It is wrong to use term 'Hindu terrorists': BJP

‘Hindu terrorism’ leaves BJP sore

Rajesh Sinha

Friday, October 24, 2008  17:35 IST

Yahswant objects to linking terror & religion

NEW DELHI: Unsettled by reports alleging the involvement of some Hindu outfits in terror attacks, the BJP has modified its response on the issue.

While the party initially denied any involvement and said that this was a conspiracy to defame “nationalist” organisations, on Friday, BJP vice-president Yashwant Sinha took a more liberal approach and said terrorism is terrorism and it is wrong to link terror with any religion.

Sinha said it was wrong to use the term “Hindu terrorists” for the alleged extremists arrested on charges of being involved in the Malegaon blasts. “Some sections are trying to malign the majority community. BJP has objections with the term Hindu terrorists, which is wrong. Nobody is saying that the law must not take its course. No one can say that. A terrorist is a terrorist irrespective of his caste or religion,” Sinha said at a press meet here on Friday.  more 

Malegaon blas:Rashtriya Jagran Manch memebrs under custody

Front Page    
The Hindu October 25, 2008
Malegaon blast; three remanded to custody

Rahi Gaikwad

Booked under sections of the Explosives Act

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Accused reportedly started Rashtriya Jagran Manch

The police recovered some mobile phones

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MUMBAI: The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested three persons on Thursday in connection with the Malegaon blast of September 29, ATS chief Hemant Karkare told journalists here on Friday.

The accused have been identified as Pragnya Singh Chandrapal Singh, 38, Shiv Narayan Gopal Singh Kalsanghra, 36, and Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu, 42. They were produced before the Nashik Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court, which remanded them to police custody till November 3.

The motorcycle used in the blast belonged to Pragnya. “All efforts were taken to hide the ownership of the vehicle. The registration number was bogus and they tried to efface the engine and the chassis numbers.”

Pragnya is a sadhvi, who took ‘sanyas’ in 2007, after which she took on the alias Poorna Chetananandgiri. Originally from Madhya Pradesh, she shifted to Surat with her family a few years ago. However, she had no fixed location. Since she had chosen the religious path, she toured various places doing bhraman. She founded the Jai Vande Mataram Jan Kalyan Samiti in 2002. Investigators have recovered pamphlets of this organisation.

Mr. Karkare said the accused reportedly started the Rashtriya Jagran Manch. The police are probing the links of the Samiti and the Manch to Hindu religious organisations.  

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Hindu outfit behind Malegaon blast?

IANS

Thursday, October 23, 2008  21:48 IST

MUMBAI: The Hindu Jagran Manch, a Hindu group, is suspected to be involved in the Sep 29 bomb blast in the communally sensitive Maharashtra town of Malegaon, sources in the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) said on Thursday.

While ATS officers were not willing to comment on record, sources close to investigation said the motorcycle in which the bomb was kept belonged to a man named Padma Singh, who has taken the name of Sadhvi Purna Chetananand and is working for a spiritual organisation in Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

Padma Singh earlier used to be an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), and is presently associated with the Hindu Jagran Manch, an outfit of Sanatan Sabha, an obscure organisation based in Panvel near Mumbai.

The Sanatan Sabha was allegedly involved in three low-intensity bomb blasts in Thane, Vashi and Panvel near Mumbai earlier this year and the ATS is all set to file a charge sheet against its key members in the blasts, the sources added.

While ABVP’s state unit general secretary Shrirang Kulkarni, Sanatan Sabha spokesperson Abhay Vartak and BJP state unit president Nitin Gadkari were quick to deny the "mischievous and highly motivated allegations", state ATS chief Hemant Karkare was not available for comment. source

Bajrang Dal Convenor, Prakash Sharma, is all venom and fire in an interview with SHOBHITA NAITHANI

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 42, Dated Oct 25, 2008

CURRENT AFFAIRS   in cold blood

‘What is more dangerous, AK-47 or trishul?’

An unrepentant Bajrang Dal Convenor, Prakash Sharma, is all venom and fire in an interview with SHOBHITA NAITHANI

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Bajrang Dal and Taliban: Two sides of the same coin

British good Samaritan shot dead by Taliban in Afghanistan for being Christian

By OLINKA KOSTER and JEROME STARKEY in Mail Online
Last updated at 1:55 AM on 21st October 2008

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Gunned down: Gayle Williams, who was shot dead in Kabul, Afghanistan

A British woman who was working to better the lives of disabled children in Afghanistan has been shot dead by Taliban gunmen because she was working for a Christian organisation.

Gayle Williams, 34, was walking to work in Kabul when she was gunned down by two men on a motorbike.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, saying its leaders had ordered the murder of Miss Williams because she was spreading the Christian message.

But the British-registered charity she worked for, SERVE Afghanistan, said this was a ' convenient excuse' for a 'completely opportunistic' killing.

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D N Murthy general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Bajrangdal violence

The Rediff Interview/D N Murthy, VHP general secretary'Calling Bajrang Dal's action as terrorism is utter nonsense'

You call the incidents in Karnataka as violence. A few glass panes were broken and you call that terrorism. In Karnataka not a single person was injured. What are these people talking about? It is ridiculous. Glass panes of cinema theatres are broken due to certain disputes. Can you call this terrorism? Did the Union government react in this manner? The people are just protesting against those indulging in forcible conversion. That is all.
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Bajrang Dal and terrorism?  Whoever says this has no common sense. There are so many terror attacks in the country in which so many innocent lives have been lost. The security agencies are unable to nab the real culprits who always manage to give the slip. As I said earlier, in Karnataka not a single person was injured and you call the Bajrang Dal's actions as terrorism. It is utter nonsense.

