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| Swami Aseemanand |
On the
midnight of 18-19 February 2007, India-Pakistan Samjhota Express train was
bombed in which 68 Pakistani nationals were killed. A Hindu extremist leader
Swami Aseemanand, a leader of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has confessed
that he was involved in several bombings incidents. He also claimed to have
been a part of the incident. In fact, ideology of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism)
prevails in every field at the cost of other minority groups. It is even
supported by Indian defense forces secretly. This could be judged from the
incident, when on April 6, 2008 in the house of Bajrang Dal fundamentalists in
Nanded, a bomb went off. The investigation proved that these militants were
found in the bomb-making and attack on a mosque in Parbhani in 2003.
Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra arrested a serving Lt. Col.
Srikant Purohit along with other army officials, indicating that they were
helping in training the Hindu terrorists, providing them with the military-grade
explosive RDX, used in the Malegaon bombings and terrorist attacks in other
Indian cities. ATS further disclosed that Lt. Col. Purohit confessed that in
2007, he was involved in bombing of Samjhota express, which burnt alive 68
Pakistanis.
India’s National
Investigation Agency (NIA) was convinced that Sadhu Swami Aseemanand, a Hindu
right-wing leader was directly involved in the Samjhota Express blast. Sources
in NIA further pointed out that besides Lt. Col. Purohit, other Indian army
officials were also behind that train-bombing. In this regard, a court in
Panchkula, Haryana has recorded Aseemanand’s statement which confirmed the NIA
inquiry. Aseemanand’s statement in the Samjhota Express blast case was recorded
under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code before a magistrate. His
earlier admission was recorded in the Mecca Masjid case, which was being probed
by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Sadhu Aseemanand stuck to his
confession that Hindutva radicals were behind the bomb attack on the Samjhota
Express. Aseemanand, Aka Naba and Kumar Sarkar, named absconding Hindutva
militants—Ramji Kaisangra and Sandeep Dange as the key plotters in that terror
attack.
Sources
of the NIA also disclosed that the confession in connection with the Samjhota
Express blast practically rules out the involvement of other groups. In the
Samjhota Express case, the probe team has found that the bomb used in the train
was kept in a suitcase that was bought from a shop of Indore’s Kothari Market.
The suitcase had cloth covers stitched by an Indian local tailor. The NIA was
now trying to get details of those who bought the suitcase and covers. It is
notable that Dr. J C Batra, who is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of
India, was asked to give opinion on Aseemanand’s confession. He appeared very
defensive and as usual started accusing Pakistan’s its primary intelligence
agency ISI—its so-called history for such activities, alleging that even this
could be an ISI plot. He further said that Swami’s statement does not have much
legal value as circumstantial evidence is also needed, while adding that RSS is
being wrongly implicated and there could be others involved who are not being
exposed. In this respect, a Pakistani parliamentarian, Mr. Mian Abdul Sattar, parliamentary
secretary for planning and development, who was accompanying him, later stated
that that he was told by Mr JC Batra that the Indian Army was involved in this
case and there “are efforts to shield it from getting exposed”.
Swami
Aseemanand also confessed in the court that several RSS preachers and Sang
activists were directly involved in planning, financing and executing Malegaon,
Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts. He stated that various
leaders of Hindu communal organizations including Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, Abhinav Bharat, Jai Vande Matram and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram were also
behind these blasts.
It is
mentionable that in various tapes, LT. Col Purohit said, “We are all on the
same plane, Hindu Rashtra (Nation)”. He even claimed that Gen. J J Singh is
“with us”. (Former Singh was Army Chief till Sept. 2007). Significantly,
Purohit mentioned that “one of our own captain had visited Israel”, and
demanded “continuous supply of arms, training, an office with a saffron flag in
Tel Aviv, political asylum and support for our cause of a Hindu Nation in the
UN.” The Israelis, he added, gave “a very positive response.” In this
connection, exposing the nexus between Bhartia Janta Party (BJP) and the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the then Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar
Shinde disclosed on January 20, 2013 that organized training camps run by the
fundamentalist parties, RSS and BJP were promoting Hindu Terrorism. He also
explained that these extremist parties were behind the Samjhauta Express,
Meccca Masjid and Malegaon blasts. He added, “We will have to think about it
(Saffron terrorism) seriously…Hindu extremist parties BJP and RSS were involved
many times in Hindu Muslim violence in India, especially Gujarat and Babri
masjid incident.”
The then
India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid endorsed Shinde’s statement,
saying that it was based on facts. Meanwhile, Indian Home Secretary R K Singh
revealed that during investigation the government had found ten names of the Hindu
extremists, associated with RSS, who were involved in these terror attacks
including Ajmer Sharif. Similarly on July 19, 2013, the Indian ex-investigating
officer Satish Verma disclosed that terror-attacks in Mumbai in November 26,
2008 and assault on Indian Parliament in January 12, 2001 were carried out by
the Indian government to strengthen anti-terrorism laws.
While,
India has always accused Pakistan’s ISI of these acts of terrorism, but it is
quite silent over Hindutva-terror which has obtained a new face, under the
fundamentalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Indian RAW, country’s
high officials and fundamentalist parties have co-relationship. Nevertheless,
despite the confessions of Swami Aseemanand, instead of taking action against
the culprits of the Samjhota Express explosion, the Supreme Court of India
accepted the bail of Swami Aseemanand after the covert interference of the
Modi-led authorities who changed the investigations in this respect in order to
weaken the case.
