Reopen All Investigations Into The Terror Attacks In Maharashtra
And Restructure The Anti-Terror Squad
By Feroze Mithiborwala & Kishore Jagtap
30 January, 2013
Countercurrents.org
To,
Mr. Munaf Hakim, Chairman,
State Minorities Commission,
Government of Maharashtra,
Mumbai.
Sub: Reopen investigations into all terror attacks in Maharashtra since 2002, as well as appoint new honest & secular officers in the ATS squad.
Respected Sir,
Firstly we wish to congratulate you for the courage you have shown in demanding that the NIA reopen the investigations of the Jalna, Purna, Parbhani & Nanded terror attacks. Thus including the list as below, we are now referring to a list of 17 terror attacks in Maharashtra alone.
We also congratulate the Union Home Minister Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde, as well as the Home Secretary Mr R. K. Singh for having stated that 10 RSS (though there are far more) & BJP activists are being investigated for their conspitorial role in fomenting the terror attacks in Malegaon, Samjhauta Express & Mecca Masjid.
Now since the lies of the last decade & more are unraveling before the entire nation & the truth is there for all to see, we further demand that all the terror attacks that have taken place in Maharashtra in the last decade & till the recent terror attacks, all be reinvestigated.
We therefore demand that the following terror attacks be reinvestigated & they are as follows:
Mumbai: Our city is clearly the prime target of the terror attacks with 11 terror attacks.
- December 6, 2002 - Bomb goes off in a bus in Ghatkopar, killing 2
- January 27, 2003 - Bomb goes off on a bicycle in Vile Parle, killing 1
- March 14, 2003 - Bomb goes off in a train in Mulund, killing 10
- July 28, 2003 - Bomb goes off in a bus in Ghatkopar, killing 4
- August 25, 2003 - Two Bombs go off in cars near the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar, killing 50
- July 11, 2006 - Series of seven bombs go off in trains, killing 209
- February 20, 2008 : A bomb is planted at Cineraj cinema hall in Panvel
- May 31, 2008 : A blast takes place at Vishnu Bhave Auditorium in Vashi
- June 4, 2008 : A bomb explodes in the parking lot of Thane's Gadkari Rangayatan theatre, injuring seven. A play, A m h i P a c h p u t e, was to be staged there.
- November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks: Do note that, there are a number of questions that are yet to be answered & thus we do demand a ‘ National Judicial Commission of Inquiry' to be constituted as well, as clearly the ‘Ram Pradhan Committee' inquiry is insufficient to say the least. The Interpol had stated that the 26/11 terror attacks were plotted from across 7 countries & all we have is a report that looked into the failings of the Mumbai & State security apparatus.
- July 13, 2012: A series of three coordinated bomb explosions at different locations in The blasts occurred at the Opera House, Zaveri Bazaar, and Dadar Kabootarkhana (West) localities, leaving 26 killed, and 130 injured .
Also note that in the case of Panvel, Vashi & Thane , the investigation agencies have arrested members of the Sanatan Santha , but yet the investigation needs to much deeper to further uncover the links with the national terror network.
Pune: This is another city that is key to unraveling the truth of the communal & fascist forces behind the terror attacks.
· February 13, 2010: Pune, German Bakery, killing 17 people, including five foreigners, and injuring 60.
· August 1, 2012: Pune Serial blasts, 1 injured.
Apart from the fact that the RSS-Sangh Parivar affiliates, such as the Abhinav Bharat, as well as the Sanatan Santha who are under the terror scanner, yet the Hindu Dharam Raksha Sena led by Dhanajay Desai is yet of the radar of the investigating agencies despite repeated warnings.
Dhanajay Desai is creating an underground armed militia & the sources of his finances (both national & international) & ammunition need to be tracked & exposed. Dhananjay Desai is forming a formidable army of unemployed lumpen youth from the slum areas of Mumbai & across India & this militia is a threat to the very harmony & integrity of our nation, much as the assorted Frankenstein-Lashkar's now pose to Pakistan. Dhanajay Desai's role in both the Pune terror attacks must specially be investigated, apart from his role in all the above terror attacks as well.
Bhonsla Military School in Nashik & all the young recruits numbering more than 5000 that underwent training under Lt. Col. Purohit, the founder-leader of the Abhinav Bharat also must be investigated.
The death of Shankar Shelke , a scrap dealer also needs to be investigated. As per the investigation of Shri Hemant Karkare, Shelke was involved in the smuggling of RDX that was being supplied from the Ahmednagar Military Ordnance Factory & was used in the Malegaon terror attack. Shelke is said to have committed suicide whilst in police custody. His wife continues to claim that her husband was murdered by the police so that the investigation into the supply of the RDX would fail to proceed further, as it clearly has.
We also demand that since the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) led earlier by both Mr. Raghuvanshi & now Mr. Rakesh Maria, having either willfully misled the investigations, or having proved to be incapable of pursuing the true perpetrators , must be made to resign from their current posts, suspended & an inquiry be instituted against all the police & intelligence officers involved in these investigations.
It is indeed a matter of shame for the Maharashtra-ATS, that it was the Rajasthan-ATS investigation that led to the truth of the Malegaon terror attacks, whilst the Maharashtra ATS was busy forging evidence & implicating innocent Muslims, many of whose families & lives they have destroyed, apart from tainting an entire community with a deep sense of guilt & fear.
There needs to be high degree of professional & moral accountability , as they just cannot play with the lives of ordinary people & thus examples must be set, lessons learnt. Heads must roll!!
Thus the ATS, which is the key to preempting & investigating terror must be led by honest, capable & secular police officials - & here do we have the example of Shri Shaheed Hemant Karkare.
Thus we also demand to know the exact status of the investigations based on the evidence that had been painstakingly collated by ex-ATS Chief Shri Shaheed Hemant Karkare.
The simple fact of the matter is that, if the Maharashtra ATS would have honestly investigated & apprehended the perpetrators way back in in 2002 & onwards, we would not have faced the fear of perpetual state terror & increasing communal polarization that we have all had to live with.
Thus we demand that the Government of Maharashtra ensure that the Anti-Terror Squad be reconstituted & the true perpetrators of the terror attacks in which innumerable innocent Hindus & Muslims have been killed, be apprehended & the law take its natural course.
Feroze Mithiborwala is a peace activist in Mumbai. He led the Asia to Gaza peace flotilla.
Kishore Jagtap is a Mumbai-based human rights and social activists
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