cem
Trustworthy Freedom Fighter
Joined: 28 May 2008
Posts: 484
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 Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:00 am Post subject: Top Indian Army officer arrested over bomb attack |
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5107111.ece
excerpt from 'Shock as top Indian Army officer arrested over bomb attack'
by Jeremy Page, Times, 8 November 2008
| Quote: | The Indian Army has been shocked by the arrest of a senior Military Intelligence officer on suspicion of involvement in a bomb attack by Hindu extremists in western India in September.
Colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit is the first serving officer in India's Army ― seen as a bastion of secularism since the country's independence in 1947 ― to be arrested on terrorism charges.
His detention is prompting calls for a ban on Hindu nationalist groups accused of stirring political violence, including recent attacks on Christians in eastern India, before national elections next year.
It may also force Indian authorities to investigate whether Hindu radicals were behind other recent bomb attacks, many of which have been blamed on Islamic extremists backed by Pakistan's intelligence service. |
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cem
Trustworthy Freedom Fighter
Joined: 28 May 2008
Posts: 484
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| Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:51 am Post subject: 'Hindu terrorism' debate grips India |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7739541.stm
excerpt from 'Hindu terrorism' debate grips India
by Zubair Ahmed, BBC, 21 November 2008
| Quote: | A new and highly controversial phrase has entered the sometimes cliche-riddled Indian press: "Hindu terrorism".
As with the term "Islamic terrorism" and "Christian fundamentalism", this latest addition to the media lexicon is highly emotive.
It was in the aftermath of the 29 September bomb blast in the predominantly Muslim town of Malegaon in the western state of Maharashtra that the term "Hindu terrorism" or "saffron terrorism" came to be used widely.
That was because the state police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested 10 Hindus following the blasts and has said that it wants to arrest several more.
Little-known
One of those detained was a female priest, Sadhwi Pragya Singh Thakur, aged 38, who has been accused by the ATS of being involved in the Malegaon blast. Her detention shocked members of the faith.
So too did the arrest of a serving Indian army officer, Lt-Col Prasad Srikant Purohit, who the ATS says is the prime accused in the case.
Police are investigating whether some of those arrested are members of a little-known Hindu outfit called Abhinav Bharat (Young India).
At least three of those held have some links with a prestigious college in the city of Nasik, the Bhonsala Military Academy.
ATS investigators have questioned two of the academy's former office bearers several times.
One of them was Col Raikar, who retired from the Indian army some months ago.
Both he and Col Purohit served in the same unit of the army and became friends.
The ATS claims the meeting in which the plan for the bomb blast was hatched was held in the Bhonsala school.
Another retired army officer, Maj Prabhakar Kulkarni, is also under arrest. He too was an office bearer at the school.
In addition, the ATS says that at least one of the 10 suspects received military training here.
Sadhwi Pragya Singh Thakur, Col Purohit, Maj Kulkarni and Col Raikar have denied any connection with terrorism, as has the Bhonsala Military Academy and its parent organisation, the Central Hindu Military Education Society (CHMES).
Founded in 1937, the sprawling Bhonsala campus is run by the CHMES, an organisation established in the 1930s by Dr BS Moonje, a former president of the militant Hindu Mahasabha (Hindu Assembly) organisation.
His vision was to militarise India to fight the British Raj.
Military-style training
As the name suggests, this is not an ordinary college.
Its aim, as its website claims, is to "encourage students to take up careers in the armed forces of the country".
Military training involves teaching students how to fire guns.
The students are prepared for the National Defence Academy, the central government's premier military college.
The branch of the academy in the city of Nasik has many impressive buildings.
One of them is used to impart military-style training to students, aged 10-16 years. |
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