SACW | Aug 31 - Sep 10, 2006 | Balochistan ; Malegaon

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | August 31 - September 10, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2284


[1]  Pakistan: Operation by the army and or paramilitary forces in Baluchistan
Declaration Passed by Joint Action Committee
[2]  Pakistan: Balochistan after Bugti (Sherry Rehman)
[3]  Pakistan: Ahmed Bashir: the mullah's nemesis (Khalid Hasan)
[4]  183 Indian delegates for peace convention (Amir Mir)
[5]  India: Malegaon Blasts - Footprints of Nanded ? (Subhash Gatade)
+  Malegaon: the road to perdition
[6]  India: No peace without justice (Teesta Setalvad)
[8]  Publication announcement: No Borders Journeys of an Indian Journalist
[9]  Upcoming Events: 
"Living in a State of Terror the Gujarat 
genocide, four years later" (Montreal, 12 
September)
     

___


[1] 

www.sacw.net - August 31, 2006
http://www.sacw.net/peace/JACDeclarationBaluchistan.html

The death of Nawab Akbar Bugti and continuing 
operation by the army and or paramilitary forces 
in Baluchistan

DECLARATION PASSED BY JOINT ACTION COMMITTEE (JAC)

Karachi, 30th August 2006

A meeting of the concerned citizens and members 
of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) was held 
yesterday, the 29th August, 2006 to consider the 
most disastrous and alarming conditions in 
Baluchistan. The meeting was held in HRCP Office 
and was presided over by its Secretary General 
Mr. Iqbal Haider, the following Declaration was 
passed and is being released to the press.

We note with grave concern:

·                    The continuing operation by 
the army and or paramilitary forces in 
Baluchistan, particularly after the shocking 
tragic event of August 26, 2006 resulting in the 
death of Nawab Akbar Bugti and his companions has 
pushed the political situation of the country 
towards 1971 warlike conditions of alienation and 
civil strife. The military operation in 1971 had 
resulted in dismemberment of the country and 
consequences of the present operation in 
Baluchistan, we apprehend may be equally 
disastrous, if it is not withdrawn forthwith.

·                    The use of disproportionate 
and indiscriminate force, reportedly deployment 
of air strikes and highly sophisticated 
unconventional weapons by the Law Enforcement 
Agencies in Baluchistan against its own 
compatriots.

We strongly condemn:

·                    The targeted killing of 
Nawab Akbar Bugti and his companions in the 
military operations in Balochistan.

·                    The ongoing military operation in Balochistan.

·                    The grave violation of human 
rights in Balochistan and of Baloch people and 
their relations and colleagues and supporters in 
Sindh or elsewhere in Pakistan in particular the 
abduction and disappearance of the Baloch and 
Sindhi nationalist, their victimization, torture, 
illegal detentions, arrests and harassment.




We urgently demand:

·                    The hand-over of the remains 
of Nawab Akbar Bugti and his companions and other 
persons who lost their lives in the military 
operation of 26 August to their rightful heirs.

·                    The respect of long-standing 
traditions of our people regarding the last rites 
of individuals regardless of previous enmity.

·                    The conduct of 
investigations by an Independent Commission 
comprising impartial respected citizens from the 
civil society, into the causes as well as the 
facts and circumstances of the death of Nawab 
Akbar Bugti and his companions.

·                    Immediate access to the 
areas of the military operations in particular 
the spot of murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti and his 
companions to independent civilians including 
members of human rights organizations, lawyers, 
journalists, teachers, professors and engineers 
etc.

We also demand:

·                    The immediate cessation of 
the ongoing military operations in Balochistan.

·                    The immediate ending of 
police operations, harassment, victimization, 
arrests and detentions of the Baloch communities 
and their supporters in other provinces.

·                    The release of all arrested, 
detained and "disappeared" citizens, forthwith 
unconditionally.

·                    Maximum autonomy in letter & 
spirit must be guaranteed for all the federating 
units, forthwith.

We call for:

·                    The resolution of all 
outstanding issues, causes and disputes 
concerning Balochistan and its resources through 
political negotiations and transparent dialogues 
peacefully.

·                    All the recommendations of 
the Parliamentary Committee headed by Ch. Shujaat 
Hussain must me made public and implemented 
forthwith in letter & spirit.


