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An Open Letter to India’s
Prime Minister
Hon'ble
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of
India;
New Delhi, India
Subject:
Hindus are seriously discriminated in
India and
persecuted in Muslim majority Kashmir Valley, a part of India. This irrational,
divisive and disintegrative policy must end to forestall another partition
Hon'ble
Prime Minister,
Recently we have sent a missive to
the P.M. of Pakistan bringing to his attention the deliberate policy of
discrimination, ethnic cleansing and political disenfranchisement of Hindus and
Sikhs in his country that threatens peace in the sub continent (Ref 1).
Yet
another reason behind this missive has been to ask your Govt. to examine its own
policy towards Hindus in
India
and notice some of the striking similarities between the two policies. How
shocking it is that the two Governments, one wearing the Islamic and the other
secular covers, supposedly heading towards two diametrically different
destinations and building entirely different polities follow largely similar
anti-Hindu policies.
1) Despite the secular character of
the Indian political system and theoretically its neutrality and equidistance
from all religious influences, the birth place of Hinduism i.e., India, is
grinding under the heals of an out right anti-Hindu policy matching the one
enforced by the Muslim Mogul tyrants who conquered, enslaved and plundered India
for centuries, killed and forcibly converted hundreds of lakhs of Hindus and
massively destroyed their culture and historic places of religious importance.
Many parts of this inimical policy towards the Indian Hindus were accepted as a
legacy from another imperial power, the British Raj, and adopted by the very
first Congress Govt. which took over the governance of India in 1947. In view of
such unending anti-Hindu hostility and subjugation imposed by all brands of
foreign and foreign trained Indian rulers, a sizable volume of Hindu populace
has come to believe that independence and freedom has remained as illusive for
them as before.
If there were any doubts about that
belief they were removed forever by your own categorical, undemocratic and
unconstitutional public declaration that the Muslims have the first claim upon
the national resources. You did not explain how a small minority
as against 80% Hindus could have that claim. Even Mr. M.A. Jinnah, the creator
of Pakistan, did not make this kind of a demagogic proclamation. Such
demagoguery by the Premier of the largest democracy in the world simply betrays
a lack of belief in democracy and exposes his extreme political opportunism.
Using the same divisive philosophy and ill-logical justification your Govt. has
afforded to Muslims and Christians a number of unconstitutional privileges.
These discriminatory tactics have become a vehicle of the administration for
polarizing Indian public pitting one community against the other on the basis of
religion, abetting distrust and hatred among Indians and building politically
motivated permanent walls of separation between the minorities and the
mainstream. This divisive policy has not only shredded but also poisoned the
concept of national unity: "one people”, “one nation” and “one flag”.
2)
How discriminatory and constitutionally unsound it
is that on the one hand the Indian Govt. subsidizes the "Hajj"
pilgrimage of the Muslims to over Rs. 800 crores annually, provides Rs. 1000
crores per year for Imams salaries, state Governments build Hajj houses, and
reservations are made on the basis of minority status, but on the other hand
they are crusading to destroy the self- supporting foundations and structures of
Hindu places of worship by bringing them under the control of hostile state
regimes? Without any legitimate authority these regimes also usurp their funds
and assets.
3)
It is highly
offensive for more than a billion Hindus worldwide that In the
Kashmir valley,
Hindus and Sikhs are persecuted as if in a totalitarian fundamentalist medieval
Islamic state. The global community cannot believe that India’s own Govt.,
largely the one created by Hindus, gives Muslims preferential status and looks
the other way when the J&K Adm. levies taxes (Jaziya) on vehicles transporting
pilgrims to Hindu shrines through the state, and when the Hindu religious and
educational institutions are destroyed.
With the help of the
federal Govt. the communal regime in J&K has succeeded to a large degree in
establishing the foundations of “Nizam-e-Mustafa”. Gone are the days when Indian
leaders in their determined and unwavering voices told the world that “Kashmir
is an integral and unbreakable part of India”.
Indian authorities have lost the courage to boldly state that the Islamist
upheaval in J&K is essentially a part of the “civilizational war” aiming at
denying freedom and breading inter-religious hatred to disintegrate India. This
policy deserves to be trashed and replaced by a well thought out “doctrine of
national integration”.
