Friday, July 17, 2009

 

India’s Sikh Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s private deal with France’s Jewish President Sarkozy

Saturday, July 18, 2009

 

 

India's Sikh Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's private deal with France's Jewish President Sarkozy

 

According to a PTI/IANS report published on page 16 of The Times of India, Mumbai:

 

 

 

Sarkozy assures PM no ban on Sikh turbans

 

SHARM-EL-SHEIKH (Egypt): French President Nicolas Sarkozy has assured Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that there is no ban on Sikhs wearing 

 

turbans in his country. 

Sarkozy's assurance came after Manmohan Singh handed over to him a 'non-official' memo two days ago in Paris, official sources said here on Thursday. 

France is considering a bill to ban wearing of any religious symbols in the state schools. 

The country's 6,000-strong Sikh community in France has been up in arms against the proposed legislation, saying that the turban is not a religious symbol but an integral part of their life.

 

 

It should be welcome news for our Sikh brothers and sisters, as French President has gone on a rampage, picking up on minorities' rights to enjoy full constitutional freedom that French constitution awards them. However, the private intervention of a Sikh Prime Minister of a secular state, cutting a deal for his own religious community, is a serious matter, as there is another religious community, the 120 million Muslims who have been subjected to virulent attack by the Jewish French President Sarkozy, over Muslim religious/cultural practices and they could hold the Prime Minister as practicing religious discrimination against their practice of burqa over which Sarkozy had started a campaign with a view to ban it. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cannot forget that it is the long lines of burqa clad Muslim women that voted for Congress, that got the clinching marginal votes to shoo Congress in and let Manmohan Singh become the prime minister for a second term. One would have thought that the Prime Minister would have represented the wider concerns of his people across the board, over the Jewish President's marked propensity to further his racist and communal agenda, starting from his own country. In as much as, the people of India have yet to figure out what Prime Minister has ended up giving direct and indirect quid pro quo, for his private deals with the French President. A long list of recent defense and energy understanding between India and France are in the pipe-line. Is it too much to ask of our Prime Minister to ask publicly or through a non-paper memorandum, to refrain from disturbing the peace and tranquility of the world, by giving in to fascist elements in his country as any action by Western powers in matters of religious or ideological differences, does have great danger of reverberating across the world and creating mini-tsunamis, in multi-cultural nations, who are pressed hard to maintain communal peace and harmony in their respective countries. While India is being lectured for acting up as a 'emerging great power', what about some accountability on the existing 'western great powers', who completely ignore that they too have responsibilities towards the rest of the world.

 

Meanwhile, PM's private deal should be debated in Indian Parliament, to put the whole private exercise in public arena.

 

 

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com

www.ghulammuhammed.blogspot.com

 

  


 

Hindu terrorists inflitrate Indian Army ? - Editorial - DALIT VOICE - Fortnightly



Editorial


Hindu terrorists inflitrate Indian Army ? Toilet papers suppress shocking Truth

COM. AYYANKALI

The Brahminical suicide squad was set up at Pune in 2000.

(Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/28605046.cms)

The retired Lt.-Col.. Jayant Chitale is not the first Puneite to think of establishing Hindu suicide squads to fight "Islamic terrorism". The Lashkar-e-Shivba was formed to fight Lashkar-e-Taiba.

While the organisation is in tatters today, its founder and self-proclaimed commander-in-chief, Vilas Tupe, is bitter about his failed venture. "My experience of raising Hindu terrorist squads and sending them to Jammu and Kashmir was so bitter that I would like to forget it", he said. A small-time city builder now, Tupe wishes to forewarn Chitale that his attempt is doomed without money and political patronage.

Incidentally, Tupe was attempting to attack Osho Rajneesh with a knife in the 1980s because "Rajneesh was a CIA agent". Talking about his anti-terrorism venture, he said he was inspired to form his outfit after the attack on "innocent" Amarnath pilgrims in 2000. While he was planning to counter terrorism in Punjab in a similar manner, the then Director-General of Punjab Police, Julieo Ribero, had suggested arming villagers and creating gram suraksha dals, Tupe said. We went to Punjab, met Ribero and offered ourselves for these dals.

"We even received training for three months at the BSF camps, he claimed. However, the initiative failed as the Union home secretary objected to it, Tupe said.

After he announced the forming of Lashkar-e-Shivba, he received an overwhelming response from nearly 2,500 youths from Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur and Ahmednagar districts. Of these, 150 were shortlisted and trained after which "we left for Jammu to visit terrorist-infested districts".

"The plan, however, was aborted after a month as we had no money or political support".

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Chitale, who has established the Hindustan Atma Ghatki Pathak (Hindustan suicide squad) said that his squad was not specifically a Hindu squad. "We are forming Hindustan suicide squads and over 10 per cent of our volunteers are Muslim and Christians", he claimed.

BAJRANG DAL & MILITARY

Chitale's squad had 45 enthusiastic young men who have completed commando training and signed a bond that they are willing to die for the country. This is the Hindutva response to the Islamicmadrassa and terrorist culture.

Links of Indian military with Hindutva organizations are no secret now. Most of organizations working in Indian society since ages like the Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal etc. have long history of having links with military establishment at different level. The root of this cooperation is decades-old appeal: "India is for Hindus only". This is nothing new but there is something new and that is the growing influence of this ideology among Indian military and elements that are now not in control of Indian military or Indian govt. but they are on their own agenda of Hindutva, a name given to the same old appeal of race and religion regarding India.