List of the participants in the meeting:

1.                 Aahung
2.                 Action Aid
3.                 All Pakistan Trade Union Federation
4.                 Amnesty International
5.                 Aurat Foundation
6.                 Caritas, Pakistan
7.                 Communist Party of Pakistan
8.                 Federal Urdu University, Karachi
9.                 Fishermen Unity
10.             Forum for Democracy
11.             Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
12.             Irtiqa
13.             Karachi Bar Association
14.             Karachi University, Karachi
15.             Labour Education Foundation
16.             Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy
17.             Pakistan Institute for Labor Education and Research (PILER)
18.             Pakistan Muslim League, N (PMLN)
19.             Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP)
20.             Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign
21.             Pakistan Trade Union Federation
22.             Pakistan Women Lawyers Association
23.             People's Labour Bureau
24.             Progressive Youth Front
25.             Roots for Equity
26.             Shirkat Gah
27.             Takhleeq Foundation
28.             Urban Resource Center
29.             War Against Rape (WAR)
30.             Women's Action Forum


_____


[2] 

Dawn
September 9, 2006

BALOCHISTAN AFTER BUGTI

by Sherry Rehman

HISTORY and nature have one thing in common. They 
rarely teach lessons without bloodshed and 
trauma. Although we have never officially 
embraced it as a potentially preventable wound, 
one of the lessons etched like a deep scar on our 
body politic is the partition of Pakistan. 
Perhaps because of, not despite, all the cosmetic 
surgery we have done on that amputation, that 
wound is throbbing again today.

The dark shadow of 1971, when provincial 
disharmony turned into a virulent movement for 
secession, should have informed all decisions 
Islamabad took to assuage tensions in provinces 
that felt they had an unequal share in our 
multi-ethnic federation. Balochistan stood first 
in line since the 1950s as a province that was 
restive. But never through all the decades that 
led up to the recent past has it posed such a 
serious challenge as now to the stability of the 
federation that is seen by the Baloch as an 
oppressive state with a colonising army.

Nawab Akbar Bugti's death in the largest military 
operation that Balochistan has ever witnessed was 
not unexpected by his close aides. Since March 
17, 2005, when his personal home and living 
quarters were bombed by the Frontier 
Constabulary, it had become clear that Bugti was 
a marked man. The conflict between him and 
Islamabad had escalated over the last two years, 
triggered off by the rape case of Dr Shazia 
Khalid, allegedly at the hands of a military man.

The confrontation took a particularly ugly turn 
when General Musharraf's helicopter was fired 
upon from the ground in Bugti areas, after which 
the episode took on a personal colour between 
Pervez Musharraf and the Baloch sardar. He knew 
he was living on borrowed time, which is why he 
was ensconced in the cave complex in Kohlu.

Yet no one had quite been prepared for this naked 
use of state force to bomb out a political leader 
who had lived out a long and chequered career 
both inside and outside public office. When I 
last saw Nawab Bugti, which was in 2005, he was 
talking the tough language that was his 
trademark, but he was definitely seeking 
institutional attention from Islamabad. Despite 
the fact that his entire homestead had been 
shelled all the way to his personal quarters, 
Bugti was looking for a dialogue. He was looking 
for the Baloch of Dera Bugti and Sui to be 
accorded the dignity of full citizenship.

Despite the fact that he earned personal 
royalties from the state for the gas-rich land he 
leased to Pakistan Petroleum in Sui, his 
lifestyle was clearly frugal, and his dependents 
impoverished. The mud settlements in Sui, outside 
the compound of the PPL complex, did not have the 
benefit of Sui gas. They were scrabbling for 
jobs, for energy, for water and for basic 
amenities for their community.

There is much to be said for the conventional 
wisdom that tribal sardars like Nawab Bugti 
thrive on the politics of a personal cult. Their 
hold on the illiterate but armed followers is 
mediaeval in its interpersonal hierarchism, and 
the impulse to buy guns instead of books for the 
Bugtis is encouraged by them today. This argument 
is all the more reason that Islamabad should have 
felt obligated to turn the fortunes of this 
province from tribalism to modern standards of 
citizenship.

After his assassination, the most serious 
challenge to the status quo will rise from all 
three smaller provinces. The street-fires of 
Kohlu, Dera Bugti, will, if not put out 
politically, ignite Balochistan, Sindh and parts 
of the NWFP. Old governance equations and 
resource-sharing formulas will catapult to 
centre-stage or become catalysts for dangerously 
repressed anger.

After his murder, which has swiftly morphed the 
late sardar to the status of a local saint, most 
of the Baloch, a group of 4.5 million, will now 
see Bugti's resort to militancy as the only 
answer to their troubles. The BLA, which 
attracted a fringe following of nationalists, 
will increasingly be seen as the mainstream armed 
wing of a legitimate political movement of an 
oppressed people. The arguments made for 
Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq will resonate in 
Pakistan's internal discourse, in which the 
Baloch narrative will assume apocalyptic, 
millenarian overtones. The state will emerge as 
the 'other', or the enemy, and will no longer be 
distinguishable from the military.