4)
Mr. Prime Minister, your
Administration owes truthful answers to the Indian nation as to why in utter
disregard of the principles of secularism the Muslims are awarded religion based
benefits?
a) As per your own pronouncement
why, despite being a small minority, do Muslims have the first claim on national
resources and why are they given special grants in the five year plans?
b)
Why was the infamous Sachar Commission created in an attempt to legitimize the
inadmissible treatment for Muslims?
c) Why
were unjustifiable reservations created in jobs, education and even in higher
institutions of learning like IITs and IIMs for Muslims?
d) Why are Muslim and Christian
students given disproportionately many more high value scholarships in
comparison to the SC and ST students, while the poor students from the so called
upper castes don't get even a "paisa"?
5)
How can your Administration
eradicate Terrorism, militancy and Jihad threatening
India’s national
security when its patronage and appeasement encourages them beyond
comprehension?
Major
Islamic terrorist strikes have taken place in
New Delhi, Bangalore,
Ahmadabad, Ayodhya, Mumbai, Varanasi, Hyderabad, Malegaon, Panipat, Ajmer,
Ludhiana, Lucknow, Faizabad, Kashmir, Jammu and multiple attacks in Assam, etc.
killing Hindu men, women and children by the thousands. In these terrorist
attacks nothing, not even Govt. offices, Parliament, court houses, hospitals,
police, railway and bus stations and above all Hindu temples, homes and market
places were spared. This should give an idea about the magnitude and strength of
the terrorist networks and organizations within India engaged in executing
anti-India and anti-Hindu agendas at their time of choice. Even the Ex-Home
Minister Patil admitted that presently there were more than 800 terrorist cells
in India. It should be worth noting that in the
US not a
single terrorist attack has taken place after the one at the World Trade Center
in New York. The reason for the collapse of terrorist attacks by Islamists has
been the stringent preventive measures taken by the US Homeland Security
Administration For want of political support the Indian regime seems to be so
compromised that it can think of taking such measures only on its own peril.
6) A Govt.
dependant upon the support by minor groups is compelled to adopt policies
patronizing minorities and in the process penalize majority and its religion,
Hinduism. There exist volumes of evidence to prove this contention. A few
irrefutable instances are:-
a) violating the faith of over a
billion (100 crores) Hindus by questioning the existence of Lord Ram and calling
him a mythical being and by supporting demolition of Ram Sethu to further
inflict injury upon the majority community's sensitivities, faith and religious
practices;
b) Letting states usurp temples and
their properties in an attempt to regulate Hinduism, control the Hindu religious
infrastructure for Govt. profiteering and to sabotage the self sufficiency of
shrines;
c) remaining indifferent on the
arrest of the most revered H.H. Kanchi Shankaracharya in Tamil Nadu, on phony
charges over five years ago. Though out of jail now he is not yet exonerated.
This has rendered a prime Hindu religious institution dysfunctional;
d) Unable to control Islamic and
Maoist terrorism, diverting public attention by concocting the phony idea of
Hindu terrorism and arresting Sadhvi Pragya;
e) Enforcing religion based
reservations and Hajj subsidies for Muslims in violation of the secular
constitution thus resurrecting the Mogul Jaziya tax on Hindus;
f) Remaining indifferent, inactive
and silent on the cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs in Kashmir and on the continuous
demolition of their history and religious infrastructure;
7)
Hindu
Institutions are being destroyed at an unprecedented Scale in Kashmir -- The law
and order situation in the Valley since 1986 has deteriorated progressively and
desecration of temples has become the order of the day.
The process of desecration,
looting, vandalizing and the destruction of temples has continued in J&K under
the anti-Hindu Islamic rule through generations with the intent to wipe out all
traces of religious and cultural symbols of Hindus. These targets besides the
temples included libraries, schools, universities and ashrams. After the
departure of the British colonials and
Kashmir’s accession to the
Union of India in 1947, the destruction and desecration of temples under the new
Islamic regimes wearing secular turbans received added impetus and acceleration.
Dr. Singh, you have earned the distinction of being the
Premier during whose time
Kashmir became
the first “sharia state” in secular India.
