SACW | May 1, 2007 | Pakistan: Taliban; Freedom of Expression / Sri Lanka: Cricket and War / India: Shiv Sena to burn Laine's book; Fake encounter Killings by Police
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Mon Apr 30 21:29:16 CDT 2007
South Asia Citizens Wire | May 1, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2398 - Year 9
[1] Pakistan:
(i) The Taliban takeover (Ziauddin Sardar)
(ii) Culture minister is clueless about culture (Editorial, Daily Times)
(iii) Letter to Pakistan authorities re ban on
the play Burqavaganza (Iftikhar Malik)
[2] Sri Lanka: mismatch between multi-ethnic
cricket team and the brutal reality of civil war
(Jehan Perera)
[3] India - Rajasthan: Hindutva @ Work - Christian preacher attacked
[4] India: Shiv Sainiks instructed to burn James Laine's book
- Fascist impulses (Edit, Asian Age)
- James Laine interviewed (Harsh Kabra)
- Desirable judicial activism: a blow to
state-sponsored censorship (Edit., Economic Times)
[5] India - Fake encounter killings by the police
Murderers in uniform - Criminal acts of the
custodians of law and order (Kashmir Times, Edit.)
[6] India: Rock stars in uniform (Pamela Philipose)
[7] India: Fake Killing(s) : People As Trophies (Subhash Gatade)
____
[1]
(i)
New Statesman
30 April 2007
PAKISTAN: THE TALIBAN TAKEOVER
by Ziauddin Sardar
Pakistan is reverberating with the call of jihad.
Taliban-style militias are spreading rapidly out
from provinces in the far north-west. The danger
to the country and to the rest of the world is
escalating
"You must understand," says Maulana Sami ul-Haq,
"that Pakistan and Islam are synonymous." The
principal of Darul Uloom Haqqania, a seminary in
Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP),
is a tall and jovial man. He grabs my hand as he
takes me round the seminary. Maulana ul-Haq
laughs when I ask his views on jihad. "It is the
duty of all Muslims to support those groups
fighting against oppression," he says.
The Haqqania is one of the largest madrasas in
Pakistan. It produces about 3,000 graduates, most
from exceptionally poor backgrounds, every year.
The walls of the student dormitory are decorated
with tanks and Kalashnikovs. A group of students,
all with black beards, white turbans and grey
dresses, surrounds me. They are curious and
extremely polite. We chat under the watchful eye
of two officers from Pakistan's intelligence
services. What would they do after they graduate,
I ask. "Serve Islam," they reply in unison. "We
will dedicate our lives to jihad."
Pakistan is reverberating with the call of jihad.
For more than two months, the capital, Islamabad,
has been held hostage by a group of burqa-clad
women, armed with sticks and shouting: "Al-jihad,
al-jihad." These female students belong to two
madrasas attached to the Lal Masjid, a large
mosque near one of the city's main supermarkets.
I found the atmosphere around the masjid tense,
with heavily armed police surrounding the
building. Though the students were allowed to go
in and out freely, no one else could enter the
mosque. The women are demanding the imposition of
sharia law and the instant abolition of all "dens
of vice". Away from the masjid, Islamabad looked
like a city under siege.
A new generation of militants is emerging in
Pakistan. Although they are generally referred to
as "Taliban", they are a recent phenomenon. The
original Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan briefly
during the 1990s, were Afghan fighters, a product
of the Soviet invasion of their country. They
were created and moulded by the Pakistani army,
with the active support of the United States and
Saudi money, and the deliberate use of madrasas
to prop up religious leaders. Many Taliban
leaders were educated at Haqqania by Maulana Sami
ul-Haq. The new generation of militants are all
Pakistani; they emerged after the US invasion of
Afghanistan and represent a revolt against the
government's support for the US. Mostly
unemployed, not all of them are madrasa-educated.
They are led by young mullahs who, unlike the
original Taliban, are technology- and
media-savvy, and are also influenced by various
indigenous tribal nationalisms, honouring the
tribal codes that govern social life in
Pakistan's rural areas. "They are Taliban in the
sense that they share the same ideology as the
Taliban in Afghanistan," says Rahimullah
Yusufzai, Peshawar-based columnist on the News.
"But they are totally Pakistani, with a better
understanding of how the world works." Their
jihad is aimed not just at "infidels occupying
Afghanistan", but also the "infidels" who are
ruling and running Pakistan and maintaining the
secular values of Pakistani society. "They aim at
nothing less than to cleanse Pakistan and turn it
into a pure Islamic state," says Rashed Rahman,
executive editor of the Lahore-based Post
newspaper.
The Pakistani Taliban now dominate the northern
province of Waziristan, adjacent to Afghan istan.
"They are de facto rulers of the province," says
Yusufzai. Waziristan is a tribal area that has
historically been ruled by the tribes themselves.
Pakistan has followed the policy of British Raj
in the region. The British allowed tribal
leaders, known as maliks, semi-autonomous powers
in exchange for loyalty to the crown. Pakistan
gives them the same power but demands loyalty to
the federal government. They have been sidelined
by the Taliban, however. Pro-government maliks
who resisted the onslaught of the Taliban have
been brutally killed and had their bodies hung
from poles as a lesson to others. The Taliban
have declared Waziristan an "Islamic emirate" and
are trying to establish a parallel
administration, complete with sharia courts and
tax system.
Taliban-type militias have also taken control of
parts of the adjacent NWFP. In Peshawar, one of
the most open and accessible areas of the
province, one can feel the tension on the
streets. There are hardly any women out in
public. The city, which has suffered numerous
suicide attacks, is crowded with intelligence
officers. Within an hour of my arrival in
Peshawar, I was approached by a secret service
official who warned that I was being watched. It
is practically impossible for outsiders to enter
other NWFP towns such as Tank, Darra Adam Khel
and Dera Ismail Khan. In Dera Ismail Khan,
outsiders - that is, Pakistanis from other parts
of the country - need police escorts to travel
around. You are allowed in only if you can prove
you have business or relatives there. Girls'
schools have been closed, video and music shops
bombed, and barbers forbidden from shaving
beards. The religious parties have passed a
public morality law that gives them powers to
prosecute anyone who does not follow their strict
moral code. Legislation to ban dance and music is
being planned. Even administration of polio
vaccination campaigns has been halted amid claims
that it is a US plot to sterilise future
generations.
Why is the ostensibly secular government of
President Pervez Musharraf not taking any action
against the Taliban militants and the parties
that support them? Part of the answer lies in the
militants and religious parties having served the
military regime well. After coming to power in
1999, Musharraf used them to neutralise the
mainstream political parties - Benazir Bhutto's
People's Party and the Muslim League, led by
Nawaz Sharif. "The military and mullahs have been
traditional allies," says the Islamabad-based
security analyst Dr Ayesha Siddiqa. "The alliance
of religious parties that rules NWFP came into
power through his support." Musharraf also used
the religious militants to destabilise
Indian-held Kashmir by proxy. He encouraged
extremists preaching jihad to infiltrate India
for acts of sabotage.