Further military confrontation in Balochistan, 
apart from spurring long-festering ethnic unrest 
in Sindh, will incite various anti-Musharraf 
forces throughout Pakistan. General Musharraf's 
ability to commit adequate military resources to 
the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban will 
be further reduced, undermining efforts to 
stabilise Afghanistan. The strategic importance 
of Balochistan, which has grown since China 
started building a port for Pakistan at Gwadar, 
close to the Strait of Hormuz, with a projected 
27 berths, enough for a major Pakistani naval 
base that could be used by Beijing, will become 
its ticket to a new but disastrously 
overstretched Great Game.

The IPI pipeline is the first thing that will be 
scuttled, along with Pakistan's regional 
security. On the eastern border, Indian 
ambivalence on Balochistan will straddle its 
usual range of postures. New Delhi may still talk 
of seeking a stable Pakistan that is open to an 
acceptable peace settlement on Kashmir, but many 
Indian voices from its nationalist mainstream 
will celebrate the prospect of an Islamabad 
trapped in the Balochistan quagmire. Privately, 
almost all Indian players in the security game 
will welcome the crisis in Balochistan as 
leverage on General Musharraf to turn down 
Pakistani support for Kashmiri Islamist 
extremists.

The final, but most decisive domestic challenge 
to the existing elite consensus in Pakistan will 
come from a previously co-opted source. As the 
most populous province in the country, Punjab may 
no longer be able to sustain its unifying 
metaphor on inter-provincial politics under the 
sheer weight of its own contradictions and 
internal tensions.

Without federal forces in power, like mainstream 
political parties that unite, Punjab itself could 
start seeing its old bond with the army as 
counter-productive and in deep existential review 
of its relationship with the rest of Pakistan. 
Minus a myopic colonising impulse gathering 
ballast among discontented locals and 
intellectuals in Punjab, the army would face a 
challenge from its very heartland and recruiting 
ground.

Much of this unfortunately, has already been 
taking shape since the start of the military 
operation in the province. According to US 
intelligence sources, more than six Pakistani 
army brigades, plus paramilitary forces totalling 
some 25,000 men, have been battling Baloch 
Liberation Army guerillas in the Kohlu mountains 
and the surrounding areas.

Earlier in the year, the Human Rights Commission 
was given only limited access to the Kohlu area, 
which is at the heart of the current insurgency, 
and its findings disclose not only a chilling 
list of disappearances, but also a catalogue of 
deaths, described as a result of 'indiscriminate 
bombing and strafing' by 20 Cobra helicopter 
gunships and four squadrons of fighter planes, 
including F-16 fighter jets, resulting in 215 
civilian dead and hundreds more wounded, many of 
them women and children.

Until this point, most Baloch leaders have not 
embraced independence or secession as a real 
option. Despite their rhetoric, at least as a 
first step, they have been ready to settle for 
the provincial autonomy envisaged in the 1973 
Pakistani Constitution. They sought an end to the 
blatant economic discrimination by the centre, 
which is dominated by an elite, mostly still 
feudal, from Punjab. They are very conscious of 
the fact that most of Pakistan's natural 
resources are in Balochistan.

Although the 1973 Constitution provides very 
specifically for provincial autonomy, as well as 
royalties and local rights even where well-heads 
are located, most of its stipulations are 
ignored. It is common knowledge that 36 per cent 
of the gas produced in Pakistan comes from the 
province, yet Balochistan consumes only a 
fraction of its production due to its harrowing 
poverty. For decades, non-inclusive central 
governments have denied Balochistan a fair share 
of development funds and paid only 12 per cent of 
the royalties due to the province for the gas 
produced there, while Sindh and Punjab pick up 
far more per thermal unit for the gas they 
produce. But under military regimes, Balochistan 
always slides further into backwardness.

This brings us to the grievous blowback that this 
ill-advised and tragic military action will 
invariably have in more ways than one. It is 
obvious that if security was the primary 
objective of killing Bugti, then the regime has 
guaranteed an opposite if not equal reaction. Not 
only will this killing catalyse Baloch dissent 
into material action, it will unite a fragmented 
nationalist movement. The main difference between 
earlier phases of the Baloch struggle and the 
present one, as many strategic observers say, is 
that Islamabad will no longer be able to play off 
feuding tribes against each other.

Any visitor to Kohlu or Dera Bugti will tell you 
that the other important difference is that the 
Baloch have a better-armed, more disciplined 
fighting guerrilla force. No one says where the 
sophisticated weaponry comes from, but the 
guerilla grapevine hints at the booming 
Baloch-Pushtun black market, spurred by active 
international activity at several points from 
East Gwadar to the Afghan-Russian transit 
corridor.

This lethal nexus, if cemented, will seal the 
contract on the commercialisation of this 
conflict. Once the international defence industry 
lands its middlemen to protect the vital energy 
interests it wages wars for in other parts of the 
world, all bets will be off on which way the 
lines of the map will be redrawn. That is when 
Balochistan will truly go global, and Pakistan 
will spiral deeper into chaos.

