Hoping, Without Hope

#129 by omar_r_quraishi

[harish ji -- try something better than that to deflect the fact that your`s has been royally taken]

Hilarious! Omar mian, it is like a whore pointing out that someone has just lost her virginity.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

nahee shri pandit arjun jee -- but looks like india got lots of problems of its own hain na shir pandit arjun ji -- harish ji -- try something better than that to deflect the fact that your`s has been royally taken -- this one`s for you too harish ji

the writer is javed naqvi, syed ali naqvi`s bro -- doesnt really matter who the writer is since the story speaks for itself


Indian admits to fake Siachen action


By Our Correspondent

NEW DELHI, June 7: An Indian soldier, who served in the Siachen Glacier, testified before an army court on Monday that he had demolished a fake ``enemy target`` at the behest of a senior officer in August last year and later posed in a video film as an enemy casualty.

The revelations came as India`s new government prepared to challenge former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee`s administration with evidence of serious lapses in the Kargil conflict of 1999, which he had claimed as a victory.

Rifleman Shyam Bahadur Thapa was quoted by Indian reports as saying that his company commander Major Surinder Singh made everybody involved in the operation swear before Lord Hanuman not to reveal the truth to anyone.

``Earlier on August 20 the officer called me and asked me if I could operate a video camera. When I said I did not know how to operate a camera, Major Singh taught me its operation,`` he was quoted as saying.

When the apparently fake encounter was being enacted, Major Singh, according to Rifleman Thapa, asked him to go near the rubble of the ``enemy target`` and lie there along the wall.

``He asked me to remove my jacket and cap before going to the demolished fake target and lie there. But when I started moving with my jacket and cap on, Major Singh abused me in foul language,`` Thapa said.

``I was also asked by Major Singh to report a technical snag in the first two shots and fire with a rocket launcher to demolish the fake target,`` he said. ``The drama was re-enacted on September 21,`` Thapa said.

Rifleman Shyam Bahadur Thapa is the fourth soldier to tell the court that army faked encounters in Siachen. Earlier JCO Phatte Bahadur Thapa, Havaldar Neer Bahadur Ale and Nayak Bhuwan Bahadur Thapa made similar admissions.

The court is recording summary evidence as a follow up to a Court of Inquiry which held Col K D Singh and Maj R Lamba responsible for administrative lapses and recommended disciplinary action against Maj Surinder Singh for making exaggerated claims about strikes on enemy targets, euphemism for Pakistani troops.

The new Congress party government was reported on Monday to be planning further revelations on another battlefield - the Kargil conflict. The government was quoted as suggesting that Mr Vajpayee`s government had unncessarily delayed ordering air strikes in the Kargil conflict to evict Pakistanis from the heights.

An Indian TV documentary meanwhile quoted a senior army officier as saying that a certain Kagil peak known as Point 5353 which he said belonged to India was still with Pakistan. The peak overlooked the strategic highway to Leh, in Ladakh. India, the officer said, had to include this issue in its talks with Pakistan.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

An Indian Snoop`s take on the Shamzai murder:

`` B Raman

Did the US kill Pak cleric?

June 08, 2004


On May 30, unidentified terrorists riding a motorbike shot Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, chief of the hardline Deobandi Binori madrassa in Karachi, one of his sons and a nephew as he was returning home, located just across the road from the madrassa.

Nearly 10 days later, the Karachi police and Pakistani intelligence agencies are still groping in the dark in their attempts to identify the killers and establish the motive for the assassination.

As normally happens in Pakistan after each such terrorist strike, there has been speculation in the media and amongst the public. Sections of the local media, including the prestigious Daily Times of Lahore, have projected it as a possible act of retaliation by Shia extremists for the suicide bombing of the Haideri Masjid by Sunni terrorists early last month, in which 18 Shias were killed. The investigation into that incident is reported to have established that the suicide bomber was a police constable, who was a member of the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Those who suspect Shia extremists belonging to the Sipah Mohammad to have been responsible for his assassination have projected the suicide bombing in the Ali Raza Imambargah in Karachi within 24 hours of Shamzai`s murder as an act of retaliation by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi for his murder. Over 20 Shias were killed in this incident.

However, many of Shamzai`s colleagues in the Binori madrassa have refrained from blaming Shia extremists for the assassination and condemned attempts to project it as the outcome of the growing Shia-Sunni divide in Pakistan in general and in Karachi in particular.

Beware the Maulana

They blame the US for the assassination and accuse the provincial administration of Sindh, in which the Muttahida Qaumi Movement now plays a predominant role, of acting as the stooge of the US and facilitating his murder by not providing him with effective security despite the fact that he was in receipt of increasing threats to his life since early this year.

Their suspicions are shared by some leaders and many of the cadre of the mainstream Islamic political parties such as Qazi Hussain Ahmed`s Jamaat-e-Islami, Maulana Fazlur Rahman`s Jamiat-ul-Ulema Islam, a splinter group of the JUI led by Maulana Samiul Haq etc which constitute the six-party religious coalition called the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.

In fact, in their First Information Report lodged with the local police after the assassination, office-bearers of the madrassa wanted to name Ishratul Ibad, the MQM governor of Sindh, as their principal suspect, but were persuaded by other religious leaders not to do so without evidence lest their action further spoil the atmosphere in Karachi and lead to acts of violence against the Mohajirs (migrants from India), whose interests the MQM represents.

Pakistan`s military dictator General Pervez Musharraf is a Mohajir and has been under attack by religious extremist elements since October 2002, for having rehabilitated the MQM and inducted its nominees into positions of power in
Karachi in return for its support for the government nominated by him in Islamabad and for his continuing as army chief in spite of his having crossed the age of superannuation. These elements accuse Musharraf and the MQM of acting in tandem in promoting US interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mufti Shamzai`s real age is not known. Some say he was 52, but others say he was actually 70. In Pakistan`s religious hierarchy, he occupied the second position after Mufti Rafiuddin Usmani, who is the chief Mufti of Pakistan. He was better known than Usmani in Pakistan and the Islamic world and had a much larger following in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Binori madrassa came to prominence in 1979 when the late Zia-ul Haq nominated its then chief and founder Maulana Yusuf Binori as chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology. After the Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan towards the end of 1979, Shamzai in association with other mullahs of Pakistan issued a fatwa calling for a jihad against the Soviet Union.

Mufti Shamzai was then the blue-eyed mullah of not only Pakistan`s Inter-Services Intelligence but also of the US Central Intelligence Agency and the Saudi intelligence and played an active role in the recruitment of Muslims from Pakistan and other Islamic countries and training them with the help of Pakistan`s military-intelligence establishment for waging a jihad against Soviet troops.

He became close to Zia, General Pervez Musharraf, General Mohammad Aziz, presently chairman, joint chiefs of staff committee, General Muzaffar Usmani (retired), former corps commander, Karachi, and vice-chief of the army staff, and three former jihadi chiefs of the ISI, namely, Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, Lieutenant General Javed Nasir and Lieutenant General Mahmood Ahmed.

During his career, he issued nearly 2,000 fatwas. In the 1970s and 1980s, his fatwas were mainly directed against the USSR, India and Israel. After Osama bin Laden formed his International Islamic Front in February 1998, his fatwas became increasingly directed against the US. After the US-led coalition started its so-called war against terrorism in Afghanistan in October 2001, he issued a fatwa calling upon the Muslims of the world to join the jihad against the US.

Shamzai was the mentor and godfather of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and its militant wing the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and the Jaish-e-Mohammad. He was designated patron-in-chief of the Jaish and was a member of the shura of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Maulana Fazlur Rahman`s Jamiat-ul-Ulema Islam.

Jaish-e-Mohammad adopts new name

Shamzai, who strongly backed Musharraf`s seizure of power in October 1999, became increasingly critical of him after the general decided to cooperate with the US in its operations against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. He and his followers helped the leaders of the Taliban, including Mullah Omar, to escape from Afghanistan into Pakistan and take sanctuary there.

It was reported in 2002 that during the US operations against Al Qaeda in Tora Bora, Shamzai`s followers evacuated bin Laden, who had sustained a sharpnel injury, to the Binori complex in Karachi where he was treated till August 2002, by serving and retired medical doctors of the Pakistan army. He later left the madrassa.

Post-9/11, Shamzai promoted the formation of a clandestine organisation called Brigade 313 (the number of warriors in the battle of Badr at the time of the Holy Prophet) to wage jihad against Western nationals and interests and Christians in Pakistani territory. It consisted of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the Jaish, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

All the members of this brigade are also members of the International Islamic Front. At his instance, members of this brigade infiltrated into Iraq to join the jihad against the US troops there.