(http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/15655)

SHIV SENA MAN AS ARMY GENERAL ?

Over the years Indian youth is becoming part of these militant outfits working under these organizations with same ideology of Hindu terrorism but it never ends here as same youth got recruited into Indian military on regular basis. After being recruited these Hindu fundamentalist keep their links intact with entities like RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena etc.

This dual linkage of young Indian officers with both military and Hindu terrorist organisations has caused a cancer to the military establishment in India.

It has brought elements into Indian military who have their own goals which do not conform well with military discipline. An army with irrepressible elements is as dangerous to any country as its real enemy's army can be or even more.

Officers like Gen. (R) Premnath Hoon joined the Indian army decades ago and served at different posts all the way to the rank of General before he retired. What is revealing that he was one of the founding fathers of the military wing of Shiv Sena. This also proves that either before joining or during his service in military he established links with Shiv Sena but what is more important is that he was not alone in this venture but there was active support from Indian military through his contacts he made during service like Col. Jayant Chitale who was also in-charge in military selection center at Pune for many years.

Initiating military training from scratch has its own prerequisites like infrastructure, trainers, weapons and most importantly a slogan to motivate new recruitment. This is where assets belonging to RSS/Bajrang Dal/VHP and Shiv Sena in Indian military and RAW enter into equation to bail out above mentioned Hindu terrorist organisations all of them vying for Hindu Rashtra (Hindu State). This process is in place there since many decades and now it is impossible to tell exactly till what level these elements are controlling Indian military and RAW's resources to complete Hindu Rashtra dream.

RAW TAKE OVER

RAW also needs these militants to carry out its operation both inside and outside India. As it happens in intelligence business it is not always necessary to give minutest details to government officials until the state is getting its objective served. It was matter of time when these terrorists take over RAW as well. Without active support of RAW it is not possible to carry out these massive training programs, coordination among different groups spread all over India and abroad, Only a military intelligence organization like RAW can make all this happen.

RAW reports to the Indian prime minister directly. What is more startling to know is how the "world's biggest democracy" is involved in destabilizing its neighbors. There are many operations launched by RAW against its neighbours specially Pakistan and Lanka due to reason that both these countries are located at critical geopolitical location on map.

All these operations were carried out with consent of different Indian PMs during their occupancy in Delhi. In all these operations RAW always used terrorists trained by the Hindutva organizations and in return RAW and intelligence agencies turned a blind eye to whatever these organizations were doing to the minorities in India be it Muslims, Christians or Sikhs, no one is immune to this dormant infection ofHindutva in Indian society. Successive Indian governments until recently ignored this ever growing influence of Hindutva ideology in military and RAW as there is always an excuse in minds of Indian politicians i.e. Pakistan and ISI to put all the blame on for all the sufferings of Indian minorities.

JAYANT CHITALE'S ROLE

The close relations between Gen. Hoon and Col. Jayant Chitale are not a secret. The two have been involved in forming Hindu suicide squad to be used against minorities in India on pretext of fighting the terrorism.

Recently Lt. Col. (retired) Jayant Rao Chitale once again openly admitted training suicide Hindu bombers although he tried to reject that only Hindus are part of suicide squad by saying that the suicide squad was secular.

Lt. Col Chitale, the dictator of "Maharashtra Military Foundation", while speaking to the media said "Ours is a truly secular suicide squad. Every Indian is welcome to join my suicide squad." The training session for the suicide squad, which includes the use of lathis and swords, takes place near Vasat village at Ambernath, an industrial town, which is over 50 km from Bombay, from where according to Chitale a batch of 30 students has passed out in the last 15 days.

SUICIDE SQUADS TO ATTACK PAKISTAN

Earlier another Hindu terrorist Shiv Sena called for forming 'Hindu suicide squads' to tackle terrorism in India.

After openly admitting training Hindu youth for suicide bombing, Chitale said:

I have been requesting the government for the last three years to form this suicide squad. "I have sent letters to the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, President Abdul Kalam and the army chief about the formation of these suicide squads, but there was no response. So, I started the training programme."

Asked what his recruits would do, he said, "The Pakistanis have disturbed the internal peace in India and my suicide squads will do the same thing in Pakistan."

It was earlier mentioned that Chitale was supported by retired Lt. Gen. P. N. Hoon and a few other ex-servicemen belonging to the Shiv Sena.

R.S.S. TRAINING

When the media asked Hoon for his comments he only denied that Shiv Sena was backing the suicide bomb training. He said:

We have started this program on our own because the country needs such youth to tackle terrorism. Today, the country is being destroyed by the Pakistan ISI. And we have to do something about it. So, we feel that these suicide squads are the answer for the Pakistanis.

ROLE OF HINDUTVA IN 26/11 & ITS GOALS

Both Premnath Hoon and Jayant Chitale also served RAW at different positions. Police on several occasions got information about the involvement of these elements in terrorist activities but every time some unseen hidden hands stopped the investigation in middle before it could be completed. One such example is ATS (Anti-Terror Squad) investigations from Col Jayant in 2002. The investigations were forced to stop when ATS was about to prove links between Indian military and Hindu Zionists and this intervention came from nowhere else but from RAW.

Recent attacks in Bombay was another manifestation of these Hindu elements who perpetrated Babri Mosque, Godhra Train fire, Gujarat massacre, killing of Christians, Malegoan bombing, Samjhuta Express and countless other operations against minorities.