Akbar Khan Bugti's killing at the hands of the 
military has escalated an old struggle into a 
fight for many things in Pakistan. His death has 
become symbolic of all that troubles the 
province, and the way military planners handle 
dissent. After the way Bugti was hunted down and 
his body flown out in a locked coffin, 
Balochistan can never be the same place. And 
without a doubt, if Balochistan will not 
normalise from shock-impact, then Pakistan too 
will be a different country in more ways than one.

There writer is a member of the National Assembly.

_____


[3]

Kashmir Times
September 10, 2006

AHMED BASHIR: THE MULLAH'S NEMESIS
by Khalid Hasan

We will have to look long and hard and wait for 
maybe decades before a man like Ahmed Bashir 
comes walking this way again. He is the only 
intellectual who took the mullahdom of Pakistan 
head on. He was not afraid of exposing the 
hypocricy, ignorance, intolerance and 
bloody-mindedness of these men, who, like a swarm 
of locusts, have descended upon a country whose 
establishment they had opposed and whose creator 
they had denounced as The Great Infidel.
Ahmed Bashir alone had the courage and the 
integrity to challenge them and to show how 
small-minded and hatre-filled these men in 
self-designed costume headgear and gowns were. 
The great iconoclast is now dead and there is no 
one big or brave or mad enough to step into his 
shoes. The mullahs are running rampant and 
pushing us closer by the hour towards the 
precipice.
The best antidote to the bigotry and religiosity 
of the mullah is to revisit the classic rejoinder 
Ahmed Bashir issued after a host of "ulema" had 
issued a "religious" decree declaring him vajibul 
qatl, or deserving of death. One can only wonder 
why Ahmed Bashir wasn't gunned down by a zealot 
keen to get to heaven and its promised delights 
by dispatching an enemy of God to his 
well-deserved end. Ahmed Bashir did not die of an 
assassin's bullet but of a dread disease, the one 
John Wayne called the Big C.
Ahmed Bashir's rejoinder that he wrote in Urdu 
and called Phir raha hai sheher mein Mullah khula 
(On the loose walks the Mullah in the city) is a 
masterpiece and should be read by every citizen 
of Pakistan. It should be framed and hung on 
school walls. It should be printed in millions 
and distributed to every Pakistani who can read 
or who can be read to. Above all, it should be 
made part of the syllabi at the Pakistan Military 
Academy, Kakul.
Ahmed Bashir earned the fatwa because in a 
collection of his old articles and pieces of 
reportage was included a hilarious account of his 
first meeting with Maulana Charagh Hasan Hasrat, 
to whom the young gadfly had gone looking for a 
job. He was hired. They went out for a long drink 
and ended the evening in Hira Mandi listening to 
Billo Bai sing the raag Des. The year was 1948. 
Ahmed Bashir wrote, 'I am a Muslim by the grace 
of God, though I am a sinner. I have never 
cheated anyone of what was his. I have never 
treated anyone with cruelty. I have never been 
guilty of enslaving myself to state authority. My 
reputation as a journalist and human being is a 
good one. The only charge levelled at me in my 48 
years of journalism is that of rebelling against 
the system. I have no property. What I earn 
through my work is not sufficient to pay my rent, 
which is why I live in a single room in my 
son-in-law's house. I have no regrets nor do I 
look at my past wistfully. There are no fears 
that I live with. The question is: what is it 
that has led the Maulvis of Lahore, who never 
tire of bragging about their political and 
religious acumen, to order my killing.'
'In 1948,' Ahmed Bashir wrote, 'the Quaid-i-Azam 
was alive. The Objectives Resolution had yet to 
be imposed. The mullahs were fidgety, wondering 
how to live down the shame of having opposed 
Pakistan and how to take over the new country. No 
movement had so far arisen to turn Pakistan into 
a religious state, nor had the mullahs yet gained 
the confidence to treat Pakistan as their 
personal fiefdom. They had not yet declared 
themselves God's deputies on earth. The people of 
Pakistan still enjoyed civil liberties. Their 
lips were free. There were of course some who 
would drink on the sly. Classical music was alive 
in Hira Mandi. These simple diversions were not 
confused with revolt against God and his Prophet 
(PBUH), nor was anyone declared deserving of 
murder if he indulged in these weaknesses. 
Jogindar Nath Mandal was law minister and the 
leader of opposition was a Hindu. The Qadiani 
Zafraulla Khan was foreign minister. Pakistan was 
a Muslim-majority state where non-Muslims had 
equal rights. It was not a religious state. And 
that was what Quaid-i-Azam's Pakistan was like.'
Ahmed Bashir continued, 'Nationalism or love of 
one's nation is anathema to the Maulvi; in his 
book it amounts to rebellion against God and the 
Prophet (PBUH). If truth be told, the Maulvi 
worships kingship, when it was considered 
legitimate to invade and plunder other countries; 
when the victors were called the Shadow of God on 
Earth and when the vanquished were put to sword. 
Eight hundred years ago after the destruction of 
Baghdad, these Maulvis closed the doors of free 
inquiry in Islam and pushed the Muslims in the 
blind well of ignorance and past worship forever. 
The creative flow of Islam was turned into a 
cesspool over which the Maulvi has spread his 
girth like maloderant moss. No Maulvi has ever 
gone to the Quaid-i-Azam's grave to say a prayer, 
because no person of faith is supposed to visit 
the resting place of The Great Infidel, even if 
he created a Muslim state. Not a single 
fatwa-giver, nor any of those who pronounce death 
on poor Muslims, has ever gone to pay his 
respects to the man in whose debt he should feel 
himself to be. The Maulvi did not forgive Jinnah 
because he created a nation state. After his 
death, in conspiracy with civil and military 
bureaucracy and feudal lords, the Maulvi hatched 
a plot to gain control of Pakistan. But who are 
these Maulvis? Are they not the very men who 
assured Yazid through a fatwa that the murder of 
Hussain was a legitimate act? And are they not 
the same men who declared at the urging of 
Mamoon-ul-Rashid that the Quran could be modified 
and that it was mortal like other creations of 
God? Are they not the same men who had Imam Abu 
Hanifa lashed? And did they not declare Halakoo 
Khan the Just King after he had caused rivers of 
Muslim blood to flow through the streets of 
Baghdad? These are the men, remember, who kissed 
the hands of the British after the destruction of 
Delhi in 1857 and called on Muslims through a 
fatwa to obey the British because they were 
People of the Book."
Only a few people spoke up for Ahmed Bashir after 
the fatwa, among them a woman who has brought 
honour to Pakistan: Asma Jahangir. No newspaper 
took his side and the courts failed to order 
action taken against those who had ordered the 
murder of a citizen of Pakistan because half a 
century ago, he had drunk a glass of beer with 
the great Maulana Charagh Hasan Hasrat and spent 
the evening listening to raag Des in the bazaar 
where the lights used to remain on all night. It 
is my view that although there must have been 
several grounds on which Ahmed Bashir must have 
been admitted to heaven, the evening spent in the 
delightful company of Hasrat in 1948 must have 
been on top of the list.
*(Khalid Hasan is a senior Pakistani journalist-columnist based in Washington).
-(Courtesy: The Friday Times)