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Yes, the loyalties do shift. But I would also like to add that everyone has a right to practice a religion. But nobody has the right to convert. If a conversion is based on an ideological acceptance of a new way of life, it is fine. But conversions in large numbers or mass conversions are deplorable. I can understand when an educated man converts. He can think and decide for himself what each religion has to offer. Why are missionaries targeting slum-dwellers and tribals? What can these people understand 


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Fourth World War against terrorism by pursuing truth and justice

LifeLine: faith and Spirituality

State terrorism defende d: NHRC report on Salwa Judum, State militia of Chattisgarh

Statesman , October 10, 2008
edits Flawed report NHRC defends Salwa Judum in complete turnaround The report presented to the Supreme Court by a fact-finding team of the National Human Rights Commission exculpating the Salwa Judum is an extraordinary document. It is extraordinary not least because of the context. Just over a fortnight ago this team had submitted a report to the court and indicted this state-run militia formed ostensibly to counter the Naxals who operate in Chhattisgarh. Now it has done a volte-face virtually telling the court that the Salwa Judum is blameless, that it is indeed necessary and that the militia helps to protect tribals who are oppressed by the Naxals. What do we make of this? One will never be sure, of course, of what has transpired behind the scenes to bring about this astounding turnaround ~ but it inspires little faith in agencies that are connected to the state. Every independent observer who has gone to Chhattisgarh (with the possible exception of those patronised by the state) has had harsh words to say about the Salwa Judum. No less than the Naxals they are responsible for unleashing violence on the tribals, displacing them and pushing state agendas. Important among this, as the media has often reported, is to open up territory rich in forests and minerals for subsequent exploitation by rogue entrepreneurs. It is common knowledge that the Salwa Judum routinely and forcibly recruits child warriors ~ in the manner that they are pressed into war in failed states like the Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Even a team set up by the Planning Commission and led by the respected bureaucrat and land reform expert, Mr Debabrata Bandopadhyay, had posted a severe indictment of the Salwa Judum and recommended that it be wound up. Alongside, this exculpation of a patently illegal militia, comes a severe indictment of the Naxals, at whose door is laid the entire burden of blame of unleashing violence on the tribals of the region, with no recognition of the fact that the Maoists in Chhattisgarh enjoy wide backing of the tribals. This is not meant to be a defence of the methods used by the Maoists, but a recognition of the realities on the ground. It is only in passing ~ in the last paragraph ~ that the report mentions the socio-economic deprivation that has resulted in the ultra-Left phenomenon. One hopes the courts will reject these findings.  Read

Terrorists do not belong to a particular community: Sonia

The Hindu, Oct 08, 2008 
Terrorists do not belong to a particular community: Sonia

Nanded (PTI): Expressing concern over increasing acts of terror in the country, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday called for a united effort to fight the menace and urged the Opposition not to target a particular community for vested interests.

Addressing a public rally in the Guru Gobind Singh stadium here, Sonia said terrorists do not belong to a particular community or religion. "If we unitedly fight against terrorism, it will help in the development of the nation," she said.

Terrorism is a big problem being faced by the country today and everyone should fight it unitedly, Sonia said.

Describing the Indo-US nuclear deal as "historic", Sonia said the agreement will benefit the country.

She also said that the UPA government has given a loan waiver of Rs 76,000 crore for farmers.

About Guru Gobind Singh, she said that the guru sacrificed his life for the well-being of the people.

The guru was born in Bihar, served in Punjab, wrote the Granth in Himachal Pradesh and came to Nanded via Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Sonia said. The UPA government has given Rs 2,000 crores for 'gur-ta-gaddi' celebrations, she said.  more 

The Fountainhead by K.P.S. GILL

OPINION Outlook.com Oct03, 2008

The Fountainhead

The Muslims do not have to, and should never be asked to, prove their loyalty and good faith any more than any other citizen of India. It is a communal trap that feeds the community's sense of siege, marginalisation and alienation. What we are experiencing is not 'Islamic' or 'Islamist' but, quite simply, ISI terrorism.  more

Terror rationale

The Hindu October 7, 2008 open page

The many faces and mutations of terror

T. S. JAISOORYA

The psychological and sociological dynamics of terrorist groups and individuals

Even while there is an increasing attempt to fund and focus research on terror networks, terrorism has mutated indescribably so often that experts are often bewildered at the speed, dexterity and innovativeness that characterise many of their actions. The most striking is the changed global profile of a terrorist who is more likely to be the highly skilled technocratic-happy, well-adjusted, productive, successful and contented looking boy or girl next door rather than angr y, cantankerous, poorly educated poverty stricken man on the street.

This integration of terror networks into our neighbouring streets has often left the security apparatus with very little avenue to either identify or discern their intentions. This has led to increasing concern about the emergence of amorphous and largely unknown terrorist individuals and groups operating independently with many of them actively recruiting suicide bombers, female and child terrorists.

Terror rationale

The lack of any concrete finding on known psychological tests could also indicate that we have possibly not been able to determine any difference with our current psychological measures. Terrorists thus as per our current understanding do not demonstrate any unique set of qualities, and are not discernibly different, in psychological terms, or in terms of unique biographical histories, from those who reject terrorism.  more 

Terrrorism: RAMAN'S STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

11. There is no universally accepted definition of terrorism and what is a terrorist organization, but most definitions in common currency accept that there are some important components of terrorism--- repeated attacks of a pre-meditated nature on innocent civilians and their property to achieve an objective, which may be political, economic, social or religious. Spontaneous and isolated attacks in the heat of the moment, which are not repeated in an orchestrated manner, are crimes not amounting to terrorism.  

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