WHO KILLED KARKARE ?

Till start of November 2008 every Indian newspaper was publishing reports of arrest of Col. Purohit and his confession about Malegoan bombing and supplying deadly RDX for Samjhuta Express inferno in 2007. What was the most shocking news in the first 15 minutes of Bombay attacks was the murder of 3 top ATS officers including ATS chief Hemant Karkare at the hands of gunmen on Nov. 26, 2008.

It is now becoming more and more evident that he was actually murdered by cold blooded assassins of Hindutva trained in RAW's training camps.

This linkage of RAW and terrorists was exactly what Hemant Karkare was investigating from Col. Prasad Purohit, a serving officer in Indian army currently deputed in RAW who was arrested by ATS in connection with the Malegoan bomb blasts and Samjhuta express.

It was only after Nov.8, 2008 when news started surfacing about Purohit's confession in Malegoan blasts and Samjhuta express incident. He also revealed that he was not only the serving army officer who is linked to Premnath Hoon's terror network. Ramesh Upadhyaya, a retired Major in the Army, was also among accused in Malegoan blasts. But ATS soon disclosed that there may be two other serving colonels facing charges of involvement in these blasts in Malegoan on Sept. 07, 2008. Now it was clear that ATS will soon uncover the whole cartel of Hindu terrorists in midst of Indian military establishment and RAW. So the Hindu terrorist organizations started giving life threats to the chief of Anti-Terrorist squad, Hament Karkare, but he carried on his work till the D-Day arrived i.e 26/11/08. Investigations were little slow as ATS was not receiving required cooperation from police in neighbouring states but still at that time a lot was already known to media and masses both about where actual problem lies.

BID TO KILL KARKARE

After calculating the expected damage to their cartel, the Hindu terrorist groups decided to eliminate Karkare. But it was to be done in a way that no body should have doubts about. Again trained terrorists of Atma Ghatak Phatak (AGP) [suicidal squad once desired by Bal Thackeray] were picked for the job to eliminate Karkare in a way that the blame can be put on Pakistan and ISI.

India tried its best to stage a perfect terrorist plot being planned and controlled from Pakistan by ISI. But it seems now that India fell into hole it dig for Pakistan as more and more reports are coming on media about these attacks and inefficiency of Indian police, Army, RAW to protect Indian citizens. More confessions are on the way to unleash the sinister nexus between RAW, Indian army and terrorists.

Latest investigation from Col. Purohit revealed that more colonels and a major were also part of Malegaon. At start Indian army was very mortified when Col. Purohit's confession came to media about Malegaon and Samjhuta Express. Col. Raikar and Col. Hasmukh Patel was also part of masterminding Malegaon blasts.

The above mentioned officers, although not charged, but are under investigation. Other serving officer who is being accused and investigated in official chargesheet is Colonel Bapaditya Dhar of Parachute regiment at Panchmarhi.

A..K. ANTONY REMARKS

Does it not indicate clear links of Indian Army with Hindu terrorist organizations uncovering fascist elements among top ranks of Indian Army? After these facts emerged Indian establishment was forced to pretend as they were never aware of these terrorists in their midst. One such statement was made by Defence Minister A .K. Antony saying that his ministry and the Army were "fully cooperating" with the investigating agencies. "It's a matter of serious concern to all of us.... We are determined to go to the root of the entire issue," he said. "We are awaiting their (ATS and IB) report.... We will take all necessary steps after that. We are also taking internal steps (to prevent any occurrence of such incidents)," he added.

RAW TRAINED L.T.T.E.

But why he is not ready to throw light on what former Indian Prime Minister V.P. Singh said before the Jain Commission in Nov. 1996 about the forming LTTE terrorist network 1983. He said:

" First batch of training of Lankan Tamil militants was done by India in 1983 under the orders of then Prime Minister (Late) Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The camp was located at Chakrata, Tamil Nadu."

Indian Army Chief Gen. Kapoor said, "steps are being taken to prevent involvement of its officers in terror attacks". Why he did not announce an inquiry to find out remains of this nexus between Indian military and Hindu terrorists.

MOTIVE BEHIND 26/11

1. Eliminate Hemant Karkare along with his team to put breaks on ongoing investigations which were illuminating all links between Indian military, RAW and Hindu terrorists.

2. Divert attention towards ISI so that next time no one in India could ask about those investigations done by Karkare and his team before they got assassinated.

3. Advocate Hindutva message that Muslims are root cause of panic in India so these must be either converted to Hinduism or must be eliminated from Indian soil.

4. Create a media wave to divert attention from incidents like Malegaon and Samjhuta Express blast and hence diverting attention from investigations of these incidents as well.

It is also to be noted that Lt. Col. Jayant Chitale and serving Indian Col. Purohit are also neighbors whereas Gen. Hoon and many other ex-Indian army officers are active contributors to suicide bombing training to Hindu youth and also admit it openly. This is a dangerous scenario for India in common and the world in general where the elements from Indian army are taking part in training suicide bombers after becoming part of Hindu terrorist organizations.

HINDU TERRORISTS MAY TAKEOVER NUKES

If these elements are let loose in future, which is a sure possibility keeping in view track record of RAW, then there is strong possibility of falling of Indian nukes into the hands of Hindu terrorists.