Shamzai was the principal exponent of international Islamism which holds, firstly, that the loyalty of a Muslim is first to his religion and then only to the country of which he is resident or a citizen; secondly, that Muslims do not recognise national frontiers and hence have the right and the obligation to wage jihad anywhere to protect their religion; and, thirdly, that the Muslims have the right and the religious obligation to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction to protect their religion, if necessary.

These ideas strongly influenced bin Laden. Since the beginning of this year, there have been reports of differences in Al Qaeda and the International Islamic Front over targeting the Saudi ruling family and its administration by certain sections of these outfits. Shamzai, who had close contacts with the Saudi ruling family and religious clerics and received large funds from them, was reportedly increasingly critical of the Al Qaeda leadership for allegedly weakening the jihad against the US and Israel by targeting the Saudi authorities and thereby losing their support for international jihad. Al Qaeda elements were accusing him of letting himself be bought by the Saudi authorities and supporting the pro-US apostate regimes of the Islamic world.

Did these differences have anything to do with his assassination? If so, did Al Qaeda or the International Islamic Front have any role in his assassination? These questions remain without definitive answers for the moment.

America`s war on terror: complete coverage










B Raman

Looks like our good friend Omar is going berserk on Bihar. He posted it on another board too. Sure, we have problems there, but they are just a fraction of what you face back home in Pakistan. So just chill man.

#124-arjun_m

I agree with arjun. Trying to highlight the atrocities done on Muslim Indians will not make the killings of Shia Muslims in Pakistan finish or go away.
You have a point Omar, but right now, I think we should concentrate on what is going on in our country rather than what HAD happened in our neighbouring country. But then, this is a habit of us Pakistanis. Instead of fixing things at home, we start to compare our problems with those of our neighbour.
India doesn`t have a hand in the resignation of the ex-CM of Sindh. Or is there a comparison to make here as well?

Farheen Zehra

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

nikki no man -- i rather stay here and deal with the likes of you -- ankit man you havings some kind of fit -- just saw OM loudly and breathe in -- you will be fine ankle, sorry ankit jee -- jay ram jee kee ankit jee

arjun bhai yeh bhee purh lain jee -- BBC ka hai -- hopes it objective enuff for u -- ankit ji aap bhi - nikki boy u too



Bihar overlooked by `Shining India`

Jill McGivering
BBC South Asia correspondent

Violence and political corruption are troubling India`s general election, which is again highlighting the vast disparity between a poor underclass and a rich elite.

Praveen is a stout, cheerful woman, braving the chaos of cycle rickshaws and wobbling bicycles with a determined smile.

As megaphones blare, she stops one passer by after another, trying to persuade them to sign a petition.

It is election time - but her evangelical zeal is not for a particular party or candidate but for democracy itself.

Praveen and her colleagues are taking their lives in their hands, and not just in the traffic.

We are in Patna, capital of the state of Bihar, the notorious bad boy of Indian politics.

It has a reputation for violent and corrupt politicians, election fraud and an electorate that has largely abandoned hope.


Politicians have even been accused of fuelling the violence as a way of keeping caste loyalties strong

As part of an independent monitoring body, Praveen is trying to take the politicians to task.
The only other woman in sight is an emaciated beggar, cradling a sick child.

Scruffy youths hang about aimlessly, leaning on each other`s shoulders, teeth stained red with betel nut.

Informed decision

In this election and for the first time, Praveen tells me, every candidate must declare key information.

Their wealth. Their debts. And, crucially here, lists of criminal charges against them.

So far, about one in five faces criminal proceedings. She wants the public - many of them illiterate - to make an informed decision.

But even she falters when I ask her if what happens in Bihar is really democracy.




Bihar is an example of India at its worst, a largely hidden shame

She throws her head back and laughs. Finally saying: ``It`s democracy gone wrong.``
It is easy to understand why many here despair. Bihar is one of India`s poorest states, desperate for development.

Its villages have few schools and clinics, and terrible roads.

It is also deeply scarred by decades of caste conflict, an endless cycle of attacks and counter-attacks between Hindu communities.

They define themselves by the social and religious categories they assume at birth.

Politicians have even been accused of fuelling the violence as a way of keeping caste loyalties strong.

The campaign talk does not address these burning issues.

Many here, who bother to vote, will do so unthinkingly along caste lines.

We drove out along pot-holed tracks to a small village, scene of one of the latest caste murders.

Mistaken identity

Chando, a scrawny woman in her 50s, crouched on her haunches in the darkness of a mud-walled one room home, thick with flies.

Villagers pressed round to listen. She could barely speak for weeping, rubbing the heel of her hands back and forth across her face.

Her brother-in-law, she said, was shot dead a few weeks ago by a gang of upper caste men. A case of mistaken identity.

He was the sole breadwinner for two families. Would she vote in the election? She shook her head. What was the point?

On voting day, we saw short queues of government workers at some polling stations - but also groups of young men with sticks hanging around in the street.


The riot police were out in force but by the end of the day reports were coming in of intimidation by gangs, election violence, even deaths.
The new electronic voting machines just introduced are designed to stop fraud. But they even cannot do much about an entrenched culture of lawlessness.

Bihar is an example of India at its worst, a largely hidden shame.

Its poverty is worlds away from the modern face of India, the plush new shopping centres of the capital, Delhi.

Here, under spotless glass and chrome, the affluent middle classes stroll arm in arm, enjoying snacks and soft drinks, browsing the latest fashions and hi-tech gadgets.

Security guards on the doors keep out undesirable elements.

`India is Shining`

The middle classes, much emphasised nowadays, are really a tiny elite.

One in three Indians still does not get enough to eat.

But those middles classes are high profile and mostly solid supporters of the ruling party, the BJP.


The party`s feel good slogan, ``India is Shining`` was written with them in mind.

I meet a young couple, a dentist and a psychiatrist, strolling with their three year old son.

``Voting is very important``, the husband tells me, nodding sagely.

``It`s our duty. Democracy is of the people, by the people, for the people.``

I ask them if they think politicians get their priorities right when there`s still so much poverty? They look bemused.

``But the basic issues are being addressed``, they explain. ``India is shining.``

The husband pauses to think. ``Perhaps we need to emphasise family planning more,`` he says at last, ``because the poorer people are multiplying.``

By now their own son is getting fractious, clamouring for attention.

It will be a long time before he gets a vote, I say. What changes would they like to see by then?

We would definitely like more improvements, more development, they say.

``And more shopping centres like this,`` exclaims the wife, laughing, before they stroll off.

It is almost certain the India their son inherits will still have democracy.

It will also have many more air-conditioned shopping centres in its big cities.

No doubt he will spend many happy hours there. But will he ever, I wonder, visit the struggling state of Bihar?

And if he does, what changes, if any, would he find?

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 8 May, 2004 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.


Story from BBC NEWS:

114 by ZahraJ

Zahra,

Thanks! :-)

la haul wila kuwat

mullah omar ji ( peace be upon you sirji)

i am hoping the shia and sunni freedom fighters get the hooris they were promised by you maulana saheb..please dont cheat poor souls on that.

allah hafij sirji

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Arjun, when you are a very old man, your grandchildren can entertain you by trampling on a Pakistani flag, will probably add a few Years to your term.

You might wanna put this in your will

;)

kuch naheen hua uncle ji -- think your brain is going in a spin uncle ji -- no kidding arjun -- our newspaper has run excerpst of it three days in a row -- now wouldnt u call that surprising for a pro-establishment akhbar arjun ji ??

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

kya hua omar ji

AFP just reported about freedom fighters of karachi.

i wish to repeat one of my earliar posts here.

Sunni ``freedom fighters`` attacked shia ``freedom fighters`` in a mosque. In response shia ``freedom fighters`` went bersek and torched many buses and commercial establishments. It is still not known what kind of ``freedom fighters`` owned the property that was torched. However, situation was brought under control when the military ``freedom fighters`` arrived along with some fire fighters.``

Harish (Post # 92): I have been meaning to acknowledge this post, but I could not trace the post number. Finally, I found it :) Your underlying point is the main issue with many interactors on Chowk in general. It`s not one or the other. It brings up the sad reality that for South Asians accumulating degrees or being able to construct a few phrases in English ain`t enough. It will never make them absorb the depth that existed in their roots and to leverage that for their own well being. No doubt there is so much turbulence.

no arjun -- but thats prob what someone with a mind like yours would think -- hey why dont ya go ask graham staines family if they want to watch a video of their dad being burnt to death by a bajrang dal mob, arjun?


nikki beta -- plz dont forget the 2,000 sikhs killed in delhi alone in a couple of weeks in 1984 -- tra la whatever :)

wow -- the paki-bashers are biting here -- meoowwwwww -- u sorry ass losers .........