No Islamist or Pakistani could boast of having scored such an achievement. Being
yourself a refugee from Pakistan and knowing what Pak. Muslim regimes have done
to both Sikhs and Hindus, the Indian nation expected much better from your Govt.
8)
Going back to the calculated
conversion and subversion of Kashmir -
Temple lands, cremation grounds and other such entities belonging to Hindus were
usurped and utilized for the expansion of the Islamic populace. The famous
Bhairavnath temple of
Chattabal, Srinagar was locked up by the police. More than half a century has
passed but the judicial case pending in court concerning this historic temple
was never allowed to be decided. What an example of independent judiciary!
Precious lands around Hari Parbat hill, Durganag temple of Srinagar
and lands at several Hindu places of worship in the Valley were slowly and
steadily turned into lands under occupation of the Muslim trusts (Maqboozai-Ahali-Islam).
In 1967,
Shivala temple, Chotta Nazar,
Srinagar was desecrated.
Again in 1984 Shri Hanuman temple at Hari Singh High Street was damaged and in
the same year Arya Samaj temple of Wazir Bagh,
Srinagar was burnt down. All these communal hate crimes were claimed to be part
of the struggle for freedom.
A list of
numerous Temples desecrated and damaged in Kashmir from 1990 to December 1992
may be seen in Attachment A.
These examples represent only a fraction of the
systematic mass destruction of thousands of temples in J&K after independence of
India when the Islamists assumed the total and unfettered control of the state.
They are listed in detail in our letter of February 21, 2008 to Chief Minister
Ghulam Nabi Azad of J&K (Ref 2) .
9) Hon'ble Dr. Singh, the
government's indifference towards the temple security and their functioning can
only be interpreted as tacit support of the persecution of Hindus and the denial
of their religious freedom: the Govt. must realize that the temples and their
endowments have been built over the centuries by our forefathers and therefore,
it is the community which is their real owner. Accordingly the community must
have the final say in the management and utilization of temple resources and
management of educational institution as is allowed for institutions of other
religions.
The Indian Parliament adopted a law in 1991 specifically requiring that –“the
status of religious places, as on
August 15, 1947
shall be retained".
Accordingly it is obligatory upon the Govt. to maintain the integrity of
religious entities as it stood in 1947 throughout the country. The J&K Govt.
while flouting the national law, very conveniently divorced itself from this
commitment. Characteristically the Indian authorities looked the other way.
10)
Given the militant exposition,
aggressive domineering traits and expansionist designs of the majority Muslim
community - the Hindus and Sikhs as a minority in J&K need & must get special
protection, reserved representation, scholarships, admissions, Govt. jobs,
contracts etc. as is afforded to Muslims as a minority in India ;
Formation of a Waqf-like autonomous Hindu Board
for Hindu institutions' and their governance under the Hindu community’s
guidance is essential:
Dr. Singh, we strongly believe that for social, religious, educational and
community affairs & services and temple administration there must be a
representative autonomous Hindu Board with full jurisdiction over temple
governance and management. Since the right of freedom to manage religious
places is available to the Muslim community across
India,
which also constitutes the majority in the state, where is the justification to
deny this right to Hindus?
11)
The Islamist Govt. of J&K is playing
a dangerous game -- while a part of India, they are surreptitiously and brazenly
doing everything to cleanse the state from non- Muslims (particularly Hindus,
Sikhs and Buddhists) to transform it into a Nizam-e-Mustafa, eventually a
forerunner for the second partition of India. The recent Mutiny
cry from Mosques should leave us in no doubt about their ultimate objective.
(Attachment B). The cleansing of Hindus from the valley started in a similar
fashion more than 20 years ago. Similarly in the South Kerala Chief Minister, V
S Achuthanandan, has warned the nation that the radical outfit Popular Front of
India (PFI) was aiming to convert Kerala into a Muslim majority state in the
next 20 years (Attachment C).