The same is true of the Taliban. The Afghan
Taliban have been a useful ally against
unfriendly governments in Kabul. Even though
Musharraf has been forced to go against them
under pressure from the Americans, his strategy
has been to try to contain them, rather than
defeat them. He tried to regulate the madrasas in
NWFP and elsewhere in Pakistan that provide
recruits for the Taliban, seized their funds and
banned them from admitting foreign students. But
that's about as far as he wanted to go. Constant
US pressure has forced him to send in the army,
with grave consequences. Every time the Pakistani
army enters Waziristan, it takes heavy
casualties. Since 2003, when Pakistani troops
first entered the tribal regions, more than 700
soldiers have been killed. Not surprisingly,
Musharraf signed a hasty peace agreement on 5
September 2006 allowing the Afghan Taliban to get
on with their business. "The military regards the
Taliban as an asset," says Siddiqa. "So why
destroy an asset? Particularly when the asset
could be useful in the future."
That future may not be too far off. Pakistan's
foreign policy towards Afghanistan is based on
the assumption that the Nato forces there will
withdraw sooner rather than later, leaving Hamid
Karzai's regime to fend for itself. The Karzai
government is strongly anti-Pakistani. But the
Pakistani army needs friendly rulers in Kabul who
would be willing to run the oil and gas pipelines
that will serve the newly established port at
Gwadar through Afghanistan's provinces (see page
32). So Pakistan needs the Afghan Taliban to
exist as a force strong enough to establish the
next government in Afghanistan.
Moreover, a pro-Islamabad Taliban-type government
in Afghanistan would help establish peace in the
northern tribal regions of Pakistan. Although
Karzai himself is a Pashtun, most of the people
in power in Kabul are Tajiks, a minority tribe. A
sizeable majority of Afghans belong to the
Pashtun ethnic group, which ruled Afghanistan for
centuries. The position of Pakistan's military is
that this imbalance "against the political
history and tribal culture of Afghan istan", as
one army officer told me, is not going to last.
Most of the Pakistani Taliban - that is, the vast
majority of people in Waziristan - are also
Pashtun. And they will not rest until their
brothers across the border hold the reins of
power. As such, peace in this part of Pakistan
depends on who rules Afghanistan.
Musharraf's strategy is to contain the Taliban of
Afghan and Pakistani varieties alike, while
weeding out al-Qaeda jihadis, or "foreign
elements", as they are known in Pakistani
military circles. The foreigners are a legacy of
the Soviet-Afghan war. When the war ended, many
of the central Asians who came to fight the
Soviets were not welcomed back in their
countries. For want of an alternative, they
settled in Pakistan. Most of these foreign
jihadis are Uzbek. Musharraf has simply bribed
the local tribes to attack and eradicate the
Uzbek jihadis. The battle between Pashtun
tribesmen and al-Qaeda in Wana, southern
Waziristan, in which more than 200 al-Qaeda
fighters and some 50 tribal fighters were killed
a fortnight ago was a product of this policy.
Musharraf's problem is that the Taliban cannot be
contained. The Pakistani Taliban have now
acquired enough confidence to break out of Wazi
ristan and NWFP into other parts of the country.
"What's happening at the Lal Masjid in Islamabad
is a trial run for the rest of the country," says
Rahman. "If the Taliban succeed in Islamabad,
they will turn Pakistan into Talibistan."
Lawyers in uproar
While Musharraf continues to placate the Taliban,
the rest of Pakistan is standing up against
Talibanisation. Huge demonstrations have been
held in Lahore, Karachi and other cities
throughout Pakistan. To begin with, the protests
were held to support Chief Justice Iftikhar Moham
med Chaudhry, who was sacked by Musharraf in
March. Chaudhry, who has become a national hero,
tried to prevent the army from selling the
national steel mill for a song. The affair was
the latest in a long list of scandals involving
the military. The openly unconstitutional act
caused uproar, leading to countrywide protests by
lawyers. But the lawyers have now acquired a
broader agenda. They have become a national
resistance movement, supported by all sections of
society, against military rule and the Taliban.
Musharraf's response to the demonstrations and
the Taliban challenge is to try to entrench
himself even more deeply. While the country
buckles under the pressure of suicide bombings,
kidnappings and acts of sabotage, his main
concern is his own survival. Constitutionally, he
must hold elections some time this year -
something he has promised to do, but the whole
exercise will be designed to ensure that he
continues as president for another five years.
His plan to get "re-elected" has two strands. The
simple option is to get the current hand-picked
parliament to endorse him for a second term and
try to manipulate this vote, which the present
sham constitution dictates, to ensure a healthy
two-thirds majority. The heads of intelligence,
the security services and the police have already
been primed to ensure "positive results".
Bhutto to the rescue?
The other option is a bit messy. It involves
making a deal with the former prime minister
Benazir Bhutto, head of the Pakistan People's
Party. Bhutto, who has been ousted from power by
the military twice, is desperate to get back into
power. She has a great deal in common with the
general. She runs the People's Party as her
personal property, and her social and economic
policies - rooted as they are in feudalism and
opportunism - are not far removed from those of
the army. Her foreign policy would be the same as
that of Musharraf; indeed, she is even more
pro-American than the general.
So Bhutto and Musharraf, who have been
negotiating with each other for almost three
years, are an ideal couple. "The problem," says
Rahman, "is that Musharraf does not want to give
up his military uniform. It is the source of his
strength. And the idea of Musharraf remaining
military chief is anathema to Bhutto."
But the state of the nation, on the verge of
political and religious collapse, may force
Musharraf's hand. A deal between the general and
the self-proclaimed "Daughter of the East" in
which Musharraf retains most of his power as
civilian president and Bhutto serves as prime
minister may be acceptable to both. Rumours
abound in Islamabad that a deal is imminent.
Bhutto's return from the cold would do little to
stop Pakistan's slide into anarchy, however. The
Taliban sense victory and will not be easily
satisfied with anything less than a Pakistan
under sharia law, or wide-ranging bloodshed. As
Asma Jahangir, chairwoman of Pakistan's Human
Rights Commission, makes clear, the country
cannot survive its "deep-seated rot" unless the
"unrepresentative organs of the state - the
military, the mullahs and the all-consuming
intelligence agencies - are brought under
control". It is hard to disagree with her
assessment. But it is even harder to see how
these "unrepresen tative organs" can be stopped
from dragging Pakistan further towards the abyss
- with dire consequences for the rest of the
world.
Pakistan: a short history
1947 Muslim state of Pakistan created by
partition of India at the end of British rule
1948 First war with India over disputed territory of Kashmir
1965 Second war with India over Kashmir
1971 East Pakistan attempts to secede, triggering
civil war. Third war between Pakistan and India.