India had been having civilian governments throughout its history while armed forces have been sidelined in many issues including nukes which are under the civilian government more than the Indian army.

But unfortunately Indian politics and successive governments over the years have been manipulated by Hindu terrorists like RSS, Bajrang Dal and BJP. These organisations over the decades since creation of India have gradually penetrated the Indian army. Now with top ranking officials of Indian army having links with Hindu hardliner politicians who are fanatics and running suicide training camps, it is feared that Indian nuclear assets may slip into the hands of Hindu terrorists who have been ruthlessly killing Christians, Muslims and Dalits in India. (Asian Tribune, Bal Patil).

Also published in South Asia Citizens Web: http://www.sacw.net/article589.html

DISMISSAL OF ANTULAY

Bal Patil

As an independent observer of the Indian political scene and its ups and downs in the last four decades, and a journalist and an ex-Member of the Media Expert Committee of the Government of India, I was simply stunned by the frenzied debate in and out of Parliament and on the TV channels asking for the dismissal of A.R. Antulay for his observation that there is more to it than meets the eye in Hemant Karkare's killing and that it should be investigated. To be frank. I could not make out what political or secular blasphemy Antulay thereby committed.

The first and last principle of fair reporting is : comment is free but facts are sacred. Only a day before the 26/11 terrorist attack BJP leaders were calling ATS Chief Karkare a deshdrohi, a traitor— an offence which carries death penalty. Ironically the very same leaders were calling A.R. Antulay also deshdrohi, and worse, a Pakistani agent. I am merely putting the record straight.

Permit me to recall: Karkare episode when you and your party Members were going into the well of the House and/or standing in your seats and I heard allegations hurled at Antulay of being not only anti-national but also being an agent of Pakistan and brother of Dawood. I was stunned at such patently false, mischievous and malicious allegations.

I would particularly like to draw your attention to the Awami Bharat Press

Conference held at Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh on Dec.20, 2008, (http://www.countercurrents.org/awami211208.htm) demanding a high level probe into the deaths of Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar and supporting the demand made by A. R. Antulay and thanking him for having brought this issue to the centre stage of the national debate, and further that the remarks by Antulay have stirred the latent doubts among all communities and the popular perception far differs from what the media would have us believe.

BULLET FOR BULLET

A section of the MPs and a large sections, of media are outraged by Antulays voicing a demand for investigation of Karkare''s killing. May I ask in all journalistic and secular conscience why every true Indian committed to the secular ideal of the constitution should not feel outraged by the following interview in the Outlook Magazine (Nov. 17, 2008) with Himani Savarkar

http://www.outlookindia.com/fu llprint.asp?choice=2&fodname =20081117 &fna me= AHindu + Terror&sid=2 'If We Can Have Bullet For Bullet, Why Not Blast For Blast?'

Smt. Himani Savarkar, the niece of Nathuram Godse, and daughter of Gopal Godse married to Veer Savarkar's nephew, is the president of the Abhinav Bharat... Some members of this organisation have been linked to the Malegaon bomb attack of Sept. 29. Himani spoke to the Outlook (Nov.17, 2008) as follows:

NO VOTING RIGHTS TO MUSLIMS

She said India must declare itself a Hindu Rashtra where everyone is a Hindu. Anyone who isn't should be declared a second-class citizen and denied voting rights. Those who have problems with this should leave and settle in other countries. The Hindu vote bank must unite to vote out any government that fails to tackle terror. Then we must throw out the outsiders like Bangladeshis who live off India's wealth and work towards destroying us.

Lt. Col Jayant Chitale, a retired air defence artillery officer who runs the Maharashtra Military Foundation (MMF) lives and operates out of a bungalow a few blocks from Purohit's home, off Law College Road, Pune. He says with some pride, "I have over 1,000 of my boys serving in the three services today. Each one has been brainwashed by me. They are motivated, determined and will do anything for the nation."

Interestingly, a visitor's book that Chitale has carefully preserved for nearly two decades lists the names of all the young men who trained under him. An entry on Feb. 20, 1993, lists a young Shrikant Prasad Purohit, residing on Law College Road, Pune. "He was a brilliant boy," says Chitale,

"This Malegaon blast could be the reaction of years of frustration within the army over denial of their rights and prestige. The politicians and the bureaucrats continue to ignore the military at their own peril and these acts could just be the beginning."

MUSSOLINI'S INSPIRATION

Inspiration for the RSS and their paramilitary training was derived from Benito Mussolini's fascist paramilitary groups, the Blackshirts, after RSS mentor and founder, BS Moonje visited the Italian dictator in 1931. As detailed in Marzia Casolaris article, "Hindutvas foreign tie-up in the 1930s: Archival evidence" (Economic & Political Weekly, Jan. 22, 2000):

The ideological connection between Sawarkar, Hindutva, RSS, and the bomb-culture as exhibited in Malegam-type bomb blasts is as infallible as the DNA test and can be traced back to Savarkar's student days in London. The BJP leadership cannot idolise Savarkar by committing the ultimate affront to Gandhi by placing Savarkar's portrait opposite that of Gandhi in the Parliament House and claim with a straight face that RSS does not believe in violence and Hinduism does not preach violence.

GODSE MURDER OF GANDHI

And Nathuram Godse was not unacquainted with the bomb culture before he actually murdered Mahatma Gandhi on Jan.30, 1948. Madanlal Pahwa, a refugee, threw a bomb at Gandhi's prayer meeting on Jan.20, 1948 and his statement before the police had given the names of the conspiracy to assassinate Gandhi.

