In India, Controversy Over Hindus' Arrests

Ejaz Ahmad was injured when a motorcycle bomb went off near his tea shop in Malegaon, a textile town in Maharashtra state. Ten Hindus have been arrested in the September attack. (By Rama Lakshmi -- The Washington Post)
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The police got their first lead in the Malegaon case when forensic analysis revealed that the motorcycle was owned by a 36-year-old Hindu holy woman, Pragya Singh. They also claim to have records of telephone conversations that include Singh.

"We have evidence against all the accused for their respective roles in instigation, abetment, providing explosives and funding," said Ajay Misar, the public prosecutor in the case, citing cellphone call records, bank statements, diaries, laptop data and confessions. "All the evidence will be scrutinized by court, not by political pressure or public opinion."

But Singh's attorney, Ganesh Sovani, said police beat his client with "flour-mill conveyor belts" to extract false confessions. "She sold her motorcycle in 2004. How can she be held responsible now? She had no control or knowledge of how and who used her bike," Sovani said.

Police say that another suspect, Lt. Col. Srikant Prasad Purohit, provided combat training and explosives to Hindu activists and that they have a text message he sent to another accused after Singh's arrest. The message allegedly reads: "Cat is out of the bag. Singh has sung. Please delete my number."

Many Indians have expressed shock and embarrassment at the sensational findings unfolding daily on television.

As soon as police, politicians and the news media uttered the term "Hindu terror," Hindu nationalist groups across India began protesting. "Hindus can never be terrorists," the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said, adding that terrorists do not have a religion. Others said Hindus were peaceful people and had never invaded any other civilization in history. One columnist suggested that the phrase "Hindu terror" be replaced with "Hindutva terror," separating the attacks from mainstream Hinduism by using a political term denoting Hindu chauvinism or pride.

"You cannot call it Hindu terrorism. If you must, then call it retributive terrorism," said Ram Madhav, a spokesman for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the umbrella group for most of the country's Hindu activists.

At each appearance of the accused before the judge, hundreds of Hindu activists stormed the court chanting, "We are with you," waving orange flags and showering marigold petals on the vehicles carrying the prisoners. They charged the government with demonizing "Hindu saints, Hindu society and the Indian army."

"The cases are fabricated. But even if they have done anything, I would say it is a reaction, not an action," Savarkar said. "We cannot keep showing the other cheek. The Hindus are fed up." She set up a legal aid fund this month to help Hindus booked in the Malegaon case.

The BJP is running campaign ads on TV accusing the Congress government of smearing the names of soldiers who sacrifice their lives for the nation. On Friday, Purohit, the accused army officer, alleged in court that the police had threatened to kill him if he did not confess.

"His whereabouts are all a matter of record with the military. Every hour of his life is accounted for," said his attorney, Avinash Bhide. "The media coverage has already tried and proven him guilty."

In the coming days, hundreds of orange-robed self-styled Hindu saints will march to New Delhi to launch a "Hindu mobilization drive."

"We have to be cautious," said Sanjay Nirupam, a Congress leader. "We don't want to be called an anti-Hindu party. We should isolate the extremist groups but not alienate the entire Hindu community."

But Fareeda Sheik Liaqat, who lost her 10-year-old daughter in the bombing that Ramadan night in Malegaon, says the naked politicking over terrorism reopens her wounds constantly.

"I do not understand politics, but the person who killed my beautiful girl should be punished," said Liaqat, 35, as she ran her hand over her daughter's pink-and-blue Spiderman school bag. "She wanted to be a doctor."