Two things need to be said about the serial blasts that took place, first in Jaipur on May 13, then in Bangalore on July 25 and then in Ahmedabad on July 26 followed by explosions of 27 bombs in Surat on July 28. In Jaipur, nine bombs were exploded; in Ahmedabad, 21. Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad happen to be capitals of states ruled by the BJP. The coincidence is too apparent to be ignored. Who was responsible for the strikes? An organisation called the Indian Mujahideen (I.M.) has reportedly claimed responsibility for the crime.
The reason given is revenge for the so-called ?pogrom? following the Godhra riots in February 2002. What happened in Gujarat was no ?pogrom? whatever our secularists, might say. The word is more applicable to the riots in Delhi that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi, when over 2,000 Sikhs were killed and hardly any Hindu. Our leaders should be careful in using words. The terrorists have been biding behind the secularists in saying they are taking their revenge against Gujarat for what happened in 2002, But how long are they going to use the Godhra riots as an excuse to indulge in continued terrorism? One year? Five years? Ten? Fifty?
Later in May 2002, five bombs went off on buses in Ahmedabad injuring 26 people. It was the first act of violence by Gujarat-based jihadists. Thirteen months later, they shot former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya. One would have imagined that that would have seen the end of revenge killing. But no. In June 2004, the Lashkar-e-Toiba dispatched two Pakistani nationals from Jammu and Kashmir to execute a fidayeen attack on Gujarat. In February 2006, the Maharashtra-based Students Islamic Movement of India(SIMI) planted a sophisticated suitcase bomb, built by an expert, Zulfikar Fayyaz Kagzi, on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Express train. What mindless hatred is behind this all? The answer has been given by Parveen Swami, a correspondent of The Hindu (August 1, 2008) in a damning article. Identified is a man called Maulana Sufiyan Patangia, who is allegedly running Lal Masjid, a Muslim seminary in Ahmedabad'sKaulpur area.
On the pretext of ?defending? his community, Patangia is known to have raised Rs 3,75,000 from one Abdul Bari, a top financier of the Lashkar and Rs 5 lakh from two Saudi-based Jaish-e-Mohammad financiers, Farhatullah Ghauri and Abdul Rehman. According to Swami, Patangia has also been in close touch with a top Gujarat mafioso, Abdul Latif Sheikh and the Pakistan-based Dawood Ibrahim. Names are named. There is no confusion here. Praveen Swami has identified the Indian Mujahideen as a Lashkar-SIMI front organisation which had taken responsibility for the earlier bombing in Rajasthan. The I.M. has put out a manifesto to explain its ideology. According to the manifesto, as revealed by Praveen Swami, the I.M. is ?raising the illustrious banner of Jihad against the Hindus and all those who fight and resist us, and have begun our revenge with the help and Permission of Allah?a terrifying revenge of our blood, our lives and our honour that will, Insha Allah, terminate your (Hindu) survival on this land?.
One might laugh this away, but the I.M. is serious. Its manifesto calls on Hindus ? to realise that the falsehood of your 33 crore dirty and idols and the blasphemy of your deaf, dumb, mute and naked idols of Ram, Krishna and Hanuman (words spelt in lower case) are not all going to save your necks from being slaughtered by our hands?. Additionally, the manifesto demands that Hindus change their attitudes lest ?another Ghauri shakes your foundations and lest another Ghaznavi massacre you, proving your blood to be the cheapest of all mankind?. And there is more of this kind. What is one to make out of all this? Should one dismiss it as the outpourings of a deranged mind, that are best ignored?
It is now being increasingly clear that behind organisations like the SIMI, The LeT and the Indian Mujahideen is Pakistan'sInter Services Intelligence (ISI) whose aim has often been spelled out as destroying India by a thousand cuts. What comes as a surprise is that Muslim youth in India is steadily getting estranged from mainstream society and the excuse given is that this is due to rising unemployment among Muslims and feeling of alienation. Instead of Pakistan-based terrorists, India has now to deal with native jihadists who are regularly spearheading murderous attacks. Unemployment is not a strictly Muslim phenomenon. It is universal and if there is a higher proportion of Muslims in this category, it is a matter for the community to ask how this has come about and how it can be assuaged. Surely, to every problem there is a workable answer? And it is not jihadism? How does killing innocent people in markets, hospitals and crowded streets help Muslims to live better lives?
If revenge is the only thing they have in mind, then it is time for our leading intellectual liberals and secularists to give the matter some fresh thought. The more relevant point to note here is the role of Pakistan'sunrestrained ISI which seems to have a derailed mind and has been supporting terrorism everywhere. American intelligence sources have identified the ISI as part of the terrorist network that sought to bomb the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Pakistan Prime Minister Gilani'sprotests not withstanding. How long is Pakistan going to compromise itself vis-?-vis the United States?
Even more importantly, when will Pakisatn on the one side, and jihadists right here in India come to accept that the era of the Khiljis, Ghoris, Ghaznavis and other barbarians has long been dead and cannot be resurrected? The United States apparently is now slowly coming to accept the fact that Pakistan can no longer be trusted as an ally in the US-led war on terrorism. This may be the beginning of a new era that could isolate Pakistan from the rest of the world. Can China replace the United States in toto in the years to come? Will the United States turn a blind eye to the accumulation of nuclear weapons in Pakistan or will it, in due course, put its one time favourite on par with Iran to be treated as a pariah and, what is more, to be punished?
It is too early to predict. If the United States really takes to its head that the ISI has to be sternly dealt with, then we may well look forward to a slow demise of its subordinate organisations like the Let, the JeM and SIMI. But surely the time has come for Pakistan, its Army, its official murderer to come to terms with history. This is 2008; not 1001 nor even 1526. The world has moved and so has India . And the jihadists had better come to terms with political reality. The tragedy is that, for Islamists, Time has stood still. Their mind-set has not changed and sadly they live in another world. A pity.
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