Bal Patil is the Secretary-General, All India Jain Minority Forum, New Delhi.

DV Edit Dec.16, 2008: "Terrorism will continue until cause of action is cured".

DV Dec.16, 2008 p.4: "Magnificent failure of Brahminical rulers on India's deadliest terror attack".

DV Nov.16, 2008 p.5: "When Brahmnists are rulers why this military training".

*********************

Intellectual honesty of "Sacred Brahmins"

DV was the first in India to congratulate the intellectual honesty of Godse and the Gandhi killers. DV was also the first to disclose the birth of the super RSS Hindu terrorist organisation, Abhinav Bharat(AB), headed by a serving army officer of the Chitpavan jati. DV was also the first to say that Bombay's incorruptible police officer Karkare, also a Brahmin, was shot dead during the Bombay terrorist attack (Nov.26, 2008) for arresting all the AB leaders (DV Jan.1, 2009 p.7: "Mystery on Karkare murder"). Now we publish the more sensational story of the Hindu terrorist bid to take over the Army itself to establish the Brahminical dreamland of Hindu Rashtra. DV was also the first to support the AB because we like their intellectual honesty of declaring Muslims as anti-national and Dalits as their slaves.

However, the Brahminical "national" toilet papers, which so proudly boast of India's "freedom of press", have suppressed all the news because it exposes their jatwalas. Dalit Voice, being the sole media of the country's oppressed 85% Bahujans plus other honest upper castes, has the duty to protect the country's "unity and integrity" — EDITOR.


Editor: V. T. Rajshekhar - <vtr@ndf.vsnl.net.in | <dalitvoice@rediffmail.com>

 

Fwd: Arabian tale



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Siraj Wahab <sirajwahab@arabnews.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 8:13 PM
Subject: Arabian tale
To:



The Middle East's Leading English Language Daily

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=124605&d=16&m=7&y=2009

Indian finds Saudi father after 27 years 

By Siraj Wahab

Published in Arab News on Thursday, July 16, 2009



ALKHOBAR: Twenty-eight-year-old Indian national Ahmed Fahhad Mohammad Al-Hajri's story is stranger than fiction. It is a story that film directors in India would die for. It is straight out of Bollywood.

Born to a Saudi father and an Indian mother in Mumbai in 1981, Ahmed Al-Hajri has spent most of his life trying to track down his father. His father, Fahhad Mohammad Faleh Al-Hajri, was suffering from acute spinal pain in the early 1980s when he headed to Mumbai for an operation. One of his friends accompanied him to India. The treatment was to be long and hard. The two Saudis decided to marry in India.

They went about it in a legal and Islamic way. Thirty-eight-year-old Fahhad married Salma Khan. The marriage took place in 1980 with the consent of Salma's father, Khair Mohammad Khan, who originally hailed from Swat Valley before the partition of India in 1947.

The marriage was solemnized by Qazi Abdul Jabbar Khan of Bhendi Bazar and it was duly registered. Al-Hajri stayed in Mumbai for some months and then left for Saudi Arabia never to return.

A few months later, Salma was blessed with a baby boy. She awaited her husband's return. Days turned to months and months to years. There was no way to contact Fahhad. To make matters worse for Salma, the address that Fahhad mentioned in the marriage contract was sketchy at best.

Angered by the helplessness and desperate situation of his dear daughter, Salma's father approached the Saudi Consulate and filed a written complaint against Fahhad.

"If he is not going to come back, fine; he should at least give her a divorce so that they could close the chapter," he wrote in his complaint addressed to the Saudi consul general. Nothing came of it.

There was no word from and no trace of Fahhad. Salma kept hoping against hope that he would turn up one day to surprise her and their son. That never happened. In between, Fahhad's friend, who had accompanied him to Mumbai on the first trip and who had also married another Indian woman at the time, visited India and learned about Fahhad's Indian wife giving birth to a "handsome" baby boy. He also was told by acquaintances that Salma had named Fahhad's son Ahmed. The friend did inform Fahhad about the birth of a son.

In any case, Fahhad never returned to India. He told Arab News that he did however try to locate Salma through his employees who visited India every year. He said they never succeeded because Salma had married another man and was no longer at the location Fahhad knew.

When Salma's father realized the futility of waiting endlessly for Fahhad to return, he went to Qazi Abdul Jabbar Khan. In accordance with the Islamic principles, the marriage was annulled. The husband was reported as missing. Salma's father arranged a marriage for her to another man with whom she now leads a comfortable and happy life in Mumbai. She has had more children, and she has basically turned a new leaf in her life after the turbulent 1980s.

Things weren't that easy for the son, however. He would constantly badger his mother with questions about his father. "Who is he? Where is he? Why did he leave us?" he would ask her day and night. His mother would narrate the whole story to him, night after night. "What does he look like?" Ahmed continued to ask, and eventually his mother produced a grainy black-and-white photograph of his parents, which was taken the day after their marriage.

"It is a picture of happiness, and in those impressionistic days it was my lifeline. It held the key to my existence. In that photograph, my father is on the right, and he is looking at my mother, who is smiling. There is just a side view of my father. That photograph was the only tangible thing I had that linked me to my Saudi father," Ahmed told Arab News on the phone from Bisha on Wednesday. "That photograph would eventually help me to connect the missing link in my life."

