Is Pakistan to Blame?

The Malagaon Blasts have been linked to officers in the Indian military (Photo: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/5328104.stm)

Ayesha Ijaz Khan, 2 December 2008, asks Is Pakistan to Blame? (Main News)

Among the points she makes:

1. Indian television portrays Pakistan as the culprit of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.

(No doubt Indian TV, and Pakistan TV, are controlled by the CIA - Aangirfan)

2. Four times previously the Indian government falsely accused Lashkare Taiba of sponsoring violent incidents in India.

1. The Chittisinghpura massacre.

2. The attack on the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001.

3. The Malagaon blasts.

4. The Samjhota Express incident.

Photo from http://www.panthic.org/news/116/ARTICLE/2470/2006-05-14.html

A. In the Chittisinghpura incident, on 20 March 2000, one day before President Bill Clinton was due to arrive in India, 35 Sikhs were killed in the village of Chattisinghpura.

It was said that about 15 uniformed men belonging to Lashkare Taiba and trained in Pakistan were responsible.

Five days later, five men were killed by paramilitary forces in a village called Pathribal, claiming that the “foreign militants” responsible for the Sikh massacre had been found and duly eliminated.

When local village people protested, investigations began.

When the final results of the investigation were made public, it was found that local police were responsible for the massacre of the Sikhs.

Lt Colonel Srikant Purohit, from Indian military intelligence, was reportedly involved in several blasts.

B. (The September 2006 Malegaon bombings were a series of bomb blasts that took place in Malegaon, a town in the Indian state of Maharashtra, some 290 km to the northeast of Mumbai.

The explosions killed at least 37 people.

According to Maharashtra Police, in November 2006, the blasts were the work of the Student Islamic Movement of India.[1]

However, on 8 November, 2008, the Maharashtra Anti Terror Squad revealed that Lt Colonel Srikant Purohit of the Indian military was involved in a blast that killed people in Malegaon in September 2007.

The Anti Terror Squad indicted Purohit for supplying the RDX used in the blasts. (ATS Investigations show Purohit procured RDX /Indian officer held over blasts )

The Anti Terror Squad has also found out that Purohit attended secret meetings of the 'fascist' Hindu group Abhinav Bharat.

It has been reported that Lt Col Srikant Prasad Purohit, the Army officer arrested in the Malegaon case, was involved in other blasts as well. (More detained as Purohit probe spreads to blast in Nanded 2006 ) )

Photo from blog.sajithm.com/.../

C. The Samjhota Express incident.

On 18 February 2007, two bombs went off near the Indian city of Panipat on the Samjhota Express, between Lahore and Delhi.

The terrorist attack, which killed 68 (mostly Pakistanis; On Indian soil) and injured many others was blamed once again on Lashkare Taiba.

Indian authorities claimed that the alleged perpetrator was named Rana Shaukat Ali and a photograph of the terrorist was provided.

Four months later, investigations revealed that neither Rana nor Lashkare Taiba but a serving lieutenant colonel of the Indian army, Lt. Col. Purohit was responsible for the attack.

Purohit, it was found, had links with Hindu militant groups and provided training to extremists.

3. For Pakistan, the most troubling aspect of the 26 November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai is the fact that the three brave men who had been tasked with finalizing the findings of both the Samjhota Express incident and the Malegaon blasts linking Lt. Col. Purohit conclusively to the terrorist attacks were all killed.

Mr. Hemant Karkare, in charge of the investigation, was one of the first people shot by the terrorists, followed by DIG Ashok Kale and encounter specialist Vijay Salazar.

If this is a coincidence, it is definitely a godsend for the extremist Hindu groups and the right-wing BJP, waiting to unseat the Congress government in the upcoming elections. But many in Pakistan suspect something more sinister may be involved.

4. It is alleged that the perpetrators of the 26/11 violence entered Mumbai by sea and arrived by trawlers from Karachi.

Karachi is 500 nautical miles from Mumbai; not an easy distance to cover in a trawler.

Even if one were to assume that this was the case, India has twenty-one separate radar systems that monitor the coastal line between Karachi and Mumbai.

More importantly, Sir Creek is the un-demarcated boundary along the Arabian Sea and the Rann of Kutch, straddling Pakistan’s Sindh province and the Indian state of Gujarat.

This is both an international border and a source of dispute between India and Pakistan. The 1965 war between the two nations began at the Rann of Kutch.

In August 1999, a Pakistani surveillance aircraft was shot down by the Indian Air Force in the Rann of Kutch.

The area is heavily patrolled.

How the trawler made it all the way to Mumbai without being detected is a mystery, especially since fishermen on both sides of the border, both Indian and Pakistani, regularly find themselves apprehended as they mistakenly cross over into hostile territory.

Every year, both countries arrest hundreds of fishermen for illegal intrusion.

Fishermen complain that they don’t know whose side they are on because of the dispute.

Every time Pakistan and India decide to re-start their peace process, one of the first measures taken is the release of the poor fishermen, who are caught and detained, through no fault of their own, their boats confiscated upon arrest.

But somehow the trawler dodged all patrols and made it all the way to Mumbai.

Regular procedure for boats and ships docking at Mumbai entails thorough checks, but it appears that the terrorist trawler was able to evade that as well.

5. The main perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorism were the Israelis in Nariman House, the Germans at the two hotels, and the RSS at the other locations.

They were already in position in Mumbai on the 26th.

Finally one 'Pakistani' is produced after the fake incident, who sings the Indian hymn in perfect English of course.

6. The bodies of the 9 other "Terrorists" killed, and produced by the Mumbai authorities could be anyone.

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Ayesha Ijaz Khan is a London-based lawyer and political commentator and can be contacted via her website http://www.ayeshaijazkhan.com/