_____


[4]

Gulf News
10 September 2006

183 INDIAN DELEGATES FOR PEACE CONVENTION

By Amir Mir, Correspondent


Lahore: As many as 183 Indian delegates are 
expected to take part in the second 'Visa-Free, 
Nuclear-Free and Peaceful South Asia Convention' 
to be held from September 15 to 17 in Lahore.

They include members of parliament, 
intellectuals, retired army officers, peace 
activists, media persons and students.

The three-day convention is being organised by 
the Institute of Peace and Secular Studies (IPSS).

The convention was scheduled for August 6-9 this 
year but was postponed because Pakistan's 
Interior Ministry did not issue clearance to 
these personalities due to the row that broke out 
after the Mumbai explosions.

IPSS director and peace activist Saeeda Diep said 
the first such convention was held in New Delhi 
and Lucknow last year and it was decided the 
convention would be held every year from August 6 
to 9 on the days when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 
bombed.

"We will welcome the Indian delegation on 
September 15 at the Wagah border and the 
inaugural session of the convention will be held 
the same evening at Alhamra Hall II," Saeeda 
said. "On the second day, two dialogue sessions 
will be held. The title of the first session will 
be 'Denuclearisation' and that of the second will 
be 'Peace in South Asia and special emphasis will 
be on Pakistan and India'," she said and added 
that Pakistani youth had also prepared a play to 
mark the occasion.

_____


[5]

sacw.net - September 10, 2006
http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/gatade10sep06.html

MALEGAON BLASTS - FOOTPRINTS OF NANDED ?

by Subhash Gatade

Everybody knows that Shab-e-Barat happens to be a 
day when Muslims visit graveyards of their loved 
ones, clean and decorate the graves and spend the 
night there, reading out special prayers for the 
occasion. But who from Malegaon and adjoining 
areas would have imagined that the day to 
remember the departed ones would turn out to be 
the last day of some of their own lives and would 
maim many among them for the rest of their lives.

People in Malegaon are still in the mourning. 
They are still recovering from the two blasts, 
which occurred at two places in the city killing 
around 31 people and wounding more than 100 of 
them.
Residents of the city shudder to think the way 
they could save themselves. The prayer was almost 
over, people were preparing to leave the grounds 
of the Bada Kabaristan and there was a bomb blast 
near the Vazu Khana’ where mostly children were 
sitting for their prayers. And within fraction of 
seconds there was a transfer scene. The 
tranquility, the silence witnessed during the 
prayers was all gone and one could hear shrieks 
of the wounded, one could see blood splattered on 
the ground, people running for cover desperately, 
children getting crushed under the stampede.