Ahmed's mother ensured he got a good education. "I did my schooling in Mumbai, and then mother sent me to Lucknow for graduate studies," Ahmed said, "but more than education my heart and mind were set on only one thing — to locate my father. I promised myself to go to any corner of the globe to find him. However, since my mother wanted me to complete my education I did it, and the day I graduated I came back to Mumbai, applied for a passport and started knocking the doors of various travel agents who would recruit people for various jobs in Saudi Arabia."

As luck would have it, it did not take long for Ahmed to get a job offer. "The travel agent said there was a Saudi employer looking for educated Indians for his companies in Saudi Arabia. That was how I was introduced to my sponsor, Khaled Al-Mutairi. 'What can you do?' he asked me at the travel agent's office in Mumbai. 'Anything,' I told him, and immediately explained the real reason for my desperate interest in coming to Saudi Arabia. He was moved by my story."

Al-Mutairi sent a visa for Ahmed as soon as he got back to Saudi Arabia.

"I landed in Dammam in 2003 for a monthly salary of SR500. I was armed with that black-and-white photograph and the marriage certificate and the copy of the complaint that my maternal grandfather had lodged against my father at the Saudi Consulate in Mumbai," said Ahmed. "I thought it would be very easy to locate him. It dawned on me very late that there were hundreds if not thousands of Al-Hajris in Saudi Arabia and that they are spread across the length and breadth of this vast Kingdom."

Ahmed worked in one of Al-Mutairi's hotels. Coincidentally, the firm that supplied ice to the hotel was named Al-Hajri Ice Factory.

"I was delighted and thought the ice-factory owner might turn out to be my father, and if not he would certainly have some clue to my father's whereabouts. I promptly produced the photograph for the ice-factory owner. He didn't recognize anybody in it. It was not he."

After a few more attempts, it dawned upon him the task was not easy. Four years passed, and he was soon losing hope when a friend of his suggested that he take recourse to putting an advertisement in Arabic newspapers. "I did just that," he said. "Not a soul responded."

A little later, Ahmed befriended a Passport Department official who would frequent their hotel. "Once again, it rekindled my hope. In the complaint that my maternal grandfather lodged with the Saudi Consulate in Mumbai, there was a mention of my father's passport number. Surely that should reveal all the contact details of my father," thought Ahmed. A few days later his friend came back without good news. "He said there were no records for that number. It seems Saudis get a new passport number every five years. Those were not the days of the computer when everything would be centralized and all data available at the click of a mouse. The old records were not there, or maybe they were there — but not in the Dammam passport office."

In a last-ditch effort, a Keralite friend suggested that he report the story in a local newspaper read by Keralites. "I never thought it would succeed, but my Keralite friend said since Keralites have a huge network spread far and wide across the Kingdom they would certainly know the Al-Hajri he was looking for. My report was published in a local Malayalam newspaper. One of the Keralites in Riyadh read it and held his head in his hands after reading it. 'Mushkila, mushkila,' he muttered. 'What mushkila?' asked his sponsor. He narrated the whole story to his sponsor and showed the picture that accompanied the article. One look and the Saudi sponsor said, 'Oh this is Fahhad Al-Hajri from Bisha.' He immediately called my father and explained everything. My father was in Riyadh at the time. He promptly sent my brother to find out all my details. When my stepbrother turned up that night at the hotel in Dammam, my heart was pounding. It was a bittersweet feeling. I was the happiest man on earth. I was about to fulfill my lifelong quest. The dots that could never be connected were about to be connected. My life was about to be complete."

Ahmed's voice chokes as he narrates the details of that night. "My father basically asked me three questions. What is your name? What is your mother's name? And what was your grandfather's name? I told him everything — the name of the person who had solemnized the marriage and the area in Mumbai where the marriage took place. My father asked me to pass on the cell phone to my stepbrother and told him, 'Yes, this is my son. He is your brother; bring him home.'"

Ahmed said he relaxed. "My job was done. Now, I was curious to see how my father looked. I thought of pestering him with many, many questions that were swirling in my mind. 'Why did he abandon us? What were the reasons? What made him do so?' There were a million things on my mind. The next morning, my brother approached my sponsor, Al-Mutairi. He readily agreed to release me. He was happy for me. 'Mabrook,' he told me. 'Anta Saudi; maafi Hindi,' he said as he bid me an emotional adieu. I then met my father. That was the most beautiful moment in my life." It was what Ahmed Fahhad Mohammad Al-Hajri so long had hoped for.

"One look at him, and all my anger dissipated in one second," he said. "I no longer had any questions. One hug from him, and it was like Paradise. He apologized for his mistake and said there were things that were beyond him. He insisted that he did try to locate Ahmed and his mother through common friends but didn't succeed. That night my father threw a grand party in Riyadh for his near and dear ones."

Ahmed then accompanied his father and brother to Bisha. "There my father threw another party. There was a big celebration. In the meantime, I informed my anxious mother about my father's discovery. She was very happy for me. My father apologized to her, as well. And as they say 'all's well that ends well.' My father now proudly introduces me to all his friends as his long-lost son from India."

Having realized his fondest dream, Ahmed is now with his father in Bisha. He still has an Indian passport. The Al-Hajris have approached the Ministry of the Interior to process Ahmed's Saudi citizenship papers. "It will take some time ... there are too many bureaucratic procedures to be completed," Ahmed says.

