Why not Purohit’s extradition?

Pakistan’s Foreign Office in the past has been found wanting in exposing Indian RAW’s involvement in inciting and helping centrifugal forces in Balochistan and infiltrating its agents in FATA to carry out terrorist activities. India on the other hand has been making mountain out of mole hill and using each and every terrorist act to malign Pakistan. Two weeks before 26th November Mumbai carnage, it had been established that Col Purohit was involved in Samjhota Express and Malegaon blasts, but Pakistan did not demand Purohit’s extradition. Perhaps Pakistan’s foreign office babus thought that it would roil the ongoing composite dialogue. So far as Indian government is concerned, after every terrorist attack it blames Pakistan though it was invariably proved later that Pakistan was not involved. After all India is self-sufficient in engendering terrorists, as there are over hundred fifty terrorist groups and about a dozen separatists’ movements in at least eleven India’s provinces.

Four times previously the Indian government falsely accused Lashkare Taiba of sponsoring violent incidents in India. These were: The Chittisinghpura massacre on 20th March 2000, the attack on the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001, the Malagaon blasts in September 2006 and The Samjhota Express gory incident on 18 February 2007. After the terrorist attack on Samjhota Express that killed 68 (mostly Pakistanis) and injured many others, Lashkare Taiba was blamed. Indian authorities had claimed that the alleged perpetrator was Rana Shaukat Ali but later investigations revealed that neither Rana Shaukat nor Lashkare Taiba but a serving lieutenant colonel of the Indian army, Lt. Col. Purohit was the mastermind behind and provided RDX to the terrorists. Purohit, it was found, had links with Hindu militant groups and provided training to extremists.

The September 2006 Malegaon bombings were a series of bomb blasts that took place in Malegaon, a town in the Indian state of Maharashtra, some 290 km to the northeast of Mumbai. The explosions killed at least 37 people. In November 2006, Maharashtra Police said that the blasts were carried out by the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). However, on 8 November, 2008, the Maharashtra Anti Terror Squad revealed that Lt Colonel Srikant Purohit of the Indian military was involved in a blast that killed people in Malegaon in September 2007. The Anti Terror Squad indicted Purohit for supplying the RDX used in the blasts. The Anti Terror Squad had also found out that Purohit attended secret meetings of the ‘fascist’ Hindu group Abhinav Bharat. For Pakistan, the most troubling aspect of the 26 November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai is the fact that the three officials who had been tasked with finalizing the findings of both the Samjhota Express incident and the Malegaon blasts linking Lt. Col. Purohit conclusively to the terrorist attacks were all killed. Hemant Karkare, in charge of the investigation, was one of the first people shot by the terrorists, followed by DIG Ashok Kale and encounter specialist Vijay Salazar. In the dossier given to Pakistan, it was alleged that the perpetrators of the 26/11 violence entered Mumbai by sea and arrived by trawlers from Karachi. India has twenty-one separate radar systems that monitor the coastal line between Karachi and Mumbai.

Analysts raise questions as to how the trawler made it all the way to Mumbai without being detected. They are of the view that the operations at sea need specialized training and mere a few swimming lessons in Muridke cannot achieve expertise to sail in the high seas. This is sort of information provided by India which it calls evidences. Pakistan has acknowledged that Ajmal Kassab is Pakistan but to say that he is involved is yet to be proved. And so far nobody knows the identities of other nine persons who were killed in the operation by Indian security personnel.

Within three days after receiving the dossier from India, which arguably contains detailed account of the perpetrators of Mumbai carnage, Pakistan officially confirmed that the preliminary finding had provided enough information to conclude that the Ajmal Kasab in India’s custody was from a Punjab village, and perhaps belonged to a militant group that was bent upon destabilising the region by undermining the peace process. Even if it is proved that other nine terrorists were Pakistani citizens, there is not a speck of evidence that Pakistan as a state is involved, which had been acknowledged by India’s External Affairs Secretary Shiv Krishna Menon while talking to a Pakistani TV channel. But Indian officials have been shifting poles and changing stances.

Initially, India succeeded in achieving its objectives through its propaganda blitz, but the world has started understanding India’s shenanigans. Even right-thinking persons in India do not buy in Indian leadership’s logic and conjectures that Pakistan was involved in Mumbai attack. Having failed in convincing the world, India has started anti-Pakistan propaganda with renewed vigour. However, due to contradictions in earlier statements of Indian government functionaries and the details in the dossier, India stands exposed. The world is aware of India’ despicable human rights’ record, which has been confirmed by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. And all minorities Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits and Christians are witnesses to the heinous crimes perpetrated by the Hindu extremists.

Even before initial investigations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh started litany that Pakistan should hand over persons mentioned in the list of 40 India has handed over to Pakistan. He referred to the SAARC convention, but there is no clause for extradition of prisoners or accused in any crime. Anyhow, Pakistan should also prepare a list of all wanted Indian nationals involved in terrorists’ attacks especially Lt Col Purohit and demand his extradition on account of his involvement in Samjhota mayhem, because over to Pakistan because Pakistanis were killed and hundreds of Pakistani families have suffered immensely.

LK Advani, Bal Thakray and others were instrumental in inciting the Hindu extremists that led to massacre of the Muslims; their role in Gujarat riots after demolition of Babary Mosque is too well known. They all should be tried in International Court of Justice because Indian government is not in a position to deal with these fundamentalists. And secondly Indian courts do not have the spine to bring these fundamentalists and barbarians to book.

After November 26 Mumbai terrorist attack, the Congress and the BJP have created war frenzy and Indian electronic media was also in competition with both the political parties to win public applause and make a capital out of the horrendous incident.

by Mohammad Jamil