The only feeling of comfort in the otherwise 
gloomy scenario was that there was no repeat of 
2001- the year when the city of 7 lakhs where 75 
per cent population is Muslim, witnessed large 
scale rioting. This time despite provocation 
there was no communal flare-up.

The 'Communally sensitive' town remained calm. 
Instead one could see new bonds of solidarity 
getting forged between the two communities who 
for various reasons have remained in an adversial 
relationship with each other. Scores of Hindus 
could be seen at the various hospitals standing 
in queue to donate blood and doing whatever 
little they could do to help the victims.

Is it Bajrang or Lashkar?

Looking at the nature of crime, where fanatics 
planted bombs in crowded areas in the city to see 
to it that people are killed in large numbers and 
communal flare-ups ensues, it is clear that 
meticulous planning went into it. Question 
naturally arises, who could have benefited from 
growing communal divide? A general answer could 
be a fanatic group who believes and propagates a 
religion-based ideology. It could be 
Lashkar-e-Toiba or any of those Jihadi terrorist 
organizations or one of those Hindu Militant 
groups, which have of late demonstrated similar 
prowess umpteen times.

A newspaper clipping from a leading national daily rightly underlines
MUMBAI: The police are probing whether the 
Bajrang Dal or a Lashkar group could have been 
involved in Friday's Malegaon blasts. The Bajrang 
Dal is known to have followed a similar pattern 
in blasts at Parbhani's Mohammadi Masjid and 
mosques at Pona and Jalna earlier this year. "We 
are probing this angle, though it is too early to 
hold any group responsible," DGP P S Pasricha 
said on Friday. (Times of India, 9 th Sep 2006, 
Updated at 12.3111 hrs IST)

A section of the readers would definitely feel 
surprised over the inclusion of Bajrang Dal or 
for that matter any of the Parivar organizations 
on the list of possible suspects. Perhaps they 
are unaware of similar terrorist acts committed 
by these very organizations or their activists. 
One of the most recent one being the deaths of 
few activists of Bajrang Dal on 6 th April in 
Nanded, Maharashtra while making bombs. One could 
have a look at a news clipping of The Telegraph ( 
10 th April 2006) how they got killed.
Mumbai, April 9: Bajrang Dal activists were 
involved in last week's bomb blast in Maharashtra 
in which two people died, police have 
confirmed.The incident could prove to be an 
embarrassment for Lal Krishna Advani whose yatra, 
ironically called Bharat Suraksha, entered the 
state today since the Bajrang Dal is an associate 
of the Sangh parivar.

"Bajrang Dal activists were actually making a 
bomb before one exploded in an activist's house," 
said a senior police officer.. -- "We have seized 
another bomb from the same site on Saturday 
which has now been defused," said another police 
official.

Interestingly in an interview to 'Communalism 
Combat' Mr. K.P. Raghuvanshi, head of the 
Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra had 
given details of the way in which the ATS was 
working on this particular case :

In the Nanded case, the very fact that the 
investigation has been handed over to us, the 
ATS, shows how the administration and government 
are viewing it. Investigations are on. Two 
persons making the bombs died on the spot 
(Himanshu Panse, 27, and Naresh Rajkondwar, 26). 
The house was the residence of the local Bajrang 
Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist.

Of the two who survive, one is so seriously ill 
he cannot speak. He is not expected to survive. 
The other is the sole surviving accused. We have 
him and one witness. On both we have already done 
a brain-mapping and narco-analysis test. This is 
the same group of terrorists responsible for the 
bomb blasts at the Parbhani mosque in (April) 
2003, an incident in which 25 persons were 
injured. Until now we do not know for sure if 
they are linked to the other masjid bomb blasts 
at Purna and Jalna (August 2004, in which 18 
persons were injured). -- . . .We have applied 
the provisions of the Unlawful Practices Act. It 
is clear that these bombs were not being 
manufactured for a puja. They were being 
manufactured for unlawful ends to wreak violence 
through terror.

Praveen Swami and Anupama Katakam, in their 
writeup in 'The Hindu' (Malegaon : the road to 
perdition, 9 th September 2006) rightly underline 
that "It is possible that no full account of the 
Malegaon bombings and their perpetrators will 
emerge for weeks or months. But the contours of 
the evidence available so far do not portend 
well."
Ofcourse, at this stage it is humanly impossible 
to be anything like certain that a Hindu 
Fundamentalist group or a Islamist terrorist 
group carried out the bombing. At this juncture 
one need not revisit the way Islamist terrorist 
groups have engaged in large scale attacks 
against not only shrines and mosques in West 
Asia, Pakistan and even Jammu and Kashmir but 
also on cultural troupes or independent 
intellectuals who have refused to toe their 
anti-democratic dictats. One also need to bear in 
mind that it was only May-June this year that 
police had recovered RDX as well as assault 
rifles and grenades from a Lashkar-e-Toiba safe 
house in Malegaon itself.