In the meantime, his stepbrothers, stepmother and stepsisters treat him like a prince. "They pamper me a lot," the soon-to-be Saudi said. "My father is 68 years old now and is retired, but his stepbrothers are well settled running their own businesses. I have picked up a smattering of Arabic. Conversation is no longer a problem. Acceptance in the family was the most important thing, and that happened very smoothly." The only thing that Ahmed misses other than his mother is the spicy Indian food. "Arabic food is bland; I need spicy Indian stuff," Ahmed said. "I am getting used to the Saudi food now."

 
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved. Site designed by: arabix


 

EXCLUSIVE: India's secret torture chambers - THE WEEK,

http://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/theWeekContent.do?BV_ID=@@@&contentType=EDITORIAL&sectionName=TheWeek%20COVER%20STORY&programId=1073755753&contentId=5670071

EXCLUSIVE: India's secret torture chambers
   -

Imaging: Jijo Sebastian; Photos: Shutterstock
They are our own Gitmos. Where, far away from the eyes of the law, 'enemies of the state' are made to 'sing'. THE WEEK investigates

By Syed Nazakat


Little Terrorist, as the intelligence sleuths came to call him, turned out to be a hard nut to crack. No amount of torture would work on 20-year-old Mohammed Issa, who was picked up from Delhi on February 5, 2006. The Delhi Police believed that he had a hotline to Lashkar-e-Toiba deputy chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhwi, who later masterminded the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. At a secret detention centre in Delhi, the police and intelligence officers tried every single torture method in their arsenal-from electric shock to sleep deprivation-to make Issa sing. He stuck to his original line: that he had come from Nepal to visit a relative in Delhi. Only, they refused believe him.

According to the police, the youth from Uttar Pradesh, who had moved to Nepal in 2000 along with his family after his father, Irfan Ahmed, was accused in a terrorism case, returned to India to set up Lashkar modules in the national capital. More than six months after he was picked up, the police announced his arrest on August 14. He has since been shifted to the Tihar jail. His lawyer N.D. Pancholi said Issa was kept in illegal custody for months. If not, let the police say where he was between February 5 and August 15, he challenged.

Issa could have been detained in any of Delhi's joint interrogation centres, used by the police and intelligence agencies to extract precious information from the detainees using methods frowned upon by the law. As one top police officer told THE WEEK in the course of our investigation, these torture chambers spread across the country are our "precious assets". They are our own little Guantanamo Bays or Gitmos (where the US tortures terror suspects from Afghanistan and elsewhere for information).

Not many admit their existence, because doing so could result in human rights activists knocking at their doors and bad press for the smartly dressed intelligence men. It is a murky and dangerous world, according to K.S. Subramanian, Tripura's former director-general of police, who has also served in the Intelligence Bureau. "Such sites exist and are being used to detain and interrogate suspected terrorists and it has been going on for a long time," he told THE WEEK. "Even senior police officers are reluctant to talk about the system." So are people who have been to these virtual hells that officially do not exist.

THE WEEK has identified 15 such secret interrogation centres-three each in Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, two in Kolkata and one in Assam. (One detention centre that is shared by all security and law enforcement agencies is in Palanpur, Gujarat.) Their locations have been arrived at after speaking to serving and retired top officers who had helped set up some of these facilities. Those who have spent time in these places had no idea where they are. They were taken blindfolded and were allowed no visitors. The only faces they got to see were those of the interrogators, day in and day out.

The biggest of the three detention centres in Mumbai, the Aarey Colony facility in Goregaon, has four rooms. The Anti-Terrorism Squad questioned Saeed Khan (name changed), one of the accused in the Malegaon blasts of September 2006, here. He was served food at irregular intervals (led to temporary disorientation) and was denied sleep. Another secret detention centre maintained in the city by the ATS at Kalachowky has a sound-proof room. Sohail Shaikh, accused in the July 2006 train bombings, was held here for close to two months. "He was kept in isolation for days together," said an officer. "He crumbled after being subjected to hostile sessions. Intentional infliction of suffering does not always yield immediate results. Sometimes you have to wait for many days for the detainee to break. It is a tedious process." The smallest of the three facilities at Chembur has just two rooms.

Parvez Ahmed Radoo, 30, of Baramulla district in Kashmir, was illegally detained in Delhi for over a month for allegedly trying to plot mass murder in the national capital on behalf of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Delhi Police's chargesheet says he was arrested from the Azadpur fruit market in Delhi on October 14, 2006. But according to Parvez's flight itinerary, he travelled from Srinagar to Delhi on September 12 on SpiceJet flight 850. The flight landed at Delhi airport at 12.10 p.m. He had to catch another flight at 1.30 p.m. (SpiceJet flight 217) to Pune, where, according to his parents, he was going to pursue his Ph.D. But he never boarded the Pune flight as he disappeared from the Delhi airport.

Parvez wrote an open letter from the Tihar jail, where he is currently held, in which he said he was arrested from the airport on September 12 and kept in custody for a month. Apparently, he was first taken to the Lodhi Colony police station and then to an apartment in Dwarka, where electrodes were attached to his genitals and power was switched on. (Delhi's secret detention centres are located at Dwarka in south-west Delhi, the Inter-state Cell of the Crime Branch in Chanakyapuri in central Delhi, and the Lodhi Colony police station in south Delhi.)