Temples, Gurdwaras, Churches,
Mosques and Monasteries are places of worship and not for unleashing violence,
militancy and schemes to plunder, murder and kill. But that is exactly what the
mosques in J&K are used for as fortress and cells of Jihad. Every single
directive, scheme or plan against India and non-Muslims is hatched there and
then given to Umma at large for execution. Authorities in the state and New
Delhi have full knowledge of the abuse and exploitation of Islam in this fashion
yet not a single mullah or a mosque leader has been apprehended. Under
secularism which your administration claims to believe in religious and places
of worship are supposed to be off limits to politics. Yet Muslims have all along
flouted and seriously violated this legal and national disciplinary tradition.
Strangely enough the authorities do not even question the mosque hierarchies
about this abuse of religious properties. You might remember Dr. Singh when your
leader Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to storm into the Golden
Temple to apprehend the Sikh militants and confiscate their weaponry. Why that
policy is not being put to use in case of mosques in Kashmir? Justifiably there
also exists a strong case for the Govt. to exclude these properties from the
“tax exempt” status.
12)
To instill fear among Sikhs,
Hindus and Buddhists recently a Sikh boy's hair was chopped off in
Kashmir by
radical Islamists when he refused to recite kalma and become a Muslim.
This latest hate crime ignited public protests, agitation, condemnation and
demonstrations throughout J&K and all non-Muslim minorities with one voice
demanded action against the criminals who deliberately participated in this
savagery. Neither the federal nor state authorities have taken into custody the
people responsible for perpetrating such heinous crimes. Earlier during the
intense anti-India and anti-Hindu agitation massacres of the Sikh population in
the inner regions of Kashmir took place and shamelessly the people in power
failed to take necessary action to enforce law. In the present case the young
man, his family and the entire Sikh community deserve appropriate compensation
and an apology from the Govt. for this unbelievably serious hate crime.
13) Hon'ble Prime Minister: Please note the following
developments during the past six decades in J&K:
** Intensity of the Jihadi strife in J&K;
** complete ethnic cleansing of non-Muslim in
the Kashmir region;
** Their disenfranchisement and hounding them
out of their natural and traditional habitat by the Islamists, followers of
Osama bin laden and Pakistan;
** Illegal occupation of non-Muslim movable
and non-movable properties;
**massacres, kidnappings, forcible
conversions; destruction of non-Muslim places of worship;
** Open hostility towards India, Hindus, Sikhs
and Indian army;
** Slogan mongering by millions asserting “we
are Pakistanis”;
** Demand of virtual independence or greater
autonomy;
** Discriminative policies towards minorities;
** replacing traditional names of significant
places and monuments with Muslim ones;
** Complete Islamization of Kashmir region;
** Pilgrimage to Hindu religious places only
under Islamists conditions;
** Attacks and murders of Hindu pilgrims who
dared to visit Hindu shrines;
** Imposition of Jaziya tax upon Hindu
pilgrims;
** Extra territorial loyalty, loyalty to Osama
Bin Laden, Pakistan and not to mother country;
** Unequal allocation of resources & eco-aid
to non-Muslim regions of the state;
** Electoral gerrymandering to deny
representation to pro-India minorities;
** “Quit J&K” campaign against India, Indian
army and every thing Indian;
** setting up Muslims colonies and towns in
non-Muslim regions;
** Destruction of pluralism in favor of
communalism & separatism;
** Raising Pakistani flags and burning
tri-colors;
** Chanting provocative & offensive slogans
like:
Kashmir Mein Agar
Rehna Hai – Illah o Akbar Kehna Hai
Azadi Ka Matlab
Kiya – La illaha illalaha
Ai Zalimo Ai
Katilo - Kashmir Hamara Chhod Do
Asi Gachi Pakistan – Batav Ross Ta
Batnev Saan
Yehan Kiya Banega –
Nizam-e-Mustafa
These and other highly provocative,
anti-national, anti-Hindu developments under the Muslim regimes in Kashmir have
vindicated the demand by the nationalist forces and provided immeasurable
justification for the four-way reorganization of J&K state providing autonomous
homes for Pandits & Sikhs of Kashmir; Muslims of Kashmir; Buddhists of Ladakh
and Dogras of Jammu. Taking note of the above developments no
Indian worth his or her salt should force patriotic Kashmiris to be ruled by the
people whose loyalty and religious affiliation lies with a country built on
anti-India and anti-Hindu foundations.
