Former Indian army officers detained for mosque blast

[dr.umer]

Former Indian army officers detained for mosque blast​

25 Oct 2008

NEW DELHI, Oct 25: India’s federal police, the CBI, was investigating two former army officers on Saturday for their alleged links with rightwing Hindu extremists named in recent attacks, including a bomb blast near a mosque in Malegaon in Maharashtra that killed five worshippers during Ramazan.

The unidentified army officers were picked up from Pune a day after three other suspects, including a fire-breathing woman ascetic or Sadhvi, were arrested for involvement in the attack in communally sensitive Malegaon. The attack was initially blamed on Muslim extremists.

Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Shamlal Sahu and Shivnarayan Singh thus arrested earlier have been linked to extremist groups in Madhya Pradesh, a state ruled by the rightwing BJP.

The ex-army officials are believed to have given training to people involved in carrying out the blasts. Reports also said the ex-army men had provided RDX explosives to the Hindu extremists, which was found to have been used in Malegaon.

A motorcycle used in that blast on September 29 belonged to the Sadhvi. Besides having links with the BJP’s student wing ABVP, she is associated with the Indore-based radical Hindu Jagran Manch, accused also of involvement in Modasa attack in Gujarat in which one person was killed.

The arrest of the former army officers in extremist attacks may be a new phenomenon, but many of the ex-officers have been active members of rightwing groups, including the main opposition BJP.

 

[dr.umer]

A matter of shame for those involved and should be a grave concern for GOI.

It is good to see that these fanatics are arrested but a lot more practical steps are needed to achieve the desired goal of "secularism and elimination of extremism" that shall curb happening of such incidents in first place.

 

[Nafees]

Source: Ap, Nashik/ The Daily Star: Internet Edition

Police have arrested three Hindus on suspicion of planting a bomb that killed five people in a market crowded with Muslim shoppers last month, an official said Friday.

Public prosecutor RJ Misar said the two men and one woman were suspected of planting a crude bomb on a motorcycle that killed five people and wounded 30 others on Sept. 30. The blast in Malegaon, 180 miles northeast of Mumbai, went off as Muslims were shopping, ahead of breaking their Ramadan fast.

Malegaon has long been the scene of violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims, who make up 75 percent of the town's 500,000 residents.

A chief judicial magistrate ordered them held until Nov. 3.

 

[kingfisher99]

Malegaon blasts: More arrests likely
10/25/2008 6:03:45 AM

With the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) admitting for the first time that a fringe Hindu group had carried out last months Malegaon blast, sources say that more arrests are likely soon. The ATS has already arrested three people, but another three people are under detention and they could be formally charged any time soon.

Sources in the Mumbai police said that they are also keeping a watch on at least ten others. However, investigators are trying to establish the source of explosives used in the Malegaon blasts that killed five people.

Meanwhile, strongly protesting against two news channels for their reports about Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad's (ABVP) alleged involvement in the Malegaon and Modasa blasts, the BJP's student wing today termed it as a "conspiracy of the communists and the Church to defame it".

Challenging the channels to prove reports that three persons, arrested by Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) for Malegaon blast, had links with the ABVP, Madhya Bharat State Secretary Hitesh Shukla said they were only interested in dragging the student organisation's name in blast cases.

In a statement, he said none of them was associated with ABVP and even ATS has said the same thing. Shukla alleged that the relation of these channels with the Church was a known fact. They are the same people who, on the basis of alleged Naxal Arun Pareira's narco-analysis tests, had said that Naxals get financial help from ABVP, he said. The ABVP leader said Maharashtra police had written a letter to them clarifying that no such facts came to light during narco-test of Pareira.

Meanwhile, on yesterday (October 24), three persons, including a woman, arrested for the September 29 Malegaon blast, had founded two suspected right wing organisations in Indore and Surat which will be investigated, Maharashtra police said yesterday. The trio has been identified as Pragnya Singh Chandrapal Singh Thakur (38) alias Sadhvi Purnachetnagiri, Shivnarayan Gopalsingh Kalsangra (36) and Shyam Sabarlal Sahu (42).

"There is no specific organisation to which the three belong though we have found pamphlets of the Jai Vande Mataram Jan Kalyan Samiti which Pragnya Singh founded in 2002,", Joint Commissioner of Police (ATS) Hemant Karkare said. Sahu, who owned a mobile telephone store, and Kalsangra also set up an organisation called Rashtriya Jagran Manch in Indore, he said.

The Joint Commissioner denied they had found any links between the trio and other right wing groups like Sanatan Sanstha in Maharashtra whose members were accused of carrying out blasts in Navi Mumbai and Thane earlier this year.

Karkare declined to confirm if the trio was involved in the blast in Gujarat's Modasa town on September 29 in which a motorcycle bomb was used. He denied there was any evidence to show that they were involved in any previous blasts, including the multiple bomb explosions in Malegaon, a communally sensitive town in North Maharashtra, in September 2006.

The police have recovered some right wing literature and mobile phones from the trio and the contents of the phone were being investigated, Karkare said. ATS officials declined to say how many persons were currently being questioned in connection with the blasts and if others had been picked up for questioning. Pragnya Singh, originally from Leher in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh, was a resident of Surat who travelled across the country. The two men are residents of Indore, Karkare said.

The trio was tracked down on the basis of the motorcycle used in the blast which was allegedly owned by Pragnya Singh, police said. "The registration plate was fake, and they had attempted to erase other details like the engine and chassis number but we were able to trace it," Karkare said.

The motorcycle was traced to Surat and was found to be in the Sadhvi's name and when confronted by it she was unable to give a suitable explanation on how it went missing, he said. The Joint Commissioner said the conspiracy to carry out the blast in the powerloom town was hatched between the three but more persons could be involved.