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

#82

Your point “shri rajesh ji -- what about the black days of gujarat -- what r u doing about that apart from venerating modi ji further -- leave karachi to us rajesh ji -- jai ram jee ki”

Respected Omarji

I appreciate your comments and leave Karachi to u. At the same time I do condemn violence in any form whether small or big. Two wrongs don’t make one right. My purpose of clarifying the author’s first sentence “Yesterday was a Black day” was not to score points or draw anything parallel about Karachi & Gujarat.

Rajesh – Mumbai

#89
Dear Farheen

I thank u for clarifying me. That’s all

Rajesh - Mumbai

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

#97 by omar_r_quraishi on June 3, 2004 11:41pm PT

[as they say `long dead` my ass -- such a typical response from the paki-hating indians (shri moharji, shri nikki ji et al. -- u all do us south asians proud) on this site when shown something like that -- now is it long dead harish ji, lets go and ask some of the people who live in gujarat, preferably some of the muslims, what do you say?]

Why just the Muslims, let us ask some Hindus, Christians, Dalits, poor, women, etc. Just in case you don`t know, it is the poor and the underprivileged that are at the receiving end everywhere, not just in India. At least we in India have tried to create a society that does not discriminate on the basis of religion and ethnicity, and in spite of aberrations, have largely been successful. Your (and by and large most Pakistanis`) selective concern for the Muslim victims only shows how shallow some people can get.

And abusive langauge is the last resort for person short on arguments.

CITY UNDER SIEGE

The Karachi Press Club invites you to come and register your protest.

Violence has once again cast a dark shadow over Karachi, a city where residents have already suffered enough. Brief periods of stability inevitably re-erupt into violence. Makeshift measures are taken and peace is restored, but only temporarily. Residents of Karachi feel angry and helpless.

Wear a black arm-band in protest and mourning; bring suggestions; bring yourself. Join us in our demand that the government make security a top priority for our city.

This afternoon is not being patronized by any organization or political party. Let this be a citizens’ event.

There will also be a screening of

“Doctor”

A short film about death.


Synopsis: Saeed Hussain is a doctor in Karachi, Pakistan. Many of his colleagues have been gunned down by sectarian extremists. Others have moved to safer climes, but Hussain has neither the will nor the means to. Driven by his wife, for the sake of their daughter, to face his fear rather than flee from it, he goes through the motions of a normal day. But even healers have no answers to bullets.

at

The Press Club

Saddar, Karachi

Saturday, 5th May, 2004

3 p.m. (sharp)

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

#99 by omar_r_quraishi
``pakistan has many problems but so does india and pretty big ones too``
omar, this is an interesting observation.

`twas 20 years ago today..

the golden temple in amritsar had become a home of sikh militants. the st. B was initially spponsored by MrsG and later supported by your govt. mrs G sent in Lt. Gen. Brar to take over, and paid for that by her life (she continued to have sikh guards, who got her). Lt. Gen. Brar still has a death-threat on him, his own Mamu from London had promised to kill
him.

clearly the prolems are similar, solutions seem to differ.

here is a rediff link about remembering that time.
http://us.rediff.com/news/2004/jun/03spec.htm

harish ji -- as they say `long dead` my ass -- such a typical response from the paki-hating indians (shri moharji, shri nikki ji et al. -- u all do us south asians proud) on this site when shown something like that -- now is it long dead harish ji, lets go and ask some of the people who live in gujarat, preferably some of the muslims, what do you say? --

An email from a friend stranded in Gilgit right now!

``Its about 11.30 on Friday morning. The curfew is still on without break. Last night, about 1000 people from neighbouring towns descended on Gilgit town with the idea to attack it. They were stopped at the 3 bridges leading in and out of gilgit. One bridge had to be blown up by army to keep the attackers crossing over. Army reinforcements from other parts of the country have landed in Gilgit this morning on 4 C-130 planes.

There is some news that the curfew may be lifted for about 1 hour for Juma prayers times. If that happens, and if it is considered safe, then will attempt to leave gilgit by road during the curfew break. ``

Sounds like a war zone.

harish ji -- its a shame that u cant see the argument in this -- pakistan has many problems but so does india and pretty big ones too but if any outsider were to come and read the boards here they would be misled by the one-way traffic -- and learn to deal with it when a pakistani tells you that india has some major problems --

Benauri Masjid

People living close to Benauri Masjid (near Guru Mandir) tell me that it used to be one of the popular and peaceful mosques of Karachi.

Until the Shamzai clan took it over. (Different sects` Mafias tend to take over and own different mosques)

The whole place was expanded into Madressa with 3000 students and completely walled.

The people have observed the religious terrorists running into the mosque and finding a safe haven.

And Karachi Police and Rangers are scared of entering the premises.

NHK

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

ROTFL!!!!

Yep, I swear I will read ALL of M.B.Z.Isphahani`s ``Pearls of Wisdom`` before I would touch the Profound Fool`s rantings.

so does praful bidwai -- arjun --ever read him ... prob not

#79 by omar_r_quraishi on June 3, 2004 2:59am PT

The Gujarat issue is long dead. But it looks you`re still stuck with it.

There`s a story that comes to my mind. A sage and his three disciples are walking across a river. There is this beautiful woman who`s struggling to cross the river from the opposite side. The sage pities her and carries her in her arm and takes her to the other side. One of his disciples is shocked to see that his guru, whom he deeply respected and who has sworn brahmacharya (celibacy) could carry a young woman in his arms. Years later, when the disciples graduate, this fellow decides he must confront his guru. He asks him if it wasn`t shameful that he carried a young woman in his arms across the river. The guru says, ``son, I left her on the other side long ago, but looks like you`re still carrying her (in your thoughts)``.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

#80-Tmk
There have been many incidents in the past one year that have given the government enough reason to shut down all religious seminaries that are encouraging sectarianism. But the government has shown no inclination of doing so. And how can it when it is the Mush regime that has brought forward all these mullahs who are behind-the-scene of all these militant jehadi groups? If the government so much as hints at shutting down these semenaries, the whole Mush regime would come toppling down like a pack of cards. So the government conveniently looks the other way.
...Promises? I think our leaders have no such word in their dictionaries...

#81-rajesh8624272
I would also like to clarify the first sentence that I have written. It was a black day, not because Shamzai had been shot dead.It was a black day because the so called believers whom he taught the difference between right and wrong, created havoc in the streets of Karachi. Not only did they inflict damage on government property and made the lives of the citizens miserable, but also, they ransacked and destroyed the Quaid`s academy. The academy was the place near the Quaid`s mausoleum where all his documents are stored. Men who have no respect for the man who gave them this homeland have no right to live. But then, we should not forget the faith they come from. What they are taught at madrassahs puts religion before the state as well.
Now, everyday seems like a black day for the sad, broken and raped city of Karachi.

Farheen Zehra (tintingem)

harish_hyd

Omar Mian is a paki old-timer - a classic sample from a nation where people have no idea what`s going and what`s coming. Burdened with outdated ideologies, vile dictatorships and abundant propaganda - these folks are confused and overwhelmed.

Foolish to his boot strap - Omar mian has been beating around the bush for a long time. Of course he doesn`t have no valid arguments to offer.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

#82 by omar_r_quraishi on June 3, 2004 3:17am PT

This is the sign of a man who has no concrete counter-arguments to offer.

HP

Thanks for the info.

But I did mean that the rest of the info in AT is correct. There are three guesses as to who might have done it. All three scenarios are likely. We cannot simply ignore the culpability of Americans in this mess just because they are Americans and hence cannot do any such thing. Everybody should be a suspect, including Americans if we want to reach the truth.

HE

I wouldn`t be so sure about your comments on Europeans. Recently, a former CIA official opined on Hard Talk that Europeans are most likely to take Al-Qaida`s offer of a conditional truce seriously. He further opined that some off the record diplomacy with Al-Qaida is even now underway as we speak. There is precedent for that as well. After all, logically, there cannot be fail-safe defence against the kind of threat that Al-Qaida poses. You can only delay the inevitable but time is all they have to do their deed. In IRAs words, in a letter that they sent to Margaret Thatcher when she narrowly escaped an attempt on her life, IRA wrote ``We only need to get lucky once but you have to be lucky everyday``. Opinion poles are already showing what people consider as lesser of two evils - al-Qaida or the US-British-Israel axis of evil.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

shri rajesh ji -- what about the black days of gujarat -- what r u doing about that apart from venerating modi ji further -- leave karachi to us rajesh ji -- jai ram jee ki

mumbaikar, this one`s for you :)


Gujarat Carnage 2002


A Report To the Nation

by

An Independent Fact Finding Mission:

Dr. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, S.P.Shukla, K.S. Subramanian and Achin Vanaik



Acknowledgements

This Report would not have been possible without the extensive support and generous contributions from citizens and groups in Gujarat and Delhi. We are grateful for their help.

