[Reader-list] What did Indresh Kumar have against Moinuddin Chishti?

[Aditya Raj Baul]

Those obsessed with "Islamism" are conspicuous by their silence.




RSS leader Indresh under scanner for terror links

Dalip Singh
New Delhi, July 15, 2010
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/105447/India/rss-leader-indresh-under-scanner-for-terror-links.html

Investigating agencies have zoomed in on a top Rashtriya Swayamsewak
Sangh (RSS) leader Indresh Kumar for his suspected links with Devender
Gupta, a key accused in the Ajmer bomb blast case.

The Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested Gupta,
Chandrasekhar Borad and Lokesh Sharma on April 29 this year for their
alleged involvement in the terror strike on the Ajmer Sharif shrine on
October 11, 2007.

Following these arrests, the Uttar Pradesh ATS, the Maharashtra ATS
and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chased leads emanating
from RSS activist Gupta's interrogation to explore the Hindutva
organisation's links with other unsolved blast cases such as Hyderabad
(May 18, 2007) and Malegaon (September 29, 2008).

Indresh, an RSS national executive member, was on Gupta's contact
list, sources in the investigative agencies said. He has been on their
radar since then. The agencies are also trying to establish whether
Indresh had a routine organisational link with Gupta or if he knew of
the blast conspiracy. Despite several attempts to reach him via mobile
phone on Wednesday, Indresh remained incommunicado. He also did not
respond to any of the several text messages sent to his mobile phone.

He is popularly known as Indreshji in the Sangh Parivar, and is
regarded as one of the organisation's chief strategists. He was
allegedly responsible for the successful communalisation of the
dispute over the Amarnath land grant dispute in 2008, planned and
executed under the aegis of the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti.

Indresh was also allegedly the mastermind behind organising the
Madhesis in Nepal as an anti-Maoist force. This was done soon after
the Nepal Maoists were brought to the negotiation table. Operating out
of Varanasi, Indresh wanted to organise the Madhesis as part of an RSS
campaign to preserve Nepal's status as the world's only "Hindu
Rashtra".

The Hindutva leader is also the brain behind the RSS Muslim Manch, an
organisation meant to draw together "nationalist Muslims". Indresh
claimed he organised a conference of close to 125 military officers
sympathetic to his cause. He did not specify the number of retired and
serving officers who were present at the event.

Indresh is not the only one under the scanner; investigating agencies
are in the process of verifying the antecedents of around eight more
people associated with right-wing organisations such as the VHP and
the BJP, in addition to RSS.

Investigators said Gupta used three mobile phones to converse with
leaders and activists of Hindutva organisations. When they analysed
the call records of these phones, investigators found he was in touch
with seven to eight persons associated with the RSS, VHP and BJP, who
hail from Lucknow, Kanpur, Faizabad, Varanasi and Gorakhpur in Uttar
Pradesh.

Acting on specific leads, the antiterrorism squads of Maharashtra, UP,
Rajasthan and the CBI questioned RSS's former prant pracharak in
Jharkhand Ashok Varshney and central committee member Ashok Berry
several times starting June 21 at the ATS's Gomti Nagar office in
Lucknow.

The UP ATS also confronted the two RSS leaders regarding their alleged
association with Gupta.

This was to unravel the Ajmer and Hyderabad blasts conspiracy and also
to establish whether Gupta had links in UP. Gupta has been trailed in
Lucknow, Kanpur and Sitapur prior to his arrest by the Rajasthan ATS.
During the questioning both Varshney and Berry acknowledged that they
knew Gupta and that they had individual as well as joint meetings with
him. Sources said Gupta had stayed with Varshney at RSS Bhavan in
Kanpur. He was also allegedly provided with safe hideouts in Sitapur
and at Model House in Lucknow.

Both Varshney and Berry reportedly said there was nothing wrong in
knowing Gupta as he is an RSS worker and is a regular at Sangh
functions. However, they both denied knowledge of Gupta's alleged plot
to bomb Ajmer Sharif.

But investigators allege Varshney sourced and handed over two SIM
cards - bought from Hyderabad and Ajmer - to Gupta. Varshney is said
to have told investigators that he could not have purchased the SIM
cards as he was not present at the two blast sites. The SIM cards may
have been used to trigger the bombs planted in Ajmer and Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, a CBI team is in Hyderabad to probe Mecca Masjid blast
case. The CBI believes that there are stark similarities between the
mobile phone-detonated explosives used in Ajmer and Hyderabad.

CBI director Ashwani Kumar had recently said that " there is a
definite link between the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts". He named
another RSS activist Sunil Joshi, accusing him of " playing a key role
in orchestrating the Ajmer blast… and a set of mobile SIM cards were
used to activate the bombs first in Ajmer and then again in
Hyderabad." Though he claimed that the CBI has not interrogated any
RSS leader, sources insist that CBI sleuths were present during the
three-day interrogation of Varshney, Berry and Gupta.

Sources also said more than 100 RSS activists may have been involved
in the blasts conspiracies and the list of suspects directly involved
may cross 30.

These investigations have put RSS in damage control mode.

Sources said that the Hindutva outfit may disown all those who are
eventually found to have been involved in the conspiracies.