The three were placed under arrest in Mumbai and have been booked under IPC Section 302 (murder), Indian Explosives Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Asked about the allegation in the remand application that the trio indulged in a 400-minute conversation following the blast in Malegaon, he said "we are verifying the details of the conversation and other facts."
www.timesnow.com:coffee:

 

[kingfisher99]

whoever the culprits must be brought to book.no one must be spared.

 

[Patriot]

<sarcasm>Damn I hope Indians nukes does not fall in the hands of Hindu Extremists through army...</sarcasm>

 

[su-47]

whoever the culprits must be brought to book.no one must be spared.

exactly. this must be a lesson to all. some hindu extremists think they can avoid the law, especially after gujarat riots in 2002. let this be a lesson to all that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law.

india should do more to ensure that law is more independent of politics.

 

[Goodperson]

exactly. this must be a lesson to all. some hindu extremists think they can avoid the law, especially after gujarat riots in 2002. let this be a lesson to all that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law.

india should do more to ensure that law is more independent of politics.

Second it, Terrorism is not the way to respond

 

[haviZsultan]

exactly. this must be a lesson to all. some hindu extremists think they can avoid the law, especially after gujarat riots in 2002. let this be a lesson to all that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law.

india should do more to ensure that law is more independent of politics.

Chaa gaya hai tu...
we need more indians like u mate...

The protection of minorities is a huge responsibility not only for you indians but for us as well. I have lost some members of my indirect family in India. My own cousin lost his sister and shifted from india in hyderabad riots and is quite famous here...

We all gotta stop the fanatics in our countries man. They create situations where minorities are forced into cheap *** situations.

 

[haviZsultan]

<sarcasm>Damn I hope Indians nukes does not fall in the hands of Hindu Extremists through army...</sarcasm>

lolz....

The American parliament is discussing the possibility of Indian nukes falling into the hands of right wing radicals of Shiv Sena who may use it on Orissa's Christian minority. An emergency plan is also being discussed as to what action the government would take if such a thing is to happen

lol:

How did i do?

 

[Neo]

<sarcasm>Damn I hope Indians nukes does not fall in the hands of Hindu Extremists through army...</sarcasm>

Touch&#233;!

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Cliché!

Or did you mean Touche?

 

[Neo]

Or did you mean Touche?

Ofcourse...what else?

 

[Logic note]

<sarcasm>Damn I hope Indians nukes does not fall in the hands of Hindu Extremists through army...</sarcasm>

Well If I see some forum members perspective they already have got nukes
(India is group of extremist hindus)

 

[dr.umer]

Source: Ap, Nashik/ The Daily Star: Internet Edition

Police have arrested three Hindus on suspicion of planting a bomb that killed five people in a market crowded with Muslim shoppers last month, an official said Friday.

Public prosecutor RJ Misar said the two men and one woman were suspected of planting a crude bomb on a motorcycle that killed five people and wounded 30 others on Sept. 30. The blast in Malegaon, 180 miles northeast of Mumbai, went off as Muslims were shopping, ahead of breaking their Ramadan fast.

Malegaon has long been the scene of violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims, who make up 75 percent of the town's 500,000 residents.

A chief judicial magistrate ordered them held until Nov. 3.

Here is little more on this from Washington Post

Four Hindus Charged in Fatal Indian Bombing​

NEW DELHI, Oct. 24 -- Four Hindus have been arrested and charged in a bombing that killed five people last month, Indian counterterrorism police said Friday.

The arrests signaled a change of course for police, who have blamed Muslim extremists for a wave of bombings that have killed more than 145 people across the country since May.

A group called the Indian Mujahideen has asserted responsibility for some of the attacks, and police have arrested dozens of Muslims who they say belong to that and another Muslim student group.

But several human rights groups accuse the police of an anti-Muslim bias and say they are arresting Muslims at random. India, a Hindu-majority country, has about 130 million Muslim citizens.

The attack last month, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, occurred in the town of Malegaon, near Mumbai. The bomb used in the attack was placed on a motorcycle and exploded amid a crowd.

Police said the four suspects are under investigation for their alleged association with Hindu radical groups.

One of the suspects, Pragya Singh, calls herself a "sadhvi," which means saint. She was detained by Mumbai authorities on allegations that she was linked to the motorcycle used in the attack. Police said Singh, who is in her late 20s, might also have helped plan the attack.

"There was a lot of effort to hide the ownership of the motorcycle," said Hemant Karkare, chief of the Mumbai Anti-Terror Squad. "They have tried to erase the engine and chassis numbers with chemicals. The registration number was bogus."

Singh's father, Chandrapal Singh, however, told reporters that even if the motorcycle belonged to his daughter, she was a spiritual being and was not capable of hurting innocent people.

Media reports said Pragya Singh has been associated with the student wing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the women's wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or the World Hindu Council.

Karkare said pamphlets of several Hindu extremist groups were recovered during the arrests.

Milind Marathe, the national vice president of the student wing of the BJP, said police had not named his organization in the probe. "The media is sensationalizing the news, and we are thinking of taking legal action against them," he said.

In the past two decades, Indians have been deeply divided over the rise of Hindu nationalist forces across the country. Several of the groups say the government has appeased the narrow interests of religious minorities, and some have called for India to be declared a Hindu nation.

Members of these groups have been accused of involvement in recent attacks on Christians in the eastern state of Orissa.

Calls for a ban on extremist Hindu groups, including Vishwa Hindu Parishad, have gained momentum among some political groups.

"We have been asking for a ban on these groups for so long, but the country was not willing to listen to us," said Laloo Prasad Yadav, India's railway minister and a BJP opponent. "All these groups are somehow connected to the BJP."