14) Without
meaning to be personal, Dr. Singh, when you yourself did not accept such
conditions and escaped from Pakistan to live in free India how can your Govt.
ask the patriotic Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs of J&K to risk their lives, faith
and future and live under the tyranny of a hateful Islamic regime?
These Islamists are unwilling and unable to modify their perceptions because
terrorism and Wahabbism brings them greater rewards through Pakistan and Petro-dollars.
That unlike Kashmiri Muslims 14 crore Indian Muslims live in harmony with 80
crore Hindus does not convince them for making a course correction. Accordingly
J&K's patriotic column must not be forced to surrender before the unpatriotic
secessionists, separatists and communalists who do not consider India to be
their motherland. In the fast changing world situation it is only a matter of
time when the federal leadership will have to consider the reorganization plan.
The Dogras, Pandits, Sikhs, Buddhists and others have always opposed the
ill-logical Kashmir policy of federal authorities.
At no
price are they willing to sacrifice their age old societies, cultures and
homelands, at the alter of New Delhi’s unsustainable, perverted and illusionary
secularism. Ignoring the patriotic thought process and flirting with
secessionists & communalists may prolong the life of the Govt. in office but
ultimately it will cost India so dearly. Sacrificing national interest for
temporary partisan gain is the greatest sin any party can commit.
15)
Hon'ble Dr.
Singh -- In conclusion we respectfully urge you to:
a) Take immediate measures for ending
Vote banks politics (VBP) that has become a major tool for promoting divisive
regionalism, communalism, minorityism & political corruption. Regrettably VBP
has been introduced solely for gaining electoral advantages by engineering and
promoting fragmentation and division in the general public. In time its role has
transcended the electoral domain and is now being used to illegally and
unethically reward participating members with political, economic, educational,
religious, employment and other advantages. They are also utilized as
instruments to fracture Hindu society into castes, sub-castes, Dalits, OBCs and
tribes and defectors are handsomely rewarded.
b)
For Jammu & Kashmir:
i) In
order to protect and defend the nationalist segments of the Kashmiri population,
in addition to taking necessary political measures, Govt. must also take prompt
action for safeguarding Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist educational institutions,
temples and their properties from illegal sales. Therefore, all sales that took
place after 1988 be declared as “sales under duress.” Your long standing
diplomatic and administrative skills and resources could be extremely helpful to
enforce the provisions of the secular Constitution of India in this turmoil torn
state.
ii) Almost all of the budgetary
expenditures in the J&K state are gifted by the Indian Govt. with taxes mostly
paid by Hindus. Surely these taxpayers do not fund the Kashmir Govt. so it could
destroy the age old foundations of Hinduism and its infrastructure for realizing
the forced talibanization of the state. Equality for all, irrespective of
religious background as specified by the Indian Constitution must be guaranteed
here as well.
iii)
We further urge
that the absolutely illegal Jaziya tax levied on vehicles carrying Hindu
pilgrims in the state be abolished forthwith and the harassment of pilgrims by
the state officials and Islamists must be made punishable under law. We must
again restate that
India pays over
Rs. 800 crores per year as subsidy to Muslims for Hajj. Least the J&K regime
could do in return is to abolish these draconian practices.
c) With
the provocative anti- national, anti- Hindu developments during the past six
decades detailed earlier, to save the minority non- Muslims, the demand by the
nationalist forces has immeasurable justification for the four-way
reorganization of J&K state providing autonomous homes for Pandits & Sikhs of
Kashmir; Muslims of Kashmir; Buddhists of Ladakh and Dogras of Jammu
Thank you
Mr. Prime Minister. We are looking forward to your response and prompt action
towards resolving these highly explosive but solvable issues.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jagan Kaul
Krishan
Bhatnagar
Hindu Jagran Forum (USA)
Email:
krishan.kb@verizon.net
August 15 ,
2010
Ref 1:
http://www.bharatjagran.com/ ;
Pakistan: Hon'ble PM Gillani: Please stop
Persecution of non- Muslim minorities in Pakistan (July 30, 2010)
Ref 2:
http://www.bharatjagran.com/ ; J & K -
Hon'ble CM : Massive destruction of temples in J&K and Talibanization
of the state (Feb. 21, 2008)
Attachment A
Temples
desecrated and damaged in Kashmir from 1990 to December 1992
1. DASHNAMI
AKHARA, SRINAGAR
2.