East Pakistan breaks away to become Bangladesh
1980 US pledges military assistance following
Soviet intervention in Afghanistan
1988 Benazir Bhutto elected prime minister
1996 Bhutto dismissed, for the second time, on charges of corruption
1998 Country conducts nuclear tests
1999 General Pervez Musharraf seizes power in military coup
2001 Musharraf backs US in war on terror and supports invasion of Afghanistan
2002 Musharraf given another five years in office in criticised referendum
2003 Pakistan declares latest Kashmir ceasefire. India does likewise
2004 Musharraf stays head of army, having promised in 2003 to relinquish role
2005 Earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
kills tens of thousands of people
2007 Musharraf suspends Chief Justice Iftikhar
Mohammed Chaudhry, triggering nationwide protests
(ii)
Daily Times
May 1, 2007
Editorial
SECOND EDITORIAL: CULTURE MINISTER IS CLUELESS ABOUT CULTURE
The federal minister for culture, GG Jamal, got
up in the National Assembly a couple of days ago
and announced a ban on a play performed in Lahore
by the Ajoka Theatre company because it offended
some MNAs of the religious alliance MMA. The play
called Burqvaganza was not a send-up on the
hijab, nor was it a play against the wearing of
hijab. It used the veil (burqa) as a symbol of
all the politicians and hypocritical citizens of
Pakistan who live a life of double standards. All
actors male and female wore the burqa as a device
to conceal their true identity.
The play was first performed in March. The
discussion on it was started by five angry MMA
MNAs at the National Assembly on April 26. The
politicians used extreme language of outrage as
if the play offended against Islam. Suddenly the
burqa itself became sacrosanct. Instead of
standing up to the onslaught and allowing debate
on it, the speaker avoided a full discussion of
it. Two lady MNAs, one from the PML and the other
from the PPP, stood up and protested against the
clerics but the federal minister for culture,
instead of showing backbone, immediately gave in
and announced the ban.
The angry clerics wanted a blasphemy case
registered against the Ajoka Theatre and its
leading lights. The government did not take time
even to consider what the issue was all about.
Was anyone asking the women of Pakistan not to
take the burqa? The theme of the play had nothing
to do with that matter, although it would have
been perfectly justifiable to do a play against
the forcible imposition of hijab in the regions
of the country where Talibanisation is stealing
territory from the PMLQ government at the federal
centre.
By capitulating to the clerical wrath at the
National Assembly the government has once again
signalled its reaction to the rising wave of
extremism in Pakistan. President Pervez Musharraf
doesn't tire of asserting that Pakistan must face
up to extremists, but whenever it is time for the
government to show backbone against extremists it
simply runs away from the battlefield. The people
who elected the present government because of the
moderate appeal of President Musharraf now know
that it has steadily lost vertebrae on issues
where the country needed them desperately. It
chickened out of the law against honour-killing,
it also chickened out of the Hudood Laws
amendment which took the PPP vote to pass.
The culture minister deliberately misinterpreted
the play by saying that "burqa is part of
Pakistani culture" and that "no one will be
allowed to ridicule our culture". He is still to
open his mouth on the sort of culture being
imposed on the helpless people of the Tribal
Areas by gangsters posing as the champions of
Islam. The burqa is our culture if it is a symbol
of freedom and not if it is forced on people.
Then it becomes a symbol of slavery and is no
longer culture. Culture is what grows out of the
organic life of people spontaneously. The culture
minister has no clue about the meaning of
culture. He is an ignoramus. He simply ignored
the theme of the play which was about hypocrisy
and concealment.
The ban emphasises the prostration of the federal
government in the face of the extremist assault
on Islamabad by the seminaries of Lal Masjid. The
entire world was shocked at the developments. It
is no longer shocked now that it knows the PMLQ
government has simply surrendered to the
vigilante aggression of the clergy. The law
simply doesn't exist. Had the MMA any objection
to the Ajoka play it should have gone to court,
but it knew that the government was in the mood
to go down on its knees and thought better of it.
This is the season of kowtowing in Islamabad.
Pakistan is creeping beyond the point of
redemption in the hands of politicians singularly
lacking in the gift of intellect. *
o o o
(iii)
LETTER TO PAKISTAN AUTHORITIES RE BAN ON THE PLAY BURQAVAGANZA
28 April 2007.
-Hon'ble Mr. Shaukat Aziz,
Prime Minister of Pakistan,
Islamabad.
-Hon'ble Lt. General (Retd.) Mr. Khalid Maqbool
The Governor of Punjab,
Lahore, Pakistan.
-The Minister for Culture
Government of Pakistan,
Islamabad, Pakistan.
Dear Sirs,
Subject: Unwarranted Ban on Ajoka Play.
As a concerned Pakistani, who
believes in the Jinnahist vision of the country,
I take a strong exception to unwarranted ban on
Ajoka Theatre and its current play,
"burqgavnaza", which is, in fact, meant to
highlight our double standards at various levels.
Certainly, humour and entertainment keep
societies healthy and positive. Why would someone
try to insidiously convert our country into an
other regressive, self-immolating Talibanised
state? Millions of Pakistanis and likeminded
people all over the world are shocked and
saddened by this abrasive official ban and would
rather flag the freedom of expression and
dissent. It is our democratic right and by
imposing such unilateral ban you are neither
being fair to the country nor to 160 million
responsible Pakistanis. We want arts, literature,
politics and debate to flourish among our
responsible, mature and well meaning citizens and
would request you to rescind the ban and let the
fresh breeze come into an otherwise dreary
existence of these industrious people, who find
themselves at this critical crossroads of their
history.
Best regards,
Sincerely,
Iftikhar Malik
(Oxford)
Professor Iftikhar H. Malik
FRHisS
School of Historical and Cultural Studies
Bath Spa University,
BATH BA2 9BN. UK
_____
[2]
New Age
May 1, 2007
SRI LANKA: MISMATCH BETWEEN MULTI-ETHNIC CRICKET
TEAM AND THE BRUTAL REALITY OF CIVIL WAR
In the run-up to the World Cup finals, the
international media ran stories representing the
hope and lack of understanding of the
international community about the mutually
destructive war in Sri Lanka. They speculated
that the goodwill and euphoria generated by the
cricket team would translate into political
initiatives that would take this beautiful and
talented country to peace. But the international
media wrongly assumed that the positive social
and cultural relationships that bind the ethnic
communities in Sri Lanka together could translate
into a political vision and commitment to secure
a power-sharing formula to resolve the ethnic
conflict, writes Jehan Perera
At the same time as the Sri Lankan cricket team
was battling against the odds against their
Australian counterparts at the World Cup finals
in Jamaica, the night sky in Colombo was set
alight. This was not a display of fireworks to
celebrate the underdog team's gallant
performance, but bursts of anti-aircraft gunfire
from numerous places in Colombo. In a tragic and
unconscionable manner, the unity that the
country's multi-ethnic cricket team had
demonstrated in both victory and in defeat, was
once again not matched by the protagonists in Sri
Lanka's long-drawn-out ethnic conflict.
In the run-up to the World Cup finals, the
international media ran stories representing the
hope and lack of understanding of the
international community about the mutually
destructive war in Sri Lanka. They speculated
that the goodwill and euphoria generated by the
cricket team would translate into political
initiatives that would take this beautiful and
talented country to peace. But the international
media wrongly assumed that the positive social
and cultural relationships that bind the ethnic
communities in Sri Lanka together could translate
into a political vision and commitment to secure
a power-sharing formula to resolve the ethnic
conflict.
The decision of the LTTE to use its limited
air power to bomb Colombo on the night of the
World Cup finals was undoubtedly a carefully
calculated one. There was a possibility of the
Sri Lankan armed forces being more focused on the
performance of the country's cricket team that
night than on the strategies of the LTTE. The
commander-in-chief of the Sri Lankan armed
forces, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was himself
in Jamaica along with his entourage to cheer on
the Sri Lankan team and to encourage them to
victory. The eyes of virtually all Sri Lankans
not fortunate enough to be able to travel to
Jamaica were glued to the television screen.
