In the police story, Atif was the Indian Mujahideen mastermind who designed and coordinated the five blasts that went off in three crowded New Delhi shopping centres. Sajid was supposedly Atif’s close aide. The police claim the Special Cell team had received information that two of those suspected in the blasts were at Jamia Nagar. At about 10:30am, a subinspector posing as a Vodafone salesman knocked on the door of the fourth-floor flat in L-18 Batla House. The residents of the house said they didn’t want the Vodafone offer. As was arranged, the sub-inspector sent a signal to Sharma by giving him a missed call. Minutes after getting the cue, Sharma was up the stairs with six other officers. As he entered the flat, men rushed out of another room and opened fire at him. Sharma fell to the ground, and the bullet aimed at him hit a constable. The shootout continued. Sharma was pulled out and taken to the Holy Family Hospital, closeby. The police later said Sharma was bleeding heavily. By then, the police had taken over the area and cordoned it. Later, the police claimed that the shootout had accounted for three terrorists: two dead, one arrested. The police said two others escaped. An AK-47 assault rifle along with two .30 pistols and a computer were recovered from the alleged hideout, a seizure the police would have to prove once the trial starts. read it all
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Valson Thampu on Communal terrorism
Kandhamal, terrorism and national integration
Valson Thampu The Hindu Oct 15, 2008| When the state that fights terrorism of one kind remains an onlooker in the face of terrorism of another variety, the faith of citizens in the state is at stake. |
“You cannot begin to help the world,” said Confucius, “unless you begin to call things by their right names.”
What has been staged over the last several weeks in Kandhamal and areas adjoining it is, quite simply, terrorism by broad daylight. The fact that a veneer of religious zeal, peppered by calculations of mega electoral profit, is cast over it does not make it any less so. The seed of this national shame lies in the inability or unwillingness of the law-enforcing agencies in Orissa to book the killers of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati and his followers. This would have, perhaps, arrested the ongoing carnage. It is regrettable that the swamiji was killed and justice must be done with respect to the killing. But, surely, raping nuns, killing priests, burning down churches and houses and driving thousands of innocent citizens into the forest are no way to bring justice to the late swamiji.
Terrorism must be identified not by who resorts to it, but by the nature and purpose of what is done. Our repugnance to atrocities should not depend on the religious identity of the perpetrators or their victims. It cannot be that avenging individuals or groups of a certain religious identity who resort to burning, killing, rape, destruction and spreading panic are not terrorists; whereas their counterparts in some other faith resorting to blasts and assaults are. All those who mock the rule of law belong together and have to be treated alike. To countenance terrorism of one kind is to lend legitimacy to terrorism of every other kind. more
Sunday, October 12, 2008
NHRC: “Partial reports” not appropriate
Godhra commission’s findings are partial: NHRC
New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission on Sunday termed the diametrically opposite findings of two inquiry commissions on Godhra train carnage “partial reports” and said such government-constituted probe panels had no “independence”.
Referring to the reports of the Nanavati and Banerjee Commissions, NHRC chairperson Justice S. Rajendra Babu said it was not appropriatee for any inquiry commission to submit a partial report considering its wide ramifications.
“One thing that is normally not done is partial report. Both Nanavati and Banerjee gave partial reports,” Mr. Babu told PTI here. more
Rajnath Singh, BJP President opens his heart and mind - read the blog comments
'Anti-Christian violence a result of Hindu anger'
First Published : 11 Oct 2008 12:16:00 PM IST
Last Updated : 11 Oct 2008 04:34:39 PM IST
NEW DELHI: While distancing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the Bajrang Dal, party president Rajnath Singh has stopped short of blaming the rightwing outfit for continuing anti-Christian violence and attributed it to "Hindu anger" against forcible conversions instead.
"The Bajrang Dal is not part of the BJP," Singh told IANS in an interview here at a time when there is speculation that the government may ban the outfit which is said to be behind the attacks on Christians.Singh said he had directed the BJP-ruled states, namely, Orissa and Karnataka, to investigate these incidents and take "appropriate action".