Introduction

An independent fact finding mission consisting of Dr. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Associate Professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; S.P. Shukla, IAS [retd.], former Finance Secretary of India & former Member, Planning Commission; K.S. Subramanian, IPS [retd.], former Director General of Police, Tripura; and Achin Vanaik, Visiting Professor, Third World Academy, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, was set up to investigate the Gujarat carnage of February-March 2002. The terms of reference of the fact finding mission were to find out the truth of the Godhra incident in which a bogie of the Sabarmati Express was burnt and 58 people were killed, the possible use of this tragic incident in regard to the communal conflagration that followed, and to ascertain whether there was any official complicity in that conflagration, and if so, to what extent. The findings of this mission will be presented to the Concerned Citizens’ Tribunal set up in Gujarat.

In this connection, the team visited Ahmedabad and Godhra from March 22nd to March 26th 2002. We met a large number of victims of the communal violence, eyewitnesses, administrative and police people [serving and retired], journalists, judges, lawyers, NGO and civil society activists, relief camp managers, and others. In view of the sensitive nature of the information provided and the fact that violence continues in Gujarat, the names of all those who interacted with us and gave information and views are not being disclosed.

SECTION 1: The Sabarmati Express Incident, Godhra

The tragic communal killings on the Sabarmati Express on February 27th, 2002 were preceded by repeated incidents of provocation and harassment of Muslim passengers by kar sewaks travelling by the train on the preceding days. The Jan Morcha [Faizabad] daily in a report of February 24th detailed instances of misbehaviour by kar sewaks who allegedly hit and threatened Muslim passengers with iron rods, insisted that they shout “jai Shri Ram,” and forcibly unveiled Muslim women. Many persons in Ahmedabad and Godhra also reported such instances. Since such communally inspired and provocative behaviour was commonly known, it is strange that as the National Human Rights Commission [NHRC] in its Interim Report has also observed, no action including a police escort, was taken at the time, in view of the known communally charged atmosphere in Godhra. We will deal with this administrative lapse in the third section on “State Complicity?” below.

In the whole of Gujarat, there was communal tension because of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s [VHP] publicly announced programme of ‘shila pujan’ on March 15th, 2002. In view of its earlier history of communal violence, which commenced even prior to Partition, and the episodic communal outbreaks after the major riots of 1969, Gujarat is a particularly vulnerable and sensitive State. Even though a compromise with the VHP was arrived at, before the events in question communal tensions remained, and wide sections of the Gujarati populace were apprehensive of the future.

Godhra is a small town with a roughly equal population of Muslims and Hindus, and a long and bloody history of communal tension and violence. The Muslims of the Singal Faliya area near the railway station, who allegedly attacked the Sabarmati Express with tragic consequences, are ‘Ghanchis’ a largely uneducated and poor community, a large number of whom are reportedly ‘tabliquis’ of the Deobandi tradition, who have been active participants in earlier rounds of communal violence.

The Sabarmati Express [9166 UP] was due at 2.55 AM on the early morning of February 27th at Godhra station. There had reportedly been instances of misbehaviour with Muslim passengers on the train en route. One Muslim family that refused to shout slogans of “jai Shri Ram,” was according to informants, forced to disembark from the train at the dead of night. It is claimed that the train guard phoned his superiors from Meghnagar that kar sewaks were carrying explosive material in coach number S6. While we were unable to get confirmation of this particular report, it appears there was communal tension on the train well before it reached Godhra.

The Sabarmati Express was late, not an uncommon event, and arrived in Godhra on platform number 1, almost five hours late at 7.43 AM instead of the scheduled time 2.55 AM. In view of the large number of passengers, which included an estimated 1700 kar sewaks, the vendors including unlicensed Ghanchi vendors who slip into the railway station to sell tea and snacks, decided to raise the rate to Rs. 5 a cup. Some kar sewaks refused to pay for the tea and snacks and got into an altercation with the vendors. An old Ghanchi vendor, who is absconding, was ordered to shout pro-Rama slogans and his beard was reportedly pulled when he refused. This was followed immediately by stone throwing and physical assaults started. A Muslim lady Jaitinbibi was waiting for the train to Vadodara [Baroda] scheduled at around 8 AM along with her two young daughters, Sophiya and Shahidi. On seeing the fracas, they tried to leave the station. While doing this, they were stopped by a kar sewak who grabbed one of the teenaged daughters Sophiya and tried to drag her inside the compartment, but contrary to later press reports and rumours failed to do so. Subsequently this family left for Vadodora, but a journalist who spoke with them and has photocopies of their railway tickets, confirmed the story to us. Another informant who spoke to Sophiya’s relative in Godhra, where the family had come to spend Id with relatives, also confirmed these particulars.

The fracas on the platform lasted around 15 to 20 minutes before the train began to pull out. But the emergency chain was pulled in one of the three front general compartment bogies of the 16 bogie train, [bogies S5 and S6 were eleventh and twelfth respectively in this chain] and it stopped briefly when the last bogie, also a general compartment, was, by various accounts, in front of the main exit gate of the platform. After a few minutes, it moved to less than a kilometre from the platform and was stopped again by an emergency chain being pulled, this time reportedly in coaches S5 or S6. Apparently incensed by reports of the misbehaviour with members of their community by the kar sewaks and the molestation, even rumoured abduction, of a Muslim woman, a mob of up to 2,000 people allegedly of Ghanchis from Singal Faliya attacked the train with stones and fire bombs. The kar sewaks of almost equal strength threw stones back. The main target of the Ghanchi mob appears to have been coach S6 which was badly burnt and in which 58 passengers, including 26 women, 12 children and 20 men died. The attack is estimated to have taken place between 8.05 and 8.15 AM. In comparison the adjoining coach, S5 was not badly damaged, with only a few windows broken.

Since the spot is just a little more than a stone’s throw from the station and in clear sight the Government Railway Police [GRP] jawans reached the spot within minutes. But, for reasons unknown, they made no effort to fire warning shots to disperse the mob. Their role will be examined later in Section 3 below. The arrival of the firefighters was allegedly delayed by a local leader, who led a mob that detained a fire engine briefly.

By the time the District Superintendent of Police [DSP] reached the site by 8.30 AM, the mob had dispersed. Since he heard no cries or any sounds from coach S6, he had no apprehensions of massive civilian casualties in that coach. This was discovered only later when the District Collector entered the coach. Reportedly, all the bodies were in a heap in the centre of the coach S6.

The enraged kar sewaks learning of the civilian deaths caused by the ghastly burning of coach S6 then tried to attack a nearby mosque in Singal Faliya. The police fired 30 tear gas shells and fourteen rounds of live bullets to disperse the mob of kar sewaks. The damaged coaches S5 and S6 were detached, and the train departed with the rest of the passengers at 12.40 PM. According to informants, some kar sewaks in the Sabarmati Express on the way back stabbed 2 or 3 people at the Vadodara railway station, giving a clear warning of things to come. The inquest and post-mortem of all the recovered bodies was undertaken by 4.30 PM. Under instructions from the administration in Ahmedabad, all the bodies, excluding 5 that were of passengers from the Godhra region or that side of Gujarat, were dispatched to the Civil Hospital, at Sola, Ahmedabad. The arrival of the dead bodies in Ahmedabad, and their consequent funeral, could have been expected to worsen an already inflamed situation. We will discuss this in Section 3 below.

Certain questions arise about the tragic burning in Godhra. Why did the residents of Singal Faliya attack the train? Was this attack preplanned? If it wasn’t, how did a mob of up to 2,000 gather at such short notice? If the attack was preplanned, was it by a foreign agency, as claimed shortly thereafter by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and later by Union Home Minister LK Advani? Why did the mob attack with deadly weapons like fire bombs? Why did it specifically attack coach S6? Why did the coach burn so rapidly so that as many as 58 passengers could not escape? With 4 exits available: 2 coach doors on the side away from the attacking mob, and the 2 vestibule exits to the adjoining coaches, why did so many passengers get trapped? Why weren’t concerted efforts made to rescue them by passengers of the adjoining coaches, and the hundreds of kar sewaks? Who pulled the emergency chains and why?