Fortunately the bombs that the LTTE's light
aircraft dropped on the oil storage facilities on
the outskirts of Colombo failed to cause serious
damage unlike the LTTE attack in 2001. In that
year LTTE ground attack squads caused a near
catastrophe when they successfully penetrated the
oil storage facilities and set them on fire. The
wheels of the economy came to a virtual
standstill at that time. Although past experience
has shown that LTTE ground attacks have been much
more severe in their destructive potential, the
new LTTE tactic of air attacks brings with it an
unprecedented dimension of uncertainty.
Unconventional warfare
The LTTE bombing raid on Colombo was
unsuccessful in destroying their targets.
However, they have once again been successful in
demonstrating their ability to engage in
unconventional warfare. The chaos in Colombo on
the night of the attack, the firing on a
commercial airliner by over-excited anti-aircraft
gunners, and the massive international media
coverage of the event will do much to harm the
country's prospects. Two major international
airlines have already suspended their flights to
Sri Lanka with immediate effect. Neither tourists
nor foreign investors are likely to be prepared
to visit the country in the current circumstances.
No government or society can tolerate a
situation where its capital city is subjected to
periodic bombing raids by an enemy force. There
is no question that such threats have to be
neutralised. The manner in which the government
has been approaching this task over the past year
and a half of President Rajapaksa's rule is
primarily, if not solely, through its military.
Unfortunately, the ruling party's proposals for
political reform that are to be unveiled are
reported to be regressive ones seemingly designed
to appease Sinhalese nationalists and that take
the country back more than two decades.
The government's immediate response of sending
its own air force to heavily pound
LTTE-controlled areas may satisfy governmental
leaders and nationalist sections of the
population. They would wish the LTTE to be
severely punished for the unexpected exercise of
bombing Colombo on the night of the World Cup
finals which had united the multi-ethnic
population behind the multi-ethnic cricket team.
On the other hand, most of the people living in
the LTTE-controlled areas would not have been
able to watch the cricket match in any event.
The war-related destruction of infrastructure
in the LTTE-controlled areas is such that the
people there live fifty to several hundred years
in the past in relation to economic facilities
and political democracy. The regular air force
bombing to which those areas have been subjected
is of a different order of magnitude in
comparison to the few small bombs dropped by the
LTTE air force. At least three hundred thousand
people have been displaced from their homes and
live in the most wretched conditions since the
commencement of hostilities between the
government and LTTE in April last year.
On each of the occasions that the LTTE has
acknowledged its air raids, it has sought to
justify them by claiming they are in retaliation
for the air bombing of their areas by the
government. It is this type of logic that Mahatma
Gandhi totally rejected by saying that if the
attitude of an eye for an eye was followed the
whole world would go blind. Unfortunately the
militarists on either side of the divide tend to
get stronger when equivalent, if not greater,
retaliation is seen as the appropriate mode of
response.
Human costs
If large-scale civilian suffering and
displacement can be ignored, the military
strategy of the government up to now has been
relatively successful in the east of the country.
The government has militarily captured those
parts of the east that were administered by the
LTTE. The next theatre of confrontation is likely
to be the north where the LTTE's military and
administrative assets are presently concentrated.
The aircraft and airfields that have caused chaos
and apprehension in Colombo are located in the
LTTE-controlled areas of the north.
The government may soon send in its ground
troops into the north to seek out and destroy the
LTTE's military and administrative assets there,
as they have in the east. There are indications
that the government's military campaign against
LTTE strongholds in the north has already
commenced. One of the first targets appears to
the Madhu area of the north which is currently
under LTTE control and where there is a large
refugee welfare centre in the vicinity of the
sacred Catholic shrine of Madhu. As a result, the
situation there has become very tense and fearful.
The Catholic Church is fearful that in the
event of hostilities there will be shelling and
bombing of the area and which can lead to the
destruction of the shrine. The military had
indicated that they wish to rescue the civilians
from being under LTTE control. This sounds
similar to the theme of liberating the people
living in LTTE-controlled areas in the east who,
now as a result are in refugee camps. Although
the Catholic Church has tried to get the two
sides to declare Madhu to be a peace zone, this
has proven to be unsuccessful.
Adding to the woes of the people is the fact
that the presence of LTTE cadres has increased
substantially with recruitments and abductions of
young people into their ranks taking place even
from public places. Forced abductions without a
sense of conscience are taking place on a regular
basis and it is reported that up to 3,500 youth
are being targeted for recruitment. The LTTE is
also reported to be interfering with the work of
NGOs and stating that they need to function under
their diktat. Many NGOs are afraid of sending
their staff to the field due to harassment by the
LTTE.
Way forward
What this goes to show is that the human costs
of continued confrontation between the government
and LTTE are very high. The escalation of the war
into the north would add significantly to those
human costs. There is a desperate need for an
alternative path to conflict resolution, but at
the present time neither the government nor the
LTTE appear to have either the political vision
or commitment to carve out that path. Instead
they appear to be mutually engaged in a cycle of
violence from which the people have no escape.
It is indeed regrettable that the ruling
party's political proposals to resolve the ethnic
conflict offer even less in term of power-sharing
than the existing system of provincial councils
set up under the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord of 1987.
The ruling party proposals seek to limit
power-sharing to the district level and to the
village level. Even today the Indo-Lanka Peace
Accord, with its provisions for the establishment
of provincial councils, and for the temporary
merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces,
stands as a reasonable model of ethnic
accommodation.
The main burden of keeping hope alive
therefore falls on the UNP which as the main
opposition party has stood consistently for a
negotiated political solution based on the
federal formula of the Oslo declaration that was
agreed on by the government and LTTE negotiating
teams in December 2002. The left coalition
partners of the government and civil society
groups that stand for a negotiated political
solution also need to continue voicing their
commitment to a viable power-sharing framework
that meets the just demand of the Tamil people
for their rights.
Jehan Perera is media director of the National
Peace Council in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He can be
reached at: jehanpc at sltnet.lk
_____
[3]
Hindutva at work:
CHRISTIAN PREACHER ATTACKED IN JAIPUR
http://haw.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html#4296586606008708504
[Reproduced from a report in The Hindu, 30 April 2007]
______
[4] [AFTER COURTS LIFT BAN - SHIV SAINIKS
INSTRUCTED TO BURN JAMES LAINE'S BOOK]
Asian Age
May 1, 2007
Editorial
Editorial
FASCIST IMPULSES
The "order" issued to Shiv Sainiks to burn copies
of James Laine's book Shivaji: The Hindu King in
Islamic India by Mr Bal Thackeray is typical of
the Shiv Sena chief's arbitrary and intolerant
approach to settling issues of public concern.