GANPATYAR
TEMPLE
3.
RAGHUNATH MANDIR,
SRINAGAR
4.
SHIVA
TEMPLE,
JAWAHAR NAGAR, SRINAGAR
5.
HANUMAN MANDIR,
SRINAGAR
6.
SHIVA
TEMPLE,
BARBAR SHAH, SRINAGAR
7.
JAI DEVI
TEMPLE, BIJBEHARA
8.
VIJESHWAR
TEMPLE, BIJBEHARA
9. SHIVA MANDIR, BIJBEHARA
10. RAGHUNATH
TEMPLE, ANANTNAG
11.
GAUTAM
NAG
TEMPLE, ANANTNAG
12.
THREE
TEMPLES
OF LUKHBHAVAN, LARKIPURA, ANANTNAG
13. WANPOH MANDIR, ANANTNAG
14. SHAILPUTRI
TEMPLE, BARAMULLA
15. DAYALGAM MANDIR, ANANTNAG
16. BHAIRAVANATH MANDIR, BARAMULLA
17. BHAIRAVANATH MANDIR, SOPORE
18. RUPABHAVANI MANDIR, VASAKURA
19. KHIRBHAVANI MANDIR, GANDERBAL
20.
SHIVA TEMPLE,
GANDERBAL
21.
MATTAN
TEMPLE, ANANTNAG
There have
been reports of further destruction of some 39 temples in Kashmir after December
6, 1992 for which FIR were filed. Please note that FIRs on all destruction cases
were not filed with the authorities in view of the complicity of the
administration and warnings of retaliation against the complainants by the
Islamic terrorists. According to local eye witnesses accounts there were
additional 38 temples that were vandalized after December 6, 1992.
Attachment B
Mutiny cry from
mosque
- Shrine
loudspeakers blare pro-freedom chants in Valley; eight-year-old among eight dead
MUZAFFAR RAINA\
The Telegraph, Aug 3, 2010
Srinagar, Aug. 2:Mosque loudspeakers crackled
across Kashmir today, blaring not a call to prayer but a call for rebellion.
The
shrines turned protest pulpits overnight in a throwback to the early 1990s when
the governor of the day, Jagmohan, had dubbed them “centre of revolution (sic)”.
The
trigger for the return to a tactic used 20 years ago was the deathof eight
civilians in clashes with security forces yesterday, the bloodiest dayof the
seven-week unrest that started in the second week of June.
Today’s
death count was also eight, but a boy injured yesterday was among those who
died. Sameer Ahmad, an eight-year-old from Srinagar who is the youngest victim
of the current spell of violence, died of injuries suffered during a clash. The
police blamed his wounds on a stampede. The seven other victims included at
least two school-going teenagers, one of whom died in hospital after a tear-gas
shell hit him on Saturday.
The
death toll has risen to 39 since the violence began on June 11.Twenty-two of the
deaths have occurred in the past four days.
Today’s
flash point was Budgam, where a mob of hundreds torched twostate government
offices and a portion of the railway station, the police said.
At
Rajpura, also in Pulwama, protesters set fire to all the four buildings in a
police station, injuring 20 people. The incident mirrored yesterday’s raid on
the Khrew police station, 20km from Srinagar, by a mob that unknowingly torched
an explosives-packed storeroom, triggering a blast that killed five people.
At
Kralpora in north
Kashmir’s
Kupwara, a mob looted arms from a police post, triggering retaliation that
killed one person. The agitators fled with four rifles.
One
person was killed in police firing after agitators attacked a police post and
attempted to set fire to it in Kulgam. At neighbouring Sangam in Anantnag, CRPF
personnel fired on a stone-throwing mob. The stampede that followed claimed a
life.
The
continued violence came on a day chief minister Omar Abdullahdiscussed the
situation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi.
If the
streets were on fire, mosques appeared to rekindle a familiar spark.
A police
officer who had been on duty in Srinagar in 1990 highlighted the parallels
between the events then and now. “People know the power of mosques. They had
used it with perfection during Jagmohan’s stint as governor and they tried to
repeat it today.”