The authorities and all informed persons in Godhra were quite categorical that there was no significant evidence to prove any ‘foreign hand’ in the tragedy. Because trouble had started at the railway station itself, by the time the train reached Singal Faliya some fifteen minutes later, the mob had had sufficient time to gather from the nearby houses and jhuggies. There is a large slum in the Singal Faliya area where as many as 15 to 20 persons live in a single jhuggi, literally sleeping in shifts. District authorities were not at all surprised that such a large crowd gathered at the spot in such a short time. Several informants in Godhra confirmed that this was not improbable. Fire-bombs, iron rods, etc. are all available in ready supply in various localities because of the history and incidence of communal outbreaks in Godhra.

This was particularly so for Singal Faliya because of the presence of auto-repair workers, rickshaw pullers, auto-rickshaw drivers, small time wagon-breakers and criminal elements reportedly living in the slum. So the collection of a large mob at a short notice and the availability of improvised petrol bombs and other weapons and implements, by themselves, do not support the theory of any deep-rooted conspiracy, with or without support of the foreign agencies. One version is that some of the Singal Faliya residents such as tea vendors or rickshaw pullers/drivers who were present at the platform and were witness to the incidents/altercations that allegedly took place on arrival of the train, had rushed to the Singal Faliya basti with the news/rumour that a Muslim woman had been molested, even abducted, and that this led to excitement and uproar and the enraged mob that carried out the murderous attack.

The focussed attack on coach S6 also suggests that rumour had it that the perpetrators of the alleged crime were in that coach. But all this will remain conjecture, until more evidence is collected. It also appears that since the bulk of the casualties were women and children, and relatively few (only 20) able bodied men, that all kar sevaks on the train were not targeted but only those in coach S6. Otherwise, why weren’t other coaches filled with kar sevaks, of which there were another 14 excluding the adjoining coach S5, also attacked with fire bombs and the like?

We examined coaches S5 and S6. While S5 was less badly damaged with some windows broken, coach S6 was completely burnt out inside the compartment. Some reports have it that passengers were carrying kerosene stoves to cook during the long journey from Faizabad to Ahmedabad, along with other inflammable items. While this is not unusual or implausible, this must remain speculation until the forensic evidence is in. It is estimated that there must have been around 150 people in the compartment, largely kar sewaks, and once the fire started, the able bodied kar sevaks must have fled first. Knowledgeable informants in Godhra surmised that the 38 women and children along with the 20 men might have been rendered unconscious by the smoke and carbon monoxide confined inside the coach, since most of the windows and both doors on one side were closed, and later asphyxiated by the smoke or burnt by the fire that swept the coach. But this can only be confirmed by forensic evidence, and accounts by other passengers from coach S6 who survived.

But despite incomplete evidence and differing versions, it is clear that this monstrous crime was not preplanned as claimed by high quarters immediately after the tragedy. At most, according to a number of informants, some passengers with access to a mobile phone may have called contacts in Godhra/Singal Faliya from a relatively nearby station like Ratlam, Dahod or Meghnagar, thus giving at most a few hours notice. But as we have stated above, given the prevailing circumstances and context, it was probable that a large armed mob collected after the fracas at the Godhra railway station platform. There was sufficient time for an armed mob to collect after the events at the railway station. As the train was scheduled to arrive at 2.55 AM, any premeditated assault should have led to the mob gathering at Singal Faliya about that time, instead of five hours later. On the other hand, before 8 AM in the morning, most adults and young males living in Singal Faliya would not have not gone to work and were easily available on call, as it were, to gather near Cabin A where the train had stopped.

Though by all accounts there was some provocation by the kar sewaks starting well before Godhra, this cannot serve to exonerate this inhuman and horrendous crime. As for the emergency chain pulling, it is plausible that the first chain pulling as the train was moving out from the station was by the kar sewaks to enable those left behind, perhaps involved in the commotion on the platform, to catch the train. The second instance, and that too from coaches S5 or S6, is more perplexing.

The outrage occasioned by this tragedy and subsequent police action has led most eyewitnesses to disappear, abscond or feign ignorance. We interviewed vendors from platform number 2 at Godhra station. They all claimed to have noticed nothing as they were on an adjacent platform. But since they, on their own admission, would have been aware of the commotion, if any, on platform 1, and would have had an unimpeded view of the area near Cabin A where the train was attacked, they obviously decided to remain silent. The vendors on platform 1 present on February 27th were absent and had been so since the incident. Some of the eyewitnesses and participants are obviously in custody. Others are missing. Still others are silent, or claim to know nothing.

This notwithstanding, major conclusions can be arrived at:

1] The attack does not appear to be pre-planned in the sense in which it was claimed publicly by high authorities in the immediate aftermath of the incident of 27th Feb. Neither available information nor the circumstances then prevailing provide support to the theory of any deep-rooted conspiracy, with or without involvement of foreign agencies.

2] It was an instance of a ghastly communal riot, in a place that has a long history of communal riots.

3] The tragedy could have been averted or at least, minimised if strong preventive measures had been taken in the wake of the communal incidents/irritants that were taking place on the train route and which could have been anticipated once the kar sewaks started leaving/returning by train in large numbers for/from Ayodhya [This will be examined below in Section 3].



SECTION 2: The Use of the Godhra Incident for anti-Muslim Mobilisation

Political And Media Reactions

There was massive media reaction to the Godhra tragedy. With the spread of electronic media and cable TV, the horrific pictures of the devastation in coach S6, the gruesome death of innocent women and children reportedly returning from homage to Lord Rama because of an inhuman, unprovoked and premeditated assault, was the staple of media coverage. While there has been criticism of the national print and electronic media [the dominant English and Hindi dailies and television channels] including by the Gujarat government, the role of sections of the Gujarati language press was in reality incendiary. The Gujarati daily Sandesh, for instance, reported on March 1st that two Hindu women had been abducted from the train by Muslims, gangraped, mutilated with their breasts cut off, then killed with their bodies dumped in Kalol near Godhra. It also reported rumours of a third body being found. [See Box 4]. The police investigated the story, searched the village and found the story baseless. But the publication of such baseless stories in the press inflamed public opinion. Sandesh has been held by most commentators to be a major offender.

Such inflammatory stories were not new. Three years earlier such stories had appeared during the anti-Christian violence in the tribal-dominated Dangs district, of Gujarat. There has been therefore, a long standing tendency in sections of the Gujarati language press to publish communally inflammatory reports. Such reports are actionable. Under the law of the land such reportage that causes animosity between communities is a criminal offence. Despite such provisions in the law, no action was taken. While the State government did ban some local TV channels, it took no action against newspapers like Sandesh. In this backdrop, the sensationalist and inflammatory reporting after the Godhra incident, with its gory consequences, was only to be expected. The Press Council was forced to issue a strong statement on the role of the media. On 3rd April, Justice K. Jayachandra Reddy, Chairman, was sharply critical of the media noting “with anguish that a large number of newspapers and news channels in the country and, in particular a large section of the print and electronic media in Gujarat has, instead of alleviating communal unrest, played an ignoble role in inciting communal passions leading to large scale rioting, arson and pillage in the state concerned.” He warned the erring media of action under Section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code and allied provisions.

The centrality accorded to Godhra by influential sections of the media only echoed statements at the highest level of Government. Chief Minister Modi repeatedly referred to the communal violence that followed as a “reaction” and likened it to Newton’s third law of dynamics. The fact that the Chief Minister immediately branded the event as ISI and Pakistani-inspired, followed by Union Home Minister Advani, in the absence of any evidence or inquiry, further inflamed the situation. Even if the Chief Minister’s intention was to shift the blame away from local Muslims, as some supporters claim, it had the opposite effect. The accusation branded the local Ghanchi Muslims as Pakistani agents, in other words, as agents of a long standing enemy power, thereby conforming to the traditional demonisation of Indian Muslims as sympathisers and cohorts of Pakistan. This wholly unsubstantiated vilification was already widespread in the State but was to become the staple of later propaganda and the legitimation of the ruthless assaults on Muslims and their property.

To cite only a few of the many instances, State Health Minister Ashok Bhatt speaking to the media in Godhra on 27th February stated that, “Godhra has a notorious reputation,” and alleged that, “We suspect that many Pakistanis live here illegally.” Thus the equation was complete: Godhra was a preplanned Pakistani act carried out by local Muslims. The Minister of State for Home Gordhan Zadaphia, a senior VHP activist, confirmed the linkage alleging, “The bogie burning is a terrorist act similar to the attack on the American Centre in Kolkata. The culprits in both cases are the same.” Through the media he delivered a dire threat: “We will teach a lesson to those who have done this. No one will be spared and we will make sure that the forces behind this act will never dare to repeat it.”