Contending that the book's contents are both
baseless and unflattering of Shivaji, who is
rightly held in great respect in Maharashtra and
the rest of the country, the Maharashtra
government had banned the sale of the book. The
Bombay high court has lifted the ban. If the
court verdict is unacceptable to the government
and the people, as is being claimed, the proper
course is to approach the Supreme Court for
redress. The state government, we are told,
proposes to do just this, but Mr Thackeray has
intervened, obviously with a view to mobilising
public opinion against the book's sale and
pressuring the apex court. Mr Thackeray clearly
anticipates that the Supreme Court is unlikely to
reverse the Bombay high court's ruling. If the
ruling is upheld, he argues, nothing can be done,
and hence to pre-empt such a situation, the book
ought to be burnt on the streets. It would be
obviously up to the Shiv Sainiks to locate copies
of the book and seize them by force. The Shiv
Sena argues that while protest action against the
book will create no law and order problem,
allowing the sales to continue definitely will.
Not so strangely, all political parties including
the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party
are supporting Mr Thackeray's call. There is no
denying that anything derogatory said or written
about Indian leaders held in high respect is apt
to hurt popular sentiments and provoke
retaliation. The political class on that ground
will justify Mr Thackeray's "order." Mr
Thackeray's call will only help the sale of the
book, whereas his real intention is to prevent
it. It would encourage people to take the law
into their hands and this cannot be an acceptable
option in a functioning democracy like ours.
o o o
The Times of India
30 April, 2007
Q&A: 'NO SIMPLE ANSWERS TO PROBLEMS OF CULTURAL SENSITIVITY'
The Supreme Court recently quashed the criminal
proceedings against American historian James W
Laine, a professor of religious studies at
Macalester College. Laine had faced possible
police action for defaming Maratha king Shivaji
through his controversial book, Shivaji: Hindu
king in Islamic India. The book had triggered a
public outcry across Maharashtra, including mob
violence in Pune's Bhandarkar Oriental Research
Institute in January 2004. Laine speaks to Harsh
Kabra on what it means for a foreign scholar to
work through the social and cultural
sensitivities of India:
You've said that your whole interest was not the
historical Shivaji, but the shape of the
narrative that gets told, histori-cal or not. For
a foreign scholar like you, what do the cultural
sensitivities involved with working on oral
narratives of iconic figures like Shivaji mean?
If we frame the question as how should an
American scholar be sensitive about the culture
of Indians he studies?, we are not comprehending
the complexity of Indian culture. Indian culture
is itself so complex, with many internal
divisions. Shall I replicate the views of
conservative Brahmin scholars? Shall i privilege
Hindu views over Muslim ones, male perspectives
over female pers pectives? I think we are in a
period of global exchange of ideas in which there
are no simple answers to problems of cultural
sensitivity.
But there is always the possibility of a nativist
reaction to foreigners who are likely to overlook
the specific social and cultural contexts of
these narratives.
There is perhaps such a possibility but i think,
in my own case, my work was interpreted falsely,
not in terms of a foreign, post-colonial attack
on Indian culture, but as part of a Brahmin
conspi-racy to question the royalty (Kshatriya)
status of Shivaji and other Marathas. I had no
intention of taking a position in that debate
which goes back to the age of Shivaji himself,
but that's what i was caught up in. Yet, for
example, the translation of ancient treatises and
holy texts into western languages in the past
didn't stir up controversies.
What has been the latter-day experience elsewhere?
It is interesting to note that widespread
translation of Sanskrit scriptures, which were
for centuries restricted to the use of Brahmin
men, has not, to my knowledge, caused much of an
outcry in the period from 1800 to the present.
However, the controversy concern-ing my two books
was not really related to issues of translation.
How do you feel, in the wake of the SC judgment?
Do you stand by your decision to refrain from
research projects related to Maharashtra?
I am happy not to have any charges against me,
but I am not at all sure that travel in
Maharashtra would be the wise thing to do. I
however, continue to have an abiding interest in
India and will work on broader issues in the
future.
o o o
Economic Times
APRIL 12, 2007
Editorial
DESIRABLE JUDICIAL ACTIVISM: A BLOW TO STATE-SPONSORED CENSORSHIP
The Supreme Court order restraining the
Maharashtra government from proceeding against
James W Laine, the author of Shivaji: Hindu King
in Islamic India, must be hailed. The ruling,
which would now compel the state government to
withdraw the FIR it had registered in 2004
against the author, publisher and printer of the
book for allegedly attempting to destroy public
order, is a brilliant example of judicial
intervention that cannot be faulted.
More so, since the FIR followed the intolerant
vandalism that Maharashtra saw in 2003 after
Laine's book was published. We fully agree with
the court that a work of scholarship cannot be
judged as being contrary to the interests of
communities on the basis of certain scattered
remarks torn out of context. Laine's book does
contains citations from folklore about Shivaji
which had offended local opinion.
But their express intention is clearly not to
disparage the Maratha icon. Instead, they are
part of serious scholarship that seeks to arrive
at a more informed understanding of the subject.
The FIR, filed by the state government, was
clearly an attempt to curb the fundamental right
to freedom of expression. Regrettably the
publishers had to 'withdraw' the book from the
state after the government went ballistic.
The principle of separation of powers is meant to
embody a desirable tension between individual
rights and social consensus. While lawmaking and
governance are meant to articulate the latter,
the judiciary is supposed to protect the former
from any kind of excess that might occur,
unwittingly or otherwise, in the conduct of
legislative and governmental functions.
For, it's simply not enough for lawmaking and
executive functioning to be in accord with the
will of the majority. Real democracy is about
mediating the popular will through a network of
institutional structures and the law of the land.
The dangers of conflating irrational
majoritarianism with enlightened consensus are,
indeed, great in a developing democracy.
All political parties in Maharashtra had
unanimously lent their voice to the anti-Laine
outrage. In that context, the court order is a
reminder that illiberalism, merely because it's
upheld by the majority, cannot be passed off as
democracy.
______
[5]
Kashmir Times
May 1, 2007
Editorial
MURDERERS IN UNIFORM
CRIMINAL ACTS OF THE CUSTODIANS OF LAW AND ORDER
The Indian police never had the reputation of
being a very civilised, fair-minded, law-abiding
institution, although they are the state's
law-enforcing arm. The corruption and misuse of
power indulged in by the lower ranks of the
police is proverbial. The man in khaki is still
the most dreaded man in the area, and most
villagers pray that their sons become one. Not
for nothing did Justice A.N. Mullah of Allahabad
high court refer to the Indian police, sometime
around 1960, as the "largest single body of
gangsters". But, if that was the sad fact nearly
fifty years ago, the situation today is many
times worse. The process started with the rise of
insurgencies, first, in the north-east, and then
in the forms of Naxalism in West Bengal and
violent separatism in Punjab and Jammu and
Kashmir. The pillars of democracy, like the rule
of law and the rights of an individual, came to
be ignored in favour of extra-judicial actions
taken in the name of national integrity. Even a
democrat like Nehru once said about certain
incidents in Kashmir that "democracy can wait".
All forms of extralegal actions, like fake
encounters, custodial killings, and just
disappearance after arrest, came to be
increasingly accepted as necessary in the
socalled national interest. The supposed interest
of the people came to throttle the voices of law
and rights. It is only since the end of the 90's
that voices came to be raised against the
conspiracy of hush-hush about the misdeeds of the
security forces, and around 2400 such mysterious
deaths in Punjab still remain unaccounted for.
