Even at the time of these attacks, it was widely believed that terrorist groups having faith in Islam were unlikely to be behind them. The belief was based on logic. And the logic was that all the three terror attacks had targeted only Muslim places of worship and that the day and time chosen for the explosions was such that only Muslims were likely to be killed and injured. Bombs were detonated at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007. At that time, thousands of Muslims had congregated to the mosque for offering namaz. Nine persons were killed and 58 were injured in the explosions. Later, another five were killed in police firing at the same spot.

It is generally believed that terrorists have no religion and hence it would have been imprudent to reject outright the possibility of Islamic outfits having mounted the attack but it was equally improper to have totally discounted the possibility of some fanatic Hindu group being behind the attack.

Before the Hyderabad incident, bomb explosions had taken place in a Muslim burial ground at Malegaon, when a large number of Muslims were present there in connection with “Shab-e-barat”. That incident had also generated similar suspicions.

Then, on October 11, 2007 Ajmer in Rajasthan was rocked by bomb explosions, which left 3 dead and several injured. Again, the target was a Muslim place of worship—the Dargah of Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinnuddin Chisti. For two years, the investigators failed to get any leads that could have helped them lay their hands on the perpetrators of the crime.

On April 30 this year, a man called Devendra Gupta was taken into custody by the Rajasthan police. He was connected with a Hindu fundamentalist organisation. The Sim card used in his Mobile was bought from Jharkhand. Then, on May 11 the Anti-terrorist squad of the Rajasthan police arrested Chandrashekhar and detained Vishnu Patidar for interrogation. All the three were picked up from various places in the Madhya Bharat (Indore-Ujjain) region of Madhya Pradesh, where, apparently, they were living without a fear in the world. Patidar was let off after interrogation.

The police have reasons to believe that Gupta and Chandrashekhar were connected with the Hyderabad and Malegaon blasts too. Gupta was said to be very close to a committed RSS worker Sunil Joshi, who was subsequently murdered. The Rajasthan Home Minister said that the state police was on the look-out for Swami Aseemanand, who is on the run since his name figured in the Malegaon bomb blast.

It has also been revealed that Hindu fanatics were behind the explosion in Delhi's Jama Masjid in the year 2006. All these persons had links with an organisation called “Abhinav Bharat”. “The Hindustan Times” (May 12, 2010) reports that the Madhya Bharat region, especially Indore, of Madhya Pradesh was the epicenter of the activities of “Abhinav Bharat”. There also indications those preparations for all the terror attacks mounted by “Abhinav Bharat” were made in Indore. The explosion in “Samjhauta Express” also had Indore links. The man, who suspected to be behind the attack, belongs to Indore. His name is Ramjilal Kalsangra and the police are hunting for him.

Way back in the year 2003, a bomb had exploded at a Muslim congregation in Bhopal. At that time, Kalsangra was arrested on suspicion. However, he was let off after cursory questioning. Had the police subsequently kept an eye on him, may be, several serious incidents would have been prevented. Similarly, unclaimed explosives were seized from a village called Lambakheda near Bhopal and from the Bhopal railway station. Unfortunately, the investigation into both these cases was not taken to its logical conclusion by the Madhya Pradesh police.

Why did the Madhya Pradesh police fight shy of pursuing these cases? Why and how did it remain oblivious to the activities of Hindu terror outfits operating from the State? One can only speculate. May be, the police never got a whiff of the terror network spreading its tentacles in the state. Or may be, it was in the know of the things but remained a mute spectator owing to political pressure.

That “Abhinav Bharat” is a frontal organisation of the RSS is now an open secret. Madhya Pradesh is under BJP rule since 2003. No wonder, the police could not muster the courage to probe the activities of an organisation that had links with the RSS. For in one sense, both “Abhinav Bharat” and the BJP were sailing in the same boat. Both, after all, are progenies of the RSS.

It would be pertinent to mention here that after Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and others were arrested from Indore in connection with the Malegaon blast, the state Industries Minister Mr. Kailash Vijayvargiya—who represents one of the constituencies in Indore district—visited the residences of all the accused and promised their family members every possible help.

Even as the MP Home Minister Mr. Uma Shankar Gupta is saying that MP was not a haven for terrorists, the Rajasthan and Maharashtra police are arresting one terror accused after another from the state. Apparently, for the BJP and the state police, no Hindu can be categorised as a terrorist.

Interestingly, it took the arrests of a number of Hindu terrorists for the RSS to realise that terrorists have no religion. The RSS leaders seem to have forgotten that till a few years back, they saw “Jehadi terrorists” behind every terrorist incident in the country. “Every Muslim is not a terrorist but every terrorist is a Muslim”, was a favourite Modispeak. Now that it has been discovered that a quite a number of terrorists are Hindus, one has to wait and see which new slogan Modi's spin doctors now come out with. (IPA)