The most important lesson, which should be 
remembered, is that the law and order machinery 
should be even handed in its approach in 
unearthing the truth. It should not repeat its 
earlier folly of stigmatizing the whole 
community, which it is alleged to have engaged in 
after the Bombay blasts. It should also not be 
seen going soft on Hindu militant formations for 
fear of providing political capital to Hindutva 
organizations.

And as far as civil society is concerned it 
should bear in mind the advice rendered by 
Swaminathan S Anklesariya Aiyar, Consulting 
Editor of The Economic Times wherein he cautions 
the reader in assuming that 'terrorism is a 
Muslim monopoly': "In terms of membership and 
area controlled, secular terrorists are far ahead 
of Muslim terrorists. In sum, terrorism is 
certainly not a Muslim monopoly. There are or 
have been terrorist groups among Christians, 
Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and even Buddhists. Secular 
terrorists have been the biggest killers."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1794203.cms):


o o o o

  MALEGAON: THE ROAD TO PERDITION

Islamist violence has scarred much of India, but 
the Malegaon bombings were preceded by a series 
of Hindutva terrorist attacks on mosques

http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/09/stories/2006090907431100.htm

_____


[6] 

Communalism Combat
August 2006

NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE

The bomb terror of March 12, 1993 must be 
recalled with the same horror as the mob terror 
on and after December 6, 1992 in Ayodhya

by Teesta Setalvad

The eager wait for the judgement in the 1993 
Bombay blasts case is easy to comprehend; it is a 
crucial form of redress for the 200 families who 
lost dear ones in the serial blasts - a message 
that the Indian system delivers justice to one 
and all for all crimes, especially mass crimes of 
unspeakable brutality.

But as the media and thus the nation awaits the 
verdict in the bomb blasts case (now postponed to 
September 12), the bomb terror of March 12, 1993 
must be recalled with the same horror as the mob 
terror of December 6, 1992 in Ayodhya, resulting 
in the loss of hundreds of lives all over the 
country, must be rehauled in public memory.

"The soul of India was seared on December 6, 
1992" (as an editorial in India Today put it). 
The soul of Bombay was forever scarred with the 
brute mob violence that held us to ransom from 
December 8 to January 20, 1993. Mobs stalked 
streets that were likened to Nazi Germany (by 
jurist NA Palkhiwala and Justice Bakhtawar Lentin 
of the Bombay High Court). The Bombay police 
connived with mobsters in mass arson, murder and 
even rape. Worse still, our political leaders 
watched as Bombay burned.

Justice BN Srikrishna, who conducted an official 
probe into the violence, had this to say, "One 
common link between the riotsŠ and bomb blasts of 
12th March 1993 appears to be that the former 
appear to have been a causative factor for the 
latterŠ The serial bomb blasts were a reaction to 
the totality of events at Ayodhya and Bombay in 
December 1992 and January 1993."

The Srikrishna Commission Report concluded that: 
"The resentment against the government and the 
police among a large body of Muslim youth was 
exploited by Pakistan-aided anti-national 
elements. They were brainwashed into taking 
revenge and a conspiracy was hatched and 
implemented at the instance of Dawood Ibrahim to 
train Muslims on how to explode bombs near vital 
installations and in Hindu areas to engineer a 
fresh round of riots. "There is no doubt that all 
the accused, except two or three, are Muslims and 
there is no doubt that the major role in the 
conspiracy, at the Indian as well as foreign end, 
was played by Muslims," says the report. The 
common link between the riots and the blasts was 
that of cause and effect. There were also three 
or four common accused named in both the riots 
and the blasts. The Commission concludes, "There 
is no material placed before it to indicate that 
the riots and the blasts were part of a common 
design." 
[. . .].
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2006/july-aug06/cover2.html

[also located at
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/08/no-peace-without-justice.html ]

_____


[7] 

No Borders
Journeys of an Indian Journalist
Current Affairs
2006 l Demy 8vo l x+248pp
ISBN 81-89654-04-7 (Hb) l Rs. 425
ISBN 81-89654-05-5 (Pb) l Rs. 250