Zadaphia also played to religious sentiments by stressing that “Most of the people who died were members of the VHP [Vishva Hindu Parishad]. Many of the dead children were returning from Ayodhya.” He also made his allegiances clear by publicly differing with Prime Minister Vajpayee and Union Home Minister Advani’s call to the VHP to suspend the Ram temple movement, by asserting, “There is no question of withdrawing our support to the VHP. Whatever the VHP is doing is in the interests of the nation, in the interests of Hindus.” [See Box 6]

At Godhra on the 27th February itself official rhetoric confirmed the demonology which informed the post-Godhra anti-Muslim carnage. The burning of the Sabarmati Express bogie was labeled a premeditated and heinous enemy act, carried out by notorious Pakistani agents, against devout, nationalist Hindus including women and children, returning from worshipping Lord Rama. Such enemies had to be taught a lesson so that they “will never dare to repeat it.”

The centrality of the Godhra massacre as the basis of the anti-Muslim carnage that followed was to be repeated again and again. It was also reiterated in the State government framed terms of reference of the Justice K.G. Shah enquiry into the Gujarat conflagration, in which the Godhra incident is the central issue, and all other events are seen as flowing from that. [See Box 8].

Post-Godhra Political Decisions

The Modi government decided to hasten the post-mortems of the murdered passengers, and have their bodies dispatched on the 27th February night itself at 10.30 PM to the Civil Hospital, Sola, Ahmedabad. In any case, at the best of times, the presence of the badly charred bodies and body parts would have been provocative. In Ahmedabad, with its previous history of communal violence and tension, such an act followed by the public display of the remains prior to cremation, could at best be described as reckless and foolhardy. The time of arrival of the corpses by train was broadcast on the radio ensuring that a large and inflamed crowd would gather at Ahmedabad station. Not surprisingly such a crowd gathered and there was shouting of dangerously provocative communal slogans like “khoon ka badla khoon”. The display of the remains, the public grief and anger at the funerals, the organisation of Ram Dhuns in different parts of Ahmedabad, all served to fan the communal flames that seared the city and the State, and simmer till today. [We will deal with this decision in more detail in Section 3 below].

Earlier in the day, the VHP announced a bandh on the next day, 28th February, in protest over the Godhra tragedy. Provocative leaflets, some unsigned, castigating the Muslims and linking the attack to Pakistan were widely distributed. Later the same day, the State BJP unit came out in support of the bandh. Since the BJP was, and is, the ruling party this made the bandh a virtually State sponsored affair. In the light of the Supreme Court decision banning bandhs, this decision was illegal. In the light of the previous history of Ahmedabad and the State, it was ver likely to lead to communal violence. Later in the evening, there was a meeting of senior officers with the political leadership where, according to authoritative sources, officers were told that they should do nothing “which would hurt Hindu sentiments.” In the light of subsequent developments this was clearly a signal asking the officers not to do anything to curb the bandh or those who sought to enforce it. [See Section 3 below].

The crucial role of the VHP-called and BJP-backed bandh cannot be underestimated. For all its tragic consequences and its diabolical nature the attack on the Sabarmati Express was an isolated and localised event. A Sangh Parivar bandh, on the other hand, marked a premeditated transition from a local riot to an organised and preplanned State-wide protest which was bound to result in a bloodbath, especially in the light of the political signals to officialdom to intervene minimally. As it turned out, Feb. 28th was when the greatest damage to life and property took place in Ahmedabad. Attacks of this kind also took place on a lesser scale in Vadodara on that day. Furthermore, once the attacks were allowed to happen in Ahmedabad, the capital city, it provided the necessary signal and sanction for the systematic and deliberate extension of targeted communal violence elsewhere in the state including in the rural areas. This also conforms to a historical pattern where communal violence in the capital city of Gujarat becomes the prelude to its extension elsewhere. All this only reinforces the decisive role played by the bandh in marking the transition from a local incident to a full-blooded pogrom.

This reading of the situation is borne out by the mind set and intentions of the bandh organisers revealed in a tape-recorded interview with Prof. Keshavram Kashiram Shastri, 96 year old Chairman of the Gujarat unit of the VHP, who justified the communal violence arguing, “Karvan j pade, karvan j pade [it had to be done, it had to be done]. We don’t like it, but we were terribly angry. Lust and anger are blind.” He further said the rioters were “kelvayela Hindu chokra” [well bred Hindu boys]. He also linked all the events to Godhra; “Our boys were charged because in Godhra women and children were burnt alive. The crowd was spontaneous. All of them were not VHP people.” He went on to say, “In villages all these people who were angry are not our people. They are angry because Hindutva was attacked. This is an outburst, a tremendous outburst that will be difficult to roll back.”

Asked how he as a scholar and litterateur could condone innocents being burnt alive, he replied, “The youngsters have done even those things which we don’t like. We don’t support it. But we can’t condemn it because they are our boys. If my daughter does something, will I condemn it?” Repeatedly defending the “boys” for having gone too “far,” Prof. Shastri insisted, “We needed to do something. It’s said that snakes that are not poisonous should keep the enemy away by hissing once in a while.” He also affirmed his organisation’s support clarifying that, “The VHP has formed a panel of 50 lawyers to help release the arrested people accused of rioting and looting. None of the lawyers will charge any fees because they believe in the RSS ideology.” [See Box 9]

But the attacks on Muslim properties and persons which started in Ahmedabad and some other urban and semi-urban areas of Gujarat on 28th February, were based on detailed information including the possession of lists. As the NHRC Interim Report points out there were “widespread reports and allegations of groups of well-organized persons, armed with mobile telephones and addresses, singling out certain homes and properties for death and destruction in certain districts…” Gujarat VHP Chairman Prof. Shastri claims that these lists were prepared only on February 28th morning. Even if this was true, it begs another question. What was the data base on which basis this list was prepared, and who prepared the basic document[s] and when? That surely could not have been prepared for tens of thousands of Muslim properties and residences just in one morning.

Earlier attempts at the preparation of such lists are a matter of public record or widely reported. On February 1st/2nd 1999, the then Director of Police [Intelligence] P.B. Upadhyaya sent a confidential circular ordering all Police Commissioners and district police officers to provide details including addresses of existing Muslim organisations, their leaders, as well as the names and addresses of Muslims participating in certain religious activities and related matters. [See Appendix 1] This circular, and a similar one pertaining to Christians, was challenged in the Gujarat High Court, and withdrawn a month later. Though this circular was withdrawn, some details about Muslim institutions and individuals along with their addresses, must have been collected in the intervening one month period.

Victims and other informants claimed that months earlier, persons claiming to represent a market survey firm visited their establishments to collect data about ownership, production, sales, number of employees, etc. They now believe that this may have been a prior attempt at ethnic mapping to identify Muslim businesses and establishments. The Gujarati language press allegedly played its part. On the basis of their experiences of earlier riots a number of Muslim entrepreneurs gave non-Muslim, mainly Hindu, names to their establishments, so that these were not readily identified as Muslim. It was claimed that some eight months earlier, Sandesh had published an article in which it listed many such establishments pointing out that despite their names these were Muslim owned. The rioters however, also attacked establishments that had Muslim ‘sleeping partners,’ a fact not widely known. It would appear therefore, that the mob leaders had access to government records from the sales tax/excise departments and the like, not normally available to the average citizen.

Another fact that appears to indicate prior planning for a communal attack according to informants is the collection of liquefied petroleum gas [LPG] gas cylinders. It is claimed that for some two weeks before February.28th, LPG cylinders were in short supply in Ahmedabad, and middle class consumers had to book them and stay in queue. But the rioters who took over Ahmedabad from February 28th were armed with thousands of LPG gas cylinders, obviously collected in advance, which they used to blow up Muslim commercial establishments and residences in the days that followed. These LPG cylinders are bulky and heavy metal cylinders that can only be transported by medium or heavy vehicles. The fact that such vehicles [including tempos and trucks], were available along with the much sought after LPG cylinders appears to indicate prior planning of some weeks, not to speak of days.

