot to foment communal tension in the area taking advantage of the simmering tensions between the Sikhs and the Muslims. A raid on one of the deceased’s house had recovered dresses and caps normally worn by Muslims in the area and also some maps of mosques in nearby districts. One of the accused Rahul confessed to having made bombs earlier also.

A report (available on ’www.pucl.org’)brought out by a fact finding team of PUCL, Nagpur and Secular Citizen’s Forum, Nagpur made clear few pertinent points which need special mention. To quote,

-Suryapratap Gupta IG, Nanded has confirmed that a live pipe bomb was found at the house of Laxman Rajkondwar, which was a center for manufacturing bombs and that all the accused are connected with Bajrangdal.

-The most worrying fact that has been revealed is that the live bomb discovered under the sofa is an I.E.D type sophisticated bomb with timer & operated through remote control.

-The report although remains inconclusive due to lack of availability of authentic information from the official sources, does point out the strong indications that deep communal conspiracies were being hatched by the Hindutwavadi forces in the city of Nanded.

It is understandable why the local leaders of the BJP and Shiv Sena, VHP in Nanded had become overactive in the aftermath of the explosion to ‘warn’ the administration that it does not adopt a vindictive attitude towards its workers. As Ram Puniyani tells us (Tehelka 20 th May 2006) these people were the first to visit the injured and had issued condolence statements about the deceased claiming that they were active workers of the organisation.