"After my arrest on September 12, I was taken to Pune, where I was shown pictures of many Kashmiri boys," Parvez said in the letter. "They wanted me to identify them. As I didn't know any one of them, they brought me to Delhi again and threw me into the torture chamber of Lodhi Road [sic] police station. They took off my clothes and started beating me like an animal, so ruthlessly that my feet and fingers started bleeding. I was later forced to clean the blood-stained floor with my underwear. They gave me electric shocks and stretched my legs to extreme limits, resulting in internal haemorrhage. I started passing blood with my urine and stool. Later I was shifted to one flat near Delhi airport [he later identified the place as Dwarka]. From the adjacent flats, voices of crying and screaming had been coming, indicating presence of other persons being tortured."

Throughout his detention, wrote Parvez, he was asked to lie to his parents that everything was fine. In the letter he also gave the mobile number from which the calls were made-9960565152. His family is trying to collect the call site details of the number to prove his illegal detention.
Delhi-based journalist Iftikhar Geelani, who spent nine days in the Lodhi Colony police station after his arrest in 2002 on spying charges, is yet to get over the traumatic experience. "There are lock-ups with such low ceilings that a person will not be able to stand," he said. "There is an interrogation centre within the police station where people are brutally tortured with cables, and some are completely undressed and abused. They also have a facility to raise the temperature of the cell to a point where it is unbearable and then suddenly bring it down to freezing cold."

Assistant Commissioner Rajan Bhagat, spokesman for the Delhi Police, denied the existence of such facilities. "Nobody ever asked me the question [about secret detention centres]," he said. "We don't operate any such facility in our police stations."
But Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director of the IB, confirmed the existence of secret detention centres in Delhi and other parts of the country. He was convinced that detention outside the police station and torture are an inevitable part of the war on terrorism. "Now I would never dream of doing the things I did when I was in charge," said Dhar. "But security agencies need such facilities." Interrogating suspected terrorists at secret detention centres, he said, is the most effective way to gather intelligence. "If you produce a suspect before court, he will never give you anything after that," he said. In other words, once you record the arrest you are within the realm of the law and you have to acknowledge the rights of the accused-arrested and contend with his lawyer.

An officer who worked in one of the detention centres admitted that extreme physical and psychological torture, based loosely on the regime in Guantanamo Bay, is used to extract information from the detainees. It includes assault on the senses (pounding the ear with loud and disturbing music) and sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly administering drugs through the rectum to further break down their dignity. "The interrogators isolate key operatives so that the interrogator is the only person they see each day," he said. "In extreme cases we use pethidine injections. It will make a person crazy."

Molvi Iqbal from Uttar Pradesh, a suspected member of the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami who is currently lodged in Tihar, was held at a secret detention centre for two months according to his relatives. They alleged that during interrogation a chip was implanted under his skin so that his movements could be tracked if he tried to escape. "He fears that the chip is still inside his skin," said one of his relatives. "That has shattered him."

Kolkata has its own Gitmos in Bhabani Bhawan, now the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department, and the Alipore Retreat in Tollygunj, a bungalow that is said to have 20 rooms. They were bursting at the seams at the height of the Naxalite movement, but are more or less quiet now. "A large number of innocent people, as well as suspected terrorists, have disappeared after being taken to such secret detention centres," said Kirity Roy, a Kolkata-based human rights lawyer. "Their bodies would later be found, if at all, in the fields."

That was how militancy was tackled, first in Punjab and then in Kashmir. Today no secret prison exists in Kashmir officially after the notorious Papa-2 interrogation centre was closed down. But secret torture cells thrive across the state. The most notorious ones are the Cargo Special Operation Group (SOG) camp in Haftchinar area in Srinagar and Humhama in Budgam district. Then there are the joint interrogation centres in Khanabal area of Anantnag district and Talab Tillo and Poonch areas in Jammu region. Detentions at JICs could last months. Lawyers in Kashmir have filed 15,000 petitions since 1990 seeking the whereabouts of the detainees and the charges against them without avail.

The most recent victim of the torture regime was Manzoor Ahmed Beigh, 40, who was picked by the SOG from Alucha Bagh area in Srinagar on May 18. His family alleged that he was chained up, hung upside down from the ceiling and ruthlessly beaten up. He died the same night. Following public outrage, the officer in charge of the camp was dismissed from the service in June.

Maqbool Sahil, a Srinagar-based photojournalist who was held at Hariniwas interrogation centre for 15 days, says it is a miracle that he is alive today. "If you tell them [interrogators] you are innocent, they will torture you so ruthlessly that you will break down and confess to anything," he says.
Human rights organisations are understandably concerned.   Navaz Kotwal, coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said that there should be an open debate on the illegal detention centres. "The US had a debate on the Gitmos. Our government should come forward and respond to these allegations," she said.

No one wants to compromise the nation's safety, but the torture becomes unbearable, and questionable, when innocent people like the 14-year-old boy Irfan suffer (see box on page 30). The security of the country and its people is important and terrorism should be crushed at all cost. But the largest democracy in the world should also ensure that human rights are not violated.

Dhar defended the secret prison system, arguing that the successful defence of the country required that the security establishment be empowered to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the legal system. "The primary mission of the agencies is to save the nation both by overt and covert means from any terrorist threat," he said. "But to keep the programme secret is a horrible burden."
with Anupam Dasgupta
 

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