Taken together, all the available evidence including media reports, the reports of informants, eyewitnesses and others, appears to indicate a carefully planned attack over time on Muslim properties and persons throughout the State, beginning with Ahmedabad, with State connivance. The attack, it would appear, was planned well before February 27th. The ghastly events of Godhra appear to have merely provided the trigger for an anti-Muslim pogrom prepared well in advance. In that sense, the tragedy in Godhra is merely a coincidence. The premeditated and focussed attack on Gujarati Muslims was already planned, awaiting a trigger or pretext. The unexpected carnage in Godhra on February 27th unfortunately, provided that convenient trigger.

Section 3: State Complicity?

Penetration of the Gujarat State

The BJP, RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and associated organisations had allegedly penetrated State institutions and organisations during the BJP rule in Gujarat. For example, in the Home Guards, it is claimed that there was widespread recruitment of Sangh Parivar activists and sympathisers, in the thousands. Promotions, postings and transfers in all government institutions or those influenced by it, favoured Sangh activists and sympathisers, and conversely punished those officers or ranks who were neutral and secular. In the police, for example, postings and transfers up to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police are decided upon by the Director General of Police [DGP]. But in Gujarat, these postingsare decided upon by the local Sangh leadership, including MLAs, who communicate their recommendations that are then implemented by the bureaucracy on the instructions of the concerned Minister. The DGP has hardly any role. At the higher level of posts of Superintendent of Police and above, powers are concentrated at the Ministerial level.

In the police, as probably in other services, there is apparently an informal three-fold classification by the Sangh Parivar of government servants. The first category are sympathisers or members, the second are of those considered neutral or harmless, while the third are of those considered hostile. This classification governs rewards or punishments in the service and all are aware of that. The mass transfers of police officers in March 2002, including of officers who through their prompt and decisive action had stopped and curbed communal violence, is the most recent example of punishment for doing one’s Constitutional duty. [See Box 10, and below]. When asked about this by a critical media, Chief Minister Modi euphemistically referred to these transfers as “promotions.”

Conversely, officers who apparently serve the ruling party’s interests are rewarded, and act accordingly. Assistant Commissioner of Police P.N. Barot was entrusted on March 8th with investigating two of Ahmedabad’s bloodiest massacres, which fell outside his earlier zone of responsibility. He declared that the genesis of the Gulbarg Society massacre where 42 people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri were killed was due to Jafri firing “with a weapon and injured 13 persons, which provoked the mob.” Similarly, the massacre in Naroda-Patia was because “First, a Hindu boy, Ranjitsinh Chouhan, was stabbed to death by Muslims. Then they killed three others by crushing them under a Matador van. This infuriated the Hindus, leading to the massacre.” Barot was also critical of the fact that eleven people had been named in the FIR in the Gulbarg Society case, and five others in the Naroda-Patia carnage, the most prominent among the accused being Bajrang Dal activist Babu Bajrangi, who has a long criminal record. “How could the police have identified 5-6 people in a mob of a thousand?” he complained, echoing VHP General Secretary Jaydeep Patel who accused the police of “falsely” implicating his men. Thus Barot not only prejudges issues but also criticises his own colleagues, clearly indicating the likely result of his investigations.

The RSS and VHP also control key functionaries in the State. Chief Minister Modi is an RSS pracharak. Minister of State for Home Zadaphia is a VHP activist. The Governor of Gujarat, who has not seen fit to send a report on what is happening in the State to the Centre, S.S. Bhandari is also an RSS leader. Such examples can be multiplied, but these will suffice to indicate the penetration of the state apparatus and government machinery by the Sangh Parivar. All governments are political, but the penetration by the RSS, a shadowy and publicly unaccountable organisation, is a specific phenomenon that requires careful and painstaking investigation, which is however, outside the scope of this report.

As a consequence, the Gujarat government functioned not as a Constitutionally bound, non-partisan and independent body, but one controlled by, and answerable to the Sangh Parivar. The role and functioning of the Gujarat government, therefore, is directly determined by its penetration by the Sangh Parivar including its most extremist elements the VHP and Bajrang Dal. This fact underlies the conduct of the Gujarat government before, during and after, the peak period of communal violence in the State during February-March 2002.

Erosion of the Bureaucracy and the Governmental System

The politicisation of the governmental machinery especially the bureaucracy led inevitably to the erosion of the functions and powers of the government machinery. As in the case of police deployment, decision-making powers were illegitimately transferred from police officials to the Sangh Parivar thereby eroding the powers, neutrality and accountability of the government machinery. A very substantial number of officers and staff instead of being responsible to their direct superiors and governed by service rules, traditions and precedents, became politicised and partisan, answerable to the Sangh Parivar. This process also undercuts the system of checks and balances crucial to the functioning of the governmental machinery. Checks on officers like their superiors, supervisory departments, service codes, public scrutiny including that by the elected Assembly all get get displaced by the unaccountable and unconstitutional control by the Sangh Parivar.

This erosion of the governmental machinery adversely affected its efficiency. Functionaries instead of concentrating on their official functions were unduly concerned of the impact of their actions, or inaction, on the Sangh leadership. Since crucial personnel matters like promotions, postings, transfers and awards depended not so much on meritorious performance but partisan appreciation, the qualitative functioning of the government apparatus was negatively affected. This factor had a major impact on the functioning of the government machinery during this crisis, and its inadequacies and failures.

mumbaikar, this one too :) (second part of the Gujarat report)

State Government Complicity?

Failure in Godhra

The NHRC has pointed out the “serious failure of intelligence and action by the State Government [that] marked the events leading to the Godhra tragedy and the subsequent deaths and destruction that occurred.” In Section 1 above, we have seen how reports of communally motivated misbehaviour in the Sabarmati Express had been reported in the media as early as February 25th e.g. in the Jan Morcha [Faizabad]. Given Gujarat’s communal history and, in particular, the volatility of Godhra, this alone should have led the administration to take precautionary measures including the deployment of sufficient police forces on the train, and at the railway stations including Godhra. In any event, the government should have known about the returning kar sewaks from Ayodhya, since the BJP currently rules in both the Gujarat and UP governments. In view of the sensitivity of the Ayodhya issue, there should have been much more police bandobast, which if it had been in place would have ensured that the tragedy did not occur.

According to our reconstruction of events, the trouble started at the station itself where stone throwing took place. By all accounts there was a clash. This should have alerted the police forces including the GRF, who knowing the character of Godhra and the volatility of Signal Faliya, should have taken preventive action immediately. Further, Cabin A where the train stopped for the second and final time, is less than a kilometre away and the whole area is clearly visible. A crowd gathering there could easily be observed and could only have meant trouble. The police could, and should, have been there in a matter of minutes.

In case the official version, that the tragedy was premeditated and ISI-inspired is given credence, then the intelligence lapse is much more serious. How could such a premeditated plot have escaped the notice of the intelligence agencies? If the fire bombs, petrol and weapons were collected and stored over time and other preparations made over a period, why was this not detected, particularly when tensions were known to be high over the VHP programme in Ayodhya?

Under any construction of the events, there have been very serious lapses by the administration and police. There is one aspect of the formal procedures of intelligence gathering that goes some way to explain the intelligence lapses. Both State and Central intelligence agencies have as a matter of routine maintained regular surveillance of certain organizations deemed to require such watching in the name of internal security. These have included certain fundamentalist religious organizations. On the watch-list are also certain extremist cults or political groupings deemed to belong to the far right (e.g. Anand Margis) or far left (e.g. certain Naxalite groups). However, the rise to power of the Sangh (through the BJP) at the Centre and in Gujarat has meant that as far as central intelligence agencies and those of Gujarat state are concerned, regular surveillance of the activities of the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal though prevalent in the past would now appear to have been dropped. This could be one major reason why no tabs were kept, as they should have been, on the activities of the kar sevaks on the Sabarmati Express.

The Post-Godhra events & the February 28th VHP Bandh

The government’s decision to swiftly transfer the bodies of the Godhra victims to Ahmedabad and elsewhere and to allow public funerals was incendiary. The ghastly condition of the charred bodies and remains was bound to cause public grief, revulsion and anger. In a communally polarised State like Gujarat, the outbreak of communal mobilisation and violence as a result of this should have been easily anticipated. Large crowds were allowed to collect to receive the bodies at Ahmedabad railway station and then to take them in a public procession. Even on the journey from Godhra to Ahmedabad which passed through Vadodara, there were press reports of at least two stabbings at the Vadodara railway station itself.

This act was compounded by the government’s decision to allow the February 28th Bandh. At a time when communal passions were aroused by the Godhra incidents and the funerals of the victims, a bandh was certainly going to provoke violence. Not only did the government not dissuade the VHP from calling the bandh, it instead went ahead and joined it. The political leadership’s advice to the officers not to do anything during the bandh that would hurt “Hindu sentiments” was a transparent attempt to ensure that the bandh supporters were subjected to minimum administrative and police restraint.