Incidents of Christians being killed, priests being attacked, a nun being raped, and churches and homes being burnt down have been reported almost every day after the Aug 23 murder of a religious Hindu leader. At least 35 people have died in the violence in Orissa since then.
Even the BJP's prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani has condemned the attacks - mostly attributed to the Bajrang Dal that is an offshoot of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad - but Singh chose to lay the blame on "forcible conversions" by Christian missionaries.
"Hindu anger and resentment against large-scale forcible conversions is the root cause of anti-Christian riots in both the states," he said. He was convinced it could end only if strong measures were put in place to "stop forcible, or by allurement, conversions of Hindus by Christian missionaries".
He said every conversion should be verified to ensure that missionaries have not forced a person or offered any sort of allurement to convert a Hindu to Christianity.
"The government should look into finding a way to verify this. Whenever a Hindu converts to Christianity, there should be verification by district authorities to the state that the conversion is not by force or after extension of any allurement such as promise of money or food.
"There should be a verification document with the person who has been converted. If such a system is put in place, there will be no opportunity for this sort of violence."
"There is a need to go into the root cause. We very strongly feel that Christian missionaries should not be allowed to give allurement to Hindus or for that matter anyone to convert them," Singh said.
"Missionaries have been allowed into the country to serve the people and not convert them." He alleged that "the poor are allured by the missionaries to convert. Why is it that we never hear of the rich and well-to-do Hindus converting to Christianity?"
Singh denied that his party was playing the communal card with an eye on the coming assembly polls in some states and the general elections.
"Someone should answer why communal riots take place only when there is Congress rule? This is because the Congress has adopted the policy of appeasement since partition," Singh said even though it was the BJP that was in power at the centre and the state when the worst communal clashes in India's recent history took place in Gujarat in 2002.
Insisted Singh: "The minorities under the Congress rule feel they can get away with anything and so they try to take advantage. The Congress has since the beginning thought on Hindu-Muslim lines or on religious lines. They have granted reservation on religious lines too. It is all about vote bank politics".
He said the BJP is profiled as communal because "we are not afraid to take tough action (against Muslim extremists) unlike the Congress which has played a cruel joke on the country by ending Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). It is on this plank that we will return to power as we did in Gujarat. We will recapture Delhi." source
Some comments on this article are available at the source
Here are more comments from some blogs
1. http://sauvik-antidote.blogspot.com/
2.http://aristotlethegeek.wordpress.com/
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Loopholes in Nanavati report
Nanavati report loophole, blaze theory under cloud
Published on Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 10:27, Updated on Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 12:44 in 
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"It is not just the DSP giving his deposition but also corroborated by medical evidence. Every single injury report says the same thing that there is a deep inhalation of smoke and the affect is on the upper part of the lungs and the burn injuries are head, shoulder or hand. Not a single injury below the waist," lawyer Mukul Sinha pointed out.
A petty criminal Jabir Binyamin Behera allegedly confessed to the police that Maulana Umarji along with others had conspired to burn coach S6. But Jabir's mother says he was tortured by the police.
"He was tortured by the police and forced to admit about the conspiracy. The police also threatened to kill him. He still has injury marks on his face," Jabir's mother Haneefa Benjamin Behera said.
While Umarji's family are hoping that they will get justice from the Supreme Court.
"He has retracted his statements before POTA court and also filed an affidavit about the police torture. We have also produced the same in the Supreme Court," Umarji's family said.
The police have claimed that Jabir named a petrol pump owned as the source from where 140 litres of petrol was bought by two men - Ranjit Singh Patel and Prabhat Singh Patel.
But in an investigation by newsmagazine Tehelka, alleged witness Ranjit Singh Patel told a different story.
"The police paid me Rs 50,000," Ranjeet Singh Patel said.
On enquiring further CNN-IBN got information on the location of Gujarat police's most guarded secret Prabhat Singh Patel.
But even before CNN-IBN could reach his remotely located house in Dhokra the policemen who guard him whisked him away.
There seem to be many loopholes in the Nanavati Commission Report and now it is for the Supreme Court to pass the final verdict. Read
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