ALI SUKHANVER

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-ItƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s not Muslims, but Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists who planned and executed the bomb blasts at Malegaon in 2006, on the Samjhauta Express in 2007, in Ajmer Sharif in 2007 and Mecca Masjid in 2007,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ confessed Swami Aseemanand, the main accused of 2007 Samjhauta Express blast in front of a magistrate at a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court. Aseemanand said it was his interaction with one of the ‘innocent’ Muslim youths in jail that has led to his confession. The weekly Tehelka magazine has recently published a 42-page signed statement of Swami Aseemanand, written in Hindi. The Swami admitted in the statement that it was his conscience which compelled him to make this confession.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Malegaon bombings took place on 8 September 2006 in Malegaon which killed at least 37 people and injured over 125. The Samjhauta Express bombings took place on 18 February 2007 on the twice-weekly train service connecting Delhi and Lahore, it took the lives of 68 people most of them were Pakistanis. The blast in the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer in October 2007 had claimed three lives and injured several others. The Mecca Masjid blast in May 18, 2007 killed nine people. In this way the total goes to 117 casualties. How astonishing is the fact that from September 2006 to May 2007, in a short period of nine months, Hindu extremists took the lives of 117 people and the Indian investigation agencies had been trying to fix and frame Pakistan and the ISI and various Muslim organizations in all these cases. Pakistan must be thankful to Swami Aseemanand for this revelation. He has opened new avenues of possible exposures regarding the Mumbai Attacks.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The confession of Swami Aseemanand must be a blob of shame and embarrassment on the face of Indian intelligence and investigation agencies. The government of India is spending lavishly on these agencies in the name of defence and security of the Indian people but these agencies are so dim-witted and brainless that they could never trace the perpetrators of all these heinous terrorist activities even after a long period of four years. During all this period they had been wasting all their efforts on dragging Pakistan and the ISI into a baseless blame game.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ One could very easily smell the Hindutva Philosophy behind all these carefully planned and cleverly designed terrorist activities. Swami Aseemanand is simply one example; there would be countless people like Swami Aseemanand who are trying their utmost to create misunderstandings between the Hindus and the Muslims in India in the name of Hindutva Philosophy. Hindutva is a term coined by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in his 1923 pamphlet entitled, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ This philosophy urges the Hindus to get united for crushing the Non-Hindus and the Hindus mean those who are Hindu by belief not by land. It is the Hindutva philosophy which gave birth to the organizations such as the RSS, Bharatiya Janata Party, Bajrang Dal, and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Thousands of Muslims have been brutally slaughtered under the veil of this philosophy.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Most of the affairs of the country in India are run by particular groups of extremist Hindus who are strictly following the Hindutva Philosophy. These extremist groups are all time supporting and financing the culprit organizations which support the Hindutva philosophy. They are always trying to shelter the Hindutva terrorists. The horrible Samjhota Express incident provides a very strong proof in this regard. According to the reports, National Investigation Agency of India (NIA) has also confirmed the nexus between Hindu terrorists and Indian MI officers. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members, political bigwigs and retired and serving army officers, all seemed part of the conspiracy and had set up Abhinav Bharat to infiltrate and subvert every institution in the county. Abhinav Bharat is a Hindu nationalist organization based mainly in Maharashtra in India. This Hindu nationalist organization gained prominence when its members were arrested for allegedly perpetrating the Malegaon bombing. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ National Investigation Agency of India has recovered some tapes from the RSS accused. According to these tapes, more than eight army officers are directly involved in the Samjhota Express blasts. At least four of them have intelligence background; two are serving Brigadiers, three Colonels and two Majors. Of all these army officers, only one colonel is under investigation and NIA is yet to initiate investigations against the rest. Although the NIA has done no doubt a great job with reference to the Samjhota Express blasts yet there are still so many things to betaken care of.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The democratic people of India are now looking towards the NIA for the resolution of the Mumbai Attacks Mystery. They are sure that the matter would be investigated thoroughly and the culprits would be penalized. The NIA would not have to waste much of its time in solving the Mumbai Attacks Mystery because the investigations regarding the Samjhota Express blasts have provided it with all required clues and links.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Hope is the only thing which keeps the wheel of life revolving .Pakistan must be hopeful as well as confident that some day in near future some other Swami would come to the surface and confess his involvement in the horrible Mumbai massacre. After that expected confession Pakistan would be very much true in demanding for the culprits involved in the Mumbai massacre to be handed over to Pakistan because these blasts have caused a great loss and damage to the repute of Pakistan. For the time being, it is the high time for the government of Pakistan to demand for the culprits involved in the Samjhota Express blasts to be handed over to Pakistan because these blasts had taken the lives of more than 68 innocent Pakistanis.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The writer is a Pakistan based bilingual analyst on defence and strategic affairs.