In Jammu and Kashmir the first breakthrough came
after the deliberate killings of the innocent
villagers at Pathrebal were exposed. In recent
months graves after graves have been exhumed as
proofs of fake encounters, and skeletons are
regularly tumbling our of the cup-boards of the
security forces. As if not to be left behind in
their race for recognition the army too came to
be known not only for faking their living jawans
as killed militants but also for actually killing
some of their local porters for passing their
bodies on as those of armed infiltrators. In any
case one thought till recently that such unlawful
killings take place only in the
insurgency-afflicted states of Jammu and Kashmir
and in the north-east. But, now one is shocked to
learn that even in Gujarat three IPS officers
have been arrested on charges of having conspired
to eliminate a Muslim couple in November 2005.
That they have been sent to police custody proves
that the charges against them are based on fairly
solid grounds, and their alleged involvement in
such illegal killings only suggests how low our
law-enforcers can go to break the laws in their
morbid quest for awards and rewards. From Manipur
to Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir the story every
where is essentially the same. The draconian
AFSPA is there to provide them immunity for their
acts and this has made them trigger happy, and
enable them to earn undeserved recognitions
through unbecoming means. The security forces
cannot be restrained from misusing their special
powers and their is no reason why these should
not be snatched away from them, as the people of
Manipur and Kashmir want.
Gujarat, never the home any insurgency in any
form, of course has a dubious history of misuse
of special powers of the police. In the terrible
days of the TADA, in the 90's, more people,
mostly Muslims, were arrested under it in Gujarat
than in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, or in the
states in the north-east. Similarly, during the
post-Godra riots 240 people were arrested under
the POTA, and 239 of them were Muslims, and the
remaining one was a Sikh. Were the former
arrested for ensuring their safety from the
marauding bands of armed Hindus? Many bereaved
parents and widows in the Naxalite-affected
states have similar tales of woe to tell. These
force one to ask the question -- especially after
going through the revealing research work of
ex-IGP of Uttar Pradesh, Bibhuti Narain Rai's
Curfew in the City -- whether we have the police
force for protecting the edifice of law or for
breaking it, for preventing murders or for
committing some, and for protecting the weak from
the powerful or for helping the latter in
carrying out their selfish designs?
______
[6]
Indian Express
May 01, 2007
ROCK STARS IN UNIFORM
'Encounter specialists' get away with murder
because the system cannot care less
by Pamela Philipose
Sohrabuddin Sheikh was a criminal guilty of
extortion and other rackets, and we must listen
to BJP leader V.K. Malhotra and not glamourise
him. But it has now been established, under the
CID imprimatur no less, that he was not a
terrorist, was not a Lashkar-e-Toiba operative,
and was not planning to assassinate Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi. Of course we would not
have known all this and it could have been the
perfect "encounter" murder, if Sohrabuddin Sheikh
did not happen to have a brother who was
persistent enough to knock at the Supreme Court's
doors. Sohrabuddin Sheikh also had a wife who
insisted on accompanying him into the unknown and
who also, according to the Gujarat government's
statement in the Supreme Court, has ended up
dead. She too proved inconvenient to the
choreographers of her husband's "encounter" death
because it is not often that a LeT operative/
terrorist/ intent on killing Modi traipses around
the countryside accompanied by a loving wife.
But, of course, we must not glamourise Kauserbi.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh's killing was allegedly
masterminded by the head of Gujarat's
anti-terrorism squad, D.G. Vanzara. He belongs to
a breed of policemen who has been allowed to
create its own independent universe of impunity
and rewrite every rule in the book; a breed which
is allowed to create a "subterranean stream of
homicidal violence", as Suketu Mehta put it in
Maximum City - Bombay Lost and Found. Mumbai's
"encounter specialists", believed to have broken
the back of the mafia gangs that ruled the
metropolis, emerged as popular as rock stars in
the late nineties and early years of this decade,
posing for journalists with their AK-47s and
reeling off the number of scalps they had claimed
as their personal tally, much like the maharajahs
of an earlier era did their tiger killings. They
became the subjects of movies and had police
gallantry awards pinned to their lapels. Until,
that is, it was discovered that many in this
league of extraordinary men were making money
from various interests,
including the mafia, by actually staging shootouts.
If in Mumbai the "encounter" specialists were
deployed to battle the mafia with complete
support from the state government, in post-riots
Gujarat, they were on a mission to eliminate
terrorists with the active assistance of the
state government. Sohrabuddin Sheikh was
eliminated in November 2005, but almost a year
and a half before that there was the curious
"encounter" that occurred near the Kotarpur Water
Works, Ahmedabad, early one June morning, when
the bullet-riddled bodies of the four occupants
of a car, including a young woman later
identified as Ishrat Jehan, from Mumbra, were
discovered. The FIR claimed that at least two of
this party were "Pakistani fidayeen" of the LeT
equipped with arms and ammunition who were
proceeding with the intention to kill Narendra
Modi. An inquiry into the incident by human
rights groups in July 2004 pointed out that the
Gujarat police were not even able to confirm that
the two men were indeed Pakistani. It was also
noted that while the car in which the
"terrorists" were travelling was riddled with
bullets, there was little evidence of return fire
by the "fidayeen" despite their reported
possession of an AK-47 and AK-56. The report also
noted that the Crime Branch in Ahmedabad had
grown into a "powerful parallel police force"
that was a law unto itself. But the questions
around this "encounter" soon died down, and the
Gujarat's special squad was free to move on to
its next big "operation".
Such extra-judicial violence draws its rationale
from the belief that tough measures are needed to
make life safer for the rest of the citizens. But
staged encounters do not help in securing public
safety. In fact, they can work to the contrary,
by blurring the lines between legitimate security
measures and illegitimate ones. Such peremptory
snuffing out of lives deprives the police of
significant information that is vital if they are
indeed serious about fighting terrorists or the
mafia in the long term. They deepen public
scepticism about the police force, and further a
culture in which a small group of officers,
enjoying great political patronage and the
confidence of the highest functionaries in
government, are allowed to believe that they have
the licence to kill and who draw great personal
and pecuniary benefits from that licence.
So normalised have "encounter deaths" become
today, and not just in Gujarat, that the fact
that they violate the most basic article in the
Constitution, the right to life, is hardly a
concern. They also ignore the express strictures
passed by the National Human Rights Commission.
In 1997, the chairman of the NHRC, Justice M.N.
Venkatachaliah, wrote to all the chief ministers,
reminding them that the policeman, under the law,
is not conferred with the right to take away
another person's life and that if he kills a
person, he commits the offence of "culpable
homicide whether amounting to the offence of
murder or not, unless it is proved that such
killing was not an offence under the law". It
would not be considered an offence if the death
is caused in the exercise of the right of private
defence or while trying to apprehend a person who
is fleeing from the scene and "accused of an
offence punishable with death or imprisonment for
life." He then went on to state that whether the
death caused in the "encounter" was justified
would, however, have to be established through a
proper procedure, which should include the
registering of such deaths and investigation into
the facts - under an independent investigating
agency. The frighteningly facile way in which
Sohrabuddin Sheikh's life was snuffed out, as
indeed those who were possible witnesses to it,
his wife and associate, Tulsiram Prajapati,
demonstrates just how seriously Gujarat's
anti-terrorist squad took the Constitution and
well-laid out procedures of apprehending
suspected criminals.