Since it was clear that an immediate post-Godhra bandh could only lead to communal violence, the Chief Minister should have forced the VHP to withdraw the bandh, failing which he should have suppressed it by deploying the entire might of the State and requisitioning extra forces from outside. He clearly failed to do so, and instead did the very opposite. By doing this the VHP and Gujarat government, in effect, prepared the grounds for the riots.

Police Partisanship

The NHRC notes that the communal marauders were widely reported to have been “singling out certain homes and properties for death and destruction in certain districts-sometimes within view of police stations and personnel…” Reportedly in many cases, including the massacres in Gulbarg society in which former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was brutally slain, and in Naroda-Patia where more than 80 people died [unofficial figures are much higher], the police have been accused of having been partisan and anti-Muslim. No satisfactory explanation has been given for the inordinate police delay in intervening in Gulbarg society, despite Jafri’s incessant requests for help. Some observers say that Jafri’s spirited criticism of Chief Minister Modi during the latter’s campaign in the Rajkot Assembly by-election, was a factor in the police’s persistent lack of response. [See Box 2]. In Naroda-Patia, according to survivors, the State Reserve Police [SRP] not only refused the fleeing Muslims shelter, but tear-gassed them, forcing them towards the waiting mobs. In case after case, Muslim victims claimed the police used force against them, including firing, thereby providing cover and support to the rampaging mobs. A number of victims told us that but for the police partisanship, the toll in the Gujarat carnage would have been much lower.

This partisanship was much greater at the lower levels, where there appears to have been substantial communalization of the police force. There are widespread reports of the lower echelons of the police being especially partisan and hostile. But efforts to get the senior officials to remedy this parlous state of affairs seem to have failed. This situation continues to this day. On April 3rd, The Asian Age crime reporter in Ahmedabad Ms. Sonal Kellogg, along with the reporter of a Surat-based daily, was beaten up by the police in the Mariam Bibi Ni Chawli area in Gomtipur. When she complained to the Deputy Commissioner of Police [Zone V] R.J. Savani, whom she knew quite well, all he said was that “it might have been a mistake.” When she protested to the Police Commissioner P.C. Pande at his office, he was dismissive; “Don’t bother me…I don’t have time…file a complaint if you want.” As the journalist sums up, “If policemen can be so brutal towards journalists on duty, their behaviour with ordinary citizens could be so much more atrocious. It is a pity that the police in Gujarat is either a mute spectator or it harasses and tortures innocent people.”

Senior police officials have indicated that their hands were tied, implying that this was done by top politicians. But this does not absolve the top police brass in Gujarat for failing to do their duties. The maintenance of law and order is the direct responsibility of the police force. Regardless of what political pressures may or may not be put upon them, there exists a structure of rules and powers that empowers the police to ignore such political pressures, and to ensure that law and order is maintained. This can be done through a variety of measures including identification of likely communal hotspots, preventive arrests and detentions on a mass scale in curfew and other areas, back-up preparations, etc. What is more, despite a degree of communalization of the police at lower levels, as long as the top hierarchy of the police make it clear that the police must and will do its duty of ensuring peace, such communal prejudices are invariably kept firmly in check and easily subordinated to the acceptance of the existing chain of command and operation. It is when the top officials do not assert themselves that wrong signals go down the line. In the case of Ahmedabad on Feb.27th there were virtually no preventive arrests by police stations in communally sensitive areas. [See Box 11].

That is why instances of police partisanship and ineptitude were not all pervasive and there are many creditable examples of IAS and IPS officers fulfilling their responsibilities courageously and effectively in Gujarat during this period. The NHRC cites the Gujarat government’s Report to it noting “that many instances were recorded in the Report of prompt and courageous action by District Collectors, Commissioners and Superintendents of Police and other officers to control the violence…” But the NHRC also points out that “the Report itself reveals that while some communally-prone districts succeeded in controlling the violence, other districts-sometimes less prone to such violence succumbed to it.” Thus where decisive and capable officers intervened, the communal holocaust could be averted. The fact it was not in the capital Ahmedabad, was not due to lack of force but politically-motivated ineptitude. It should be noted that the Police Commissioner in Ahmedabad commanded a total of 10,000 men including 3,000 armed men, along with 16 companies of SRP. Yet mobs of up to 5,000 and more men were allowed to run amuck, loot, rape, beat, murder while the police stood by, when it did not actually abet the mobs. As one senior police officer told us, the problem was ``not lack of force, but lack of will.”

This lack of political will has also affected investigation. Victims claim that for the most part, the police are not registering FIRs. When they do they avoid writing specific names of alleged wrong doers thereby defeating the purpose at the very outset. Further, they cite lesser offenses, for example, writing the charge of rioting instead of murder. As the instance of ACP Barot cited above shows, the investigating officers are often biased to begin with. The NHRC has clearly noted this and related factors: “numerous allegations have been made both in the media and to the team of the Commission…that FIRs…were being distorted or poorly recorded, and that senior political personalities were seeking to ‘influence’ the working of police stations by their presence within them, the Commission is constrained to observe that there is a widespread lack of faith in the integrity of the investigating process and the ability of those conducting investigations.”

Role of the Sangh Parivar

The primary responsibility for the communal conflagration rests with the Sangh Parivar. It provided the ideological, political and administrative leadership and backbone for the tragic events in Gujarat. In Godhra, but for the provocation by the VHP kar sewaks, the tragic events that triggered off the State-wide holocaust would not have occurred, though that does not justify the mob’s murderous response. The Sangh Parivar sought to capitalise publicly in regard to the funerals of the Godhra dead in ways that further inflamed communal passions. The VHP and other Hindutva groups circulated inflammatory pamphlets thereby helping to create the communal polarisation necessary for the ensuing mobilisation and mayhem. [See Box 5 and Appendix 2]. These pamphlets and other propaganda methods were unlawful and actionable. But to date, since cadres and leaders of the VHP and Bajrang Dal are also BJP leaders and legislators, no action has been taken despite extensive media coverage and criticism. No other organisation indulging in such disruptive and illegal ideological propaganda would have been given such latitude, much less support.

Sangh Parivar leaders were repeatedly identified by victims and other informants as instigating and leading the marauding mobs. This is why in the few instances where individual names have been recorded in the FIRs, these include Sangh Parivar activists. The media has reported that for crucial hours on February 28th from around Noon to 4.30 PM, two Ministers, Health Minister Ashok Bhatt and Urban Development Minister I.K. Jadeja were present in the Ahmedabad City and Gandhinagar State Police Control Rooms, respectively. Minister Bhatt was reportedly present when former MP Jafri called for help. Most importantly, though the situation was clearly out of control, the State government delayed in calling in the Army. Even after the Army was called in on February 28th night, its deployment was delayed till the next afternoon. Even then, it is reported, it received insufficient police support and intelligence. The fact that a sympathetic Central government deemed it fit to send Defence Minister George Fernandes to oversee the army deployment, is a measure of their lack of faith in the State’s leadership to adequately utilise the Army.

The bias of the Sangh Parivar is highlighted by the fact that it wanted to compensate the victims of the Godhra violence with Rs. 2 lakhs, in contrast to the Rs. 1 lakh offered to victims in the post-Godhra violence. This was reversed only after representatives of the families bereaved by the violence in Godhra agreed to equality of compensation at Rs. 1 lakh. This, it has been reported, was made possible because of private assurances of separate financial help by the VHP to the said families. The NHRC commenting on the initially proposed discriminatory compensation, strongly noted that “the issue raised impinged seriously on the provisions of the Constitution contained in Articles 14 and 15, dealing respectively with equality before the law and equal protection of the laws within the territory of India, and the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.” The imposition of the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance [POTO] only against the accused in the Godhra incident also smacked of bias. Both decisions were only reversed after considerable public outcry, and Central Government intervention.

Biases are also indicated by the fact, which the NHRC has noted, that prior to its visit no senior political leaders nor high level officers had visited many Muslim refugee camps. Work has started in some camps like Shah-e-Alam only when it became known that the Prime Minister would be visiting it. The procedure for estimating and providing compensation also started around that time. When it became known that the Prime Minister would not be visiting some camps, work there, according to media reports, was quickly abandoned. Notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s instructions and sustained Opposition demands, no rehabilitation work has started though more than a month has lapsed since tens of thousands of Muslims entered dozens of refugee camps. Given the scale of the devastation and the large numbers of people involved, rehabilitation work, to be effectiv