Mosques,
the officer said, serve two purposes for protesters. “It amplifies their call.
The slogans coming from mosques make one feel as if theentire population has
joined the protests. It frustrates the government. Plus, they (the people) feel
safe, thinking they are protesting peacefully inside and will not be harmed by
the police.”
Jagmohan mentioned several incidents in his book,
My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir. “The subversives used mosques extensively for
rearing, nursing and fanning their activities. In fact, one of the instructions
was to make mosques centre of revolution (sic).”
History
was repeating itself today as scores of mosques reverberated with azaadi songs,
and pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. Thousands, including the elderly and
children, flocked to such mosques. Some went even at night.
At many
places, the crowd spilled onto the streets. But at the forefront were mostly
teenagers or youths in their early twenties — described asthe “children of
conflict” because they were born during the past 20 years of strife. Many were
painting roads and walls with the slogan: “Go India go”.
“It’s a
do-or-die situation for us. Either we’ll get it (azaadi) now or never,” said a
17-year-old in
Srinagar’s
Hazratbal as he joined a dozen-odd youngsters in pulling down concertina wires
strung together by the police to block traffic in the curfew-bound city.
The
group’s next step was to put up hurdles to deny the policemen access to their
locality and use the obstacles as shields to launch a form of attack that has
become common for months now: stone-throwing.
“Our parents
picked up the gun to fight for azaadi but we want to achieve it through peaceful
means. If that is not allowed, we will pick up stones,” the17-year-old said.
The
authorities aren’t unaware of the trouble that can be fomented from mosques, and
Jagmohan’s “centre of revolution” phrase is on their mind. That could explain
why they have not permitted prayer gatherings in some mosques. That includes the
Jamia Masjid,
Kashmir’s main
mosque, where Friday prayers have not been allowed for five weeks now.
Residents in
Srinagar’s
old city said they had heard gunshots throughout last night, apparently fired by
security forces to keep the people indoors. But in several other places, cops
watched helplessly as protesters marched.
Officials said reinforcements were rushed to such spots before dawn to enforce
the curfew, but many mosques, mostly on the city outskirts, continued to draw
protesters
http://news.hinduworld.com/click_frameset.php?ref_url=%2Findex.php%3F&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraphindia.com%2F%2F1100803%2Fjsp%2Fnation%2Fstory_12763767.jsp
Attachment C
Bid on to convert
Kerala into a Muslim state: CM
Thiruvananthapuram, July 24, DHNS:
Deccan Herald.com
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/83631/bid-convert-kerala-muslim-state.html
Kerala Chief
Minister V S Achuthanandan on Saturday said that the radical outfit Popular
Front of India (PFI) was aiming to convert Kerala into a Muslim-majority state
in the next 20 years.
The chief minister’s revelation
has raised many eyebrows as the police has been keeping under wraps all in
formation they had unearthed in their continuing crackdown on the organisation
following the ‘palm-chopping’ of a professor.
“The organisation has been
pumping money to attract youths. They have also been trying to convert youths
from other communities and persuading them to marry Muslim girls,’’
Achuthanandan told reporters in New Delhi.
The chief minister was
responding to a question whether the ongoing crackdown would not prove
counterproductive. Achuthanandan’s statement also points an accusing finger at
the PFI for encouraging ‘love jihad’, something the organisation has been
vehemently denying.
Several activists of the
organisation have been arrested in the palm-chopping incident allegedly carried
out to protest against the “insulting of the prophet” in a question paper.
Incriminating literature, proof of big cash transactions and seditious CDs have
been seized from the houses of PFI activists.
The chief minister said that
such dangerous organisations should be isolated. The PFI was under the police
scanner, which had already banned their annual statewide “freedom march” on
August 15.
Meanwhile, Home
Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said here that the police were trying to find out
whether the PFI was a reincarnation of the banned SIMI.
“The
organisation was trying to attract Muslim youths towards the path of terrorism.
However, a majority are not following them. The state government’s policy was
not to harass or victimise the Muslim community in the name of the ongoing
investigations as the Opposition had alleged,” he said.
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