We must not glamourise Sohrabuddin, but neither
must we glamourise such brutal and unconscionable
acts. Some 21 encounters that are believed to
have taken place in Gujarat between 2003 and 2006
have just been brought to the scrutiny of the
Supreme Court. Now let justice speak.
______
[7]
FAKE KILLING(S) : PEOPLE AS TROPHIES
by Subhash Gatade
Truth is finally out.
People who had a faint glimmer of hope about
Kausar Bi's whereabouts finally know that she is
no more. As the counsel for the Gujarat
government himself admitted before the Supreme
Court, she was killed, burnt and her ashes were
thrown in some field. But it does not throw light
on the fact that who killed her ?
It appears that Gujarat government wants to buy
time to divulge the information. But the CID
report filed by Ms Geeta Johri is very clear on
this aspect.The interim report of the IG (CID)
Geeta Johri - who investigated the case as per
instruction from the Supreme Courst - know that
Kausarbi was personally strangulated to death by
D.H.Vanjara in the very presence of his wife and
son (Bhaskar, 28 th April 2007).
Imagine the head of the Anti Terrorism Squad, who
till the other day functioned as DIG killing an
innocent woman and using his position to cover up
the crime.
As things stand today the story of the encounter
killing of Soharabuddin Sheikh in cold blood,
followed by similar killing of his friend
Tulsiram Prajapati and later his own wife Kausar
Bi is getting murkier everyday. Thanks to
Ruhabuddin Sheikh who persisted in his attempts
to get justice and ultimately approached the
Supreme Courts to intervene in this matter in
which his brother was killed in a fake encounter
and sister in law had gone missing. Today three
senior police officers - two from Gujarat and one
from Rajasthan are behind bars charged with
kidnapping and murder of an innocent citizen. If
the Gujarat government is compelled to follow the
leads then it will have to apprehend more than
two dozen other police officials from both the
states who participated in the whole operations
at some level.
The manner in which the fake killing(s) have
snowballed into a major embarassment for the
'invincible looking' Modi regime is for everyone
to see. Independent analysts have rightly pointed
out that Amit Shah, a close buddy of Narendra
Modi and in charge of the Home Ministry, who
supposedly went all out to save the guilty
officers, may also be sacrificed to save his
mentor from further discomfirt. And looking at
the evidence which is ranged against his buddies,
the day is not far off when 'Hindu Hriday Samrat'
Modi may also have to personally face the music.
II
Ofcourse few things are crystal clear about this
killing of an innocent citizen and packaging it
as the killing of dreaded terrorist belonging to
Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Firstly, the killing of Soharabuddin Sheikh was a
joint operation by two states Gujarat and
Rajasthan- both ruled by Sangh-BJP people-
executed by officers who happened to be very
close to the top echleons of the people in power.
It was not for nothing that Gujarat government
asked Ms. Geeta Johri to hand over her charge to
another person, when she was to present the final
report and Gulab Chand Kataria, the home minister
of Rajasthan personally flew in a special plane
with his other officers, to plead the case for
Dinesh Kumar, a senior police officer with his
government who is behind bars for this encounter.
Secondly, if one were to believe the journalist
who played a pivotal role in exposing the
killing, then the task of eliminating
Soharabuddin was undertaken at the behest of ( by
taking 'Supari' from) the rivals of the deceased
and crores of Rs were exchanged for this purpose.
Thirdly, it was not for the first time that
Gujarat police have organised an encounter
killing and presented it as killing of terrorists
who had come to kill Modi, Togadia or any other
similar rabble rouser from the Hindutva Brigade'.
Does anybody remember the killing of Isharat
Jahan, a college girl from Bombay along with
three other persons a few years ago or the
killing of Sami Ali Pathan and packaging it as
another 'victory' of the Gujarat police over
'terrorists'.
While the opposition has claimed that during
Vanjara's tenure at the Anti Terrorism Squad 15
people were killed in 9 fake encounters. Asian
Age (30 th April 2007) tells us that the 'Rogue
Gujarat Cop Killed 13'. But it would be opportune
to have a look at the manner in which he went
about it.
Ahmedabad, April 29: Controversial Gujarat IPS
officer and “encounter specialist” D.G. Vanzara,
now under arrest for the death of one Sohrabuddin
in November 2005, has killed at least 13 people
in the past few years on the alleged grounds that
they were plotting to kill Gujarat chief minister
Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders. He
has also arrested scores of “terrorists” on
similar charges.
To his colleagues and others he has depicted
these fake encounters as “patriotic acts” which
were evidence of his “deshbhakti.” The alleged
“terrorists” who he had caught and killed,
claiming that there were members of international
terrorist outfits and engaged on deadly missions
to kill Mr Modi and others, were all, barring one
exception, armed only with “tamanchas”. These
indigenously-made weapons are usually not the
assassination weapon of choice employed by
terrorist outfits. Mr Vanzara did this to justify
the absence of injury to policemen while they
were on such encounter missions.
Fourthly, it is clear that the top bosses of the
state were complicit in what was being done at
the ATS level. Any layperson can gather that the
killing spree engaged in by these rogue cops
helped enhance the threat perception of 'Hindu
Hriday Samrats' inside as well as outside Gujarat
and add glory to their image. It was not for
nothing that they saw to it that not a single
complaint reached the State Human Rights
Commission against him. The clout which Vanjara
enjoyed with the political masters can be gauged
from the fact that he even managed to get his
younger brother Vanraj Vanzara, who was with the
state forest department, sent on deputation to
the Gujarat State Human Rights Commission. It is
not surprising to note that till date, the state
human rights commission has not received any
complaints against Mr Vanzara.
III
It is worth noting that BJP, which finds itself
on a sticky wicket in this fake killings has
devised multiple lines of defence to avoid
further embarassment to its 'poster boy' Narendra
Modi. Chances are that if the interim reports of
the IG(CID) becomes public or CBI or any other
investigation into the case is taken up at the
federal level, then it would become further
impossible for it to defend Modi.
They understand it very well that if
investigations proceed in this fake killings
case, it would be incumbent upon the agency to
have a look at similar encounters in the state
which happened in recent past, to look for any
'method in this madness'.It will have to unravel
the mystery where similar sounding post-facto
justifications for the killings were peddled and
pliant media was further used to add to the aura
of Narendra Modi or his other buddies.
Another important aspect of this investigation
would be revisiting all those cases where people
were apprehended on the suspicion that they were
plotting to finish any of those Hindutva bigwigs
and put behind bars under any of those draconian
laws which are there in the kitty of the
government. The recent acquittal of four innocent
persons who had to languish in jail for around
four years on similar trumped up charges is a
case in point.
The BJP has suddenly discovered that the concern
expressed by justice loving people over the
encounter killing of an innocent citizen is
'glorifying criminals'.They have dished out n
number of charges filed against the people who
were killed which were filed supposedly in
different police stations in the two states. But
in their overenthusiasm to save their skin, they
forgot the basic constitutional premise which has
devised mechanisms to deal with criminals in a
legitimate manner. And it was not surprising that
when cornered by the media, whether it believes
in the rule of law, it was found fumbling for
words.
