Fabricating terror probe against RSS
S Gurumurthy
COUNTER PROBE
“RSS and BJP were behind the Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Malegaon blasts” declared the Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on January 20, 2012, adding that the training camps run by the RSS and BJP were promoting ‘Hindu terrorism’. A day after Shinde’s declaration, Hafiz Saeed, the leader of LeT, Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist outfit, asked for a ban on the RSS. So Shinde is the witness for LeT to accuse the RSS of terror. Now look at the evidence, first on the blast on Samjhauta Express from Pakistan in which 68 persons were killed.
LeT culprit, says UN, US
“Qasmani Arif chief coordinator of the relations of [LeT] with other organizations…has worked with Lashkar-e-Tayyiba to facilitate terrorist attacks including…..the bombing of February 2007 in the Samjhauta Express in Panipat (India).” This is what resolution [No 1267] of the Committee on Sanctions of the United Nations Security Council [UNSC] dated 29.6.2009 declares. Adding that Qasmani was funded by Dawood Ibrahim and he did fund raising for LeT and Al-Qaida, the UNSC said: “In exchange for their support, Al-Qaida provided support staff for the bombing in February 2007 in the Samjhauta Express in Panipat.” This resolution is available on UN site. Two days later, on July 1, 2009, the United States Treasury Department said in its press release:“Arif Qasmani has worked with LeT to facilitate terrorist attacks, including…Samjhauta Express bombing”. The US named four Pakistanis including Arif Qasmani as terrorists under Executive Order No 13224. This press release is still on US Treasury site. The United Nations Security Council and the US Treasury department thus named that LeT, Qasmani and Dawood Ibrahim as accused in Samjhauta terror. This is just beginning of the torrent of evidence pointing to LeT and Pakistan.
Pak minister’s confession
Six months after the UN and the US announced sanctions against LeT and Qasmani, the Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Mallik himself admitted that Pakistani terrorists were involved in the Samjhauta blast, but with a rider that “some Pakistan-based Islamists had been hired by Lt Col Purohit to carry out the Samjhauta Express attack.” [India Today Online 24.1.2010]
Headley involved in Samjhauta – US probe
Not just UN or US Treasury or just the admission of Pakistan’s interior minister, in fact, independent investigation in US revealed more. Some ten months later, Sebastian Rotella, a US journalist, wrote in his investigative report titled, “U.S. agencies were forewarned about suspect in 2008 Mumbai bombings” that Faiza Outalha, the third of wife of David Coleman Headley had confessed [in 2008, that was made public in 2010] that Headley was involved in Samjhauta blast. Rotella added that Faiza felt that “she had been innocently used” in the Samjhauta terror. [Washington Post 5.11.2010] A while later, in a follow up investigation Sebastian Rotella disclosed that in April 2008 Faiza returned to the embassy in Islamabad with the tip about the 2008 Mumbai blast when again she linked him to the Samjhauta blast. Rotella commented that though India and the United States blamed on Lashkar, US authorities have not implicated Headley in that still-unsolved attack, however.” [The Washington Post 14.11.2010] So independent, neutral probe in US also pointed to Pakistan and LeT in Samjhauta blast.
Narco test pointed to SIMI role
Even at the start of the Samjhauta investigation in 2007 itself the probe evidence had clearly pointed to the role of Students Islamic Movement of India [SIMI] and LeT. India Today [19.9.2008] in its report titled ‘Pak hand in Mumbai train blast’s, Samjhauta Express blasts, says Nagori gave meticulous account of the involvement of LeT and Pakistan in the Samjhauta terror. The report was based on narco test testimonies of SIMI leaders. India Today said that narcotic tests were carried out in Bangalore, in April 2007, three months after the Samjhauta blast, on the general secretary of SIMI, Safdar Nagori, his brother Kamruddin Nagori and Amil Parvez; the results of the narco test of the SIMI leaders were available with the magazine; it revealed that SIMI activists had executed the Samjhauta blast, with the help of the Pakistani nationals from across the border; while Nagori was not directly involved, two members of SIMI Ehtesham Siddiqui and Nasir were directly involved; SIMI members, including Nagori’s brother Kamaruddin, were involved in the Samjhatua blast; for executing the Samjhauta blast, Pakistanis had purchased suitcase cover at Kataria Market in Indore; and one of the members from SIMI has helped the Pakistanis to get the suitcase cover stitched. Investigation had established that in Samjhauta blast, five bombs packed in suitcases and activated by timer switches were used.
Conspiracy by Maharastra police?
Why were these clinching pieces of evidence not pursued? How the blame shifted from Islamists to Hindus? Some elements in the Maharashtra police appears to have colluded in linking Malegaon 2008 blast to the Samjhauta blast. When leads were thus pointing to Pakistan and SIMI as partners in Samjhauta blast, in November 2008, as an anti climax, the Maharashtra Anti Terror Squad [ATS] shockingly told the Special Court through the public prosecutor, that Col Purohit, allegedly involved in the Malegaon blast in which RDX was used, had supplied RDX for the Samjhauta blast though one ‘Bhagwan’. [The Indian Express 15.11.2008] within the next 48 hours [17.11.2009] India Today online refuted the ATS claim saying that Samjhauta investigators had told India Today that study of the blast carried out by the National Security Guard said that no RDX, but Pottasium Cholorate and Sulphur had been used as explosives. The magazine also recalled that immediately after the blasts, then Home Minister Shivraj Patil told the media that not RDX, but, a ‘new type of explosive’ had been used to bomb the Samjhauta Express. On that very day [17.11.2009] the ATS counsel retracted from the statement he had made earlier involving Col Purohit in the Samjhauta blast. [The Hindu dt19.11.2008]. But damage was done in the 48 hours. Immediately Pakistan said that it would raise the issue of Purohit’s involvement in Samjhauta in the Secretaries level meeting on November 25, 2008. Finally on January 20, 2009, Maharastra ATS officially denied that Col Purohit had supplied RDX for Samjhauta. This was how the Samjhauta focus – later the blame – shifted from LeT and SIMI to Purohit and via Purohit on to saffron.
The Maharashtra ATS attempt to link Malegaon 2008 to Samjhauta which shifted the focus away from LeT on to Purohit needs to be probed, particularly given Dawood Ibrahim’s deep influence in Maharastra Police.
If Shinde is telling the truth, then United Nations Security Council and the US Treasury Department are fabricating charges against Qasmani, Dawood and LeT; Faiza Outallah and Washington Post are telling lies to fix LeT and Pakistan; the SIMI officials’ narco evidence is fabricated; and Rehman Mallik’s confession about Pakistani involvement is false. Can it be more ridiculous? It is clearly the lies of Shinde, the vote-bank politician versus all neutral evidence. If this was how the Samjhauta probe was perverted, in Malegaon 2006 blast the Maharashtra ATS has filed a charge sheet where SIMI cadre has confessed to their role in the blast. But the CBI is procuring confessions to exonerate them and implicate others, Hindus in the case. So Malegaon 2006, is becoming a case of confession vs confession! In Malegaon 2008, blasts Col Purohit and his associates have been charged and the evidence produced to the Court shows that the accused in the Malegaon 2008 case were planning to assassinate the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Indresh Kumar for taking money from ISI! [Outlook 19.7.2010] How could the RSS which is the target of the conspirator itself be a conspirator? Does Shinde know what he is talking?
QED: Shinde now has a good companion in his mission against the RSS in Hafeez Saeed, boss of the global terror outfit LeT. Can a Home Minister tell more deadly lies against his own country’s interests, all for just a few million votes?
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