Images of West, as a source of all hope, a place 
of luxury, affluence and ease, persist in the 
popular Indian imagination. On the other hand, 
most countries of South principally appear in the 
western media as sites of violence, or places of 
expanding markets. Moreover, while the North 
assumes the right to comment on the South, the 
South is usually denied the same. This 
one-dimensional exchange and orientation 
reinforces a simplistic and damaging 
falsification of the relationship between North 
and South and between South and South.
Challenging stereotyped coverage and images, No 
Borders is a journey of an Indian journalist 
through many countries of developed and 
developing world between 1990-2005. 
Part-reportage and part-research, based on 
extensive field work along with photographs, it 
explores radical changes, interventions and 
popular protests of the common people, 
communities, trade unions, farmers and women 
organisations, peoples' movements and civil 
society bodies in present-day USA, UK, Germany, 
South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Bolivia, 
Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri 
Lanka, Nepal and India. The book highlights the 
internationalisation of issues afflicting the 
majority of humanity across continents and an 
international solidarity and response in the 
making.
Contents:
Acknowledgements; Introduction;
I. New Regimes, New Untouchables—UK: Destruction 
of Mining and Miners; South Africa: The ‘New 
Poor’ of KwaZulu-Natal; Germany: Many Other 
Walls; India: The Untouchable Present; Bolivia: 
Captured Crops;
II. Guns, Bread, Butter and Oil: The Changing 
Face of Power—USA: War on Poor Nations; USA: 
Killing Me Softly—Toxic Water and Struggle for 
Environmental Justice; Nigeria: Shell's Mess; 
Indonesia: A Bitter Harvest; Namibia: How 'New' 
is the 'New Conservation'?; Malaysia: 'Disorder' 
in 'Order': Increasing Rape in Malaysia;
III. The Struggle for Livelihoods—Brazil: Lands 
of Conflicts; Malaysia: An Outward Journey; 
Indonesia: Towards A People's Mining; South 
Africa: Land Reforms and Challenges;
IV. Resources of Caste, Class, Community and 
State—UK: The Liverpool Dockers: The Making and 
Un-Making of a Struggle; UK: A Coalfield of their 
Own; South Africa: 'Our Homes'; Nepal: Freedom is 
not Free; Germany: Peace Must Also be Lived; 
India: A Dalit Organisation in the Making
V. Biplane "Sri Lanka-India: Coastal Fisherfolk" 
Caught in a Conflict Wrap; South Asia: Images of 
Labour; Africa: To Govern Biodiversity
Index
Mukul Sharma is a journalist and a writer. He was 
the Special Correspondent in Navbharat Times, The 
Times of India Publications Group (1983-1998) and 
has received many national/international awards 
for journalism, the most recent being the Award 
for Excellence in Asian Print Media Writing by 
Asian Media Information & Communication Centre, 
Singapore and Singapore Press Holdings. He writes 
on labour, environment, development and media 
issues in English and Hindi and has published 
extensively, including the book Landscapes and 
Lives (OUP), Improving People's Lives (Sage), 
Unquiet Worlds: Dalit Voices and Visions (HBF) 
and Defining Dignity (WDF). He is closely 
associated with the World Social Forum and the 
World Dignity Forum.

B-802, Taj Apartments, Gazipur, Delhi-110096
Tel: 011-65785559, 22230812
Email: daanishbooks at gmail.com

_____


[8]  Upcoming Events


"Living in a State of Terror
the Gujarat genocide, four years later"

Talk by DIONNE BUNSHA, award-winning journalist from India




Tuesday 12 September, 6pm
Leacock Building, Room 26, McGill University
855 Sherbrooke Street West [entry from McTavish and Dr. Penfield]

With all the buzz about terrorist attacks, state 
terrorism in India remains a silent, unpunished 
crime. Survivors of Gujarat's genocide in 2002, 
in which girls and women were especially 
targeted,are still living in fear, struggling for 
justice against a government that instigated the 
attacks. Journalist Dionne Bunsha's book, 
SCARRED: Experiments with Violence in Gujarat 
(Penguin India, 2006), is about the communal 
pogrom in Gujarat 2002, its aftermath and life in 
the Hindu extremist party's model state. Her talk 
will place Gujarat's massacre in the context of 
earlier communal flare-ups in India. Why is 
Gujarat considered the Hindutva Laboratory, the 
Hindu right-wing's model state? Why are the 
thousands scarred by Gujarat's massacres still 
living in a state of terror?

Dionne Bunsha is a multiple award-winning journalist based in Mumbai,
She is a journalist for one of India’s leading 
newsmagazines Frontline.  Ms. Bunsha has received 
three journalism awards for her reportage on the 
Gujarat genocide Gujarat, India:
-the Sanskriti Award for Excellence in Journalism 2003
-the People's Union for Civil Liberties Human Rights Journalism Award 2003
-the International Federation of Journalists 
Tolerance Prize for South Asia 2005.

Organized by: McGill Centre for Research and 
Teaching on Women (MCRTW), South Asian Women’s 
Community Centre (SAWCC), and CERAS (Centre sur 
l’asie du sud)
Supported by : Campus Life Fund
Info: 514-485-9192


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.