It has also taken a position that fake killings
are a norm everywhere in today's times where the
justice delivery mechanisms are already cracking
under its own weight. They are thus of a
considered opinion that it is not proper that
Gujarat or for that matter Rajasthan should be
singled out for that.
Following the old dictum that offence is the best
defence, they have rediscovered that other
parties are soft towards terrorism and BJP is the
only party which is supposedly playing a no
nonsense battle against terrorism.There was a
news in a section of the media that after lying
low for some time Mr Narendra Modi is planning to
go on the offensive on this issue. It is learnt
that he has asked his colleagues to make a plan
where the killing of Sohrabuddin could be
projected as the Saffron Party's resolute battle
against terrorism. It wants to project that
Congress as well as left as supporters of
criminals/terrorists. The only lacunae in this
whole plan is the killing of Kausarbi as well as
Tulsiram Prajapati, a backward caste Hindu.
IV
One hopes that further details would come out in
the ensuing investigations and we would get to
know the real culprits in the whole case. But the
moot question is that can the fake encounter
killings could be reduced to the depradations of
few officers who were out to make some fast buck
or gain greater proximity to their political
masters or one should look for the larger
gameplan hatched by the powers that be which made
such killings inevitable.
Perhaps one should look at the three year old
plan made by the Gujarat goverment supposedly to
'counter terrorists'.
It sounds surprising that the 'revealations about
the counter terrorism plan of the Gujarat police’
(The Rediff Special, Sheela Bhatt in Ahmedabad,
How Gujarat plans to counter terrorists, July 15,
2004) which sent shivers down the spine of the
religious minorities in the state especially the
Muslims then which were yet to recover from the
trauma and tribulations of the post Godhra
carnage could not become a matter of debate at
the national level then also.
The implicit understanding (as per the Gujarat
government) behind this plan was that the ‘state
has become a haven for terrorists’ ( read Islamic
terrorists)’. In an interview to the same emag
the additional CP of Ahmedabad Mr Vanzara had
hammered this point home in no uncertain terms
plainly stating that ..After the Godhra carnage
and the subsequent riots terrorists of a variety
of types and shapes are aiming at Gujarat.
Gujarat has become the destination for
terrorists.(The Rediff Interview July 27,2004) .
As a precursor to this plan a detailed survey of
the number of mosques, madrasas at the state
level was done and the various Islamic
organisations active inside the state and their
alleged linkages with other
national-international organisations was also
noted. As per the plan every policeperson from
the constable level upwards was instructed to
keep a close watch on the situation at the ground
level. S/He was also asked to keep tabs on
meetings at masjids and the goings on in the
Madrasas. Activities of the Tablighi Jamaat were
to be keenly watched under this plan.
It is clear to even a layperson that the neatly
designed ‘counter terrorism plan’ of the Gujarat
government at the behest of the state government
stigmatised the whole minority community in
uncertain terms. The most ironic part was that it
did not even bother to mention the extremist
elements within the Hindu community at whose
behest the postGodhra pogrom of the minorities
mainly Muslims was undertaken. And the need to
keep a close watch on the controversial
activities of the plethora of organisations of
the Hindutva Brigade and its leaders was thus
skillfully scuttled. The action plan conveniently
missed the warning by the intelligence people
which has clearly asked to rein in Hindutva
fanatics. To quote : 'intelligence bureau people
overseeing the national scene had warned the
central government to rein in elements like
Praveen Togadia and Ashok Singhal if it was keen
to nip the fresh sources for terrorist activities
in the bud.' (Jansatta, Hindi Daily, 5 th Sep,
2003, Delhi, ‘Intelligence bureau warns the
government about Togadia and Singhal )
According to the top bosses of the Gujarat police
the plan had traced its origins to the murder of
former state home minister and senior Bharatiya
Janata Party leader Haren Pandya. It is still
being said that the murder of Mr Haren Pandya
opened up the eyes of the state government that
the state has become a breeding ground for
terrorists belonging to organisations like the
Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba and
Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Ofcourse it is another matter that till date Mr
Vithalbhai Pandya, father of Mr Haren Pandya has
consistently maintained that his son’s murder was
politically motivated and has pointed his fingers
at the higher ups in the state BJP for their
complicity in the same. As a mark of protest
against the state government’s reticence to
investigate his charges, in the elections to the
parliament in 2004 he even contested as an
independent candidate against Mr L.K.Advani.
Looking at the track record of the state
government in pursuing matters of governance and
the way its whole apparatus unfolded itself in a
partisan manner during the 2002 pogrom , the
‘counter terrorism plan’ did not sound surprising.
It is a fact that the trauma of the minorities
has not ended with the pogrom only. The way they
were subjected to all round harassment right from
relief distribution to apprehending the guilty is
for everyone to see. Till date a significant
section of the Muslim population in the state is
facing economic boycott. Also the way the highly
draconian POTA was misused and innocent persons
were victimised in the state in post pogrom times
is a fact which has also been well documented. A
report filed by the AFP ( New Delhi, Sep 03) had
said that our of the 240 booked under POTA which
carries a death penalty 239 were Muslims and one
was a Sikh. While muslims had been booked for
three different attacks on Hindus, including the
burning of Sabaramati Express at Godhra last
year, the attack on Ahmedabad’s Akshardham temple
and the murder of former minister Haren Pandya,
it was clear that despite the participation of
thousands of Hindus in the pogrom none of the
cases were found to be a fit enough for clamping
POTA against him/her.
It need be added that this ‘counter terrorism
plan of the state police’ had come as a sequel to
the amended Gujarat Control of Organised Crime
Bill (GUJCOC), which was passed by the Gujarat
assembly in the beginning of June ’04. The Bill
had almost all the provisions of POTA, including
the authority to hold the accused in jail without
trial and provisions giving jurisdiction only to
special courts to try the cases under the Act.
It would be naivette to think that the said
action plan which is partisan in nature and
communal in content would have seen the light of
the day without the directions from the top
bosses of the Parivar. Ofcourse the rationale
behind the plan was not difficult to decipher.
V.
Even a cursory glance at the action plan - which
largely went unnoticed in the rest of the country
- makes it clear that it has provided a free hand
to the law and order people in the state to
continuously harass minorities as part of their
'mission' of countering terrorism. The next step
then becomes catching hold of innocent people
belonging to the minority community at regular
intervals and bumping them offf supposedly to
provide a post facto justification of the
'success of the action plan'.
Isharat Jahan, Sami Ali Pathan or Soharabuddin
Sheikh and many of their ilk - independent
citizens of a secular nation, then merely become
'trophies' which are displayed from time to time
to convince the pliant masses the danger such
'other' people present to the tranquility of the
state.
There is no doubt that the likes of Vanjara and
all his associates in the encounter killing who
have committed crime against humanity be given
exemplary punishment but simultaneously we should
enhance our efforts so that the real culprits in
this game are not allowed to go scot free. People
who have been peddling agenda of hate for the
last eighty plus years, people who have no qualms
in presenting the Gujarat genocide 2002 as
'successful experiment', people who promote such
'Dirty Harrys' to do the 'needful'.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), 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/
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