Former insider says Hindu extremist RSS did bombings to help BJP win 2014 elections
The Hindu extremist paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) carried out bombings across India to blame them on Muslims and inflame hatred for the minority community, a former RSS member has said in an affidavit submitted to a court.
The bombings helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the political arm of the Nazi-inspired RSS, win the General Election in 2014, bringing Narendra Modi to the prime minister’s office, former RSS member Yashwant Shinde said in the affidavit submitted to the court in Nanded district of Maharashtra state.
“[RSS-VHP operatives] carried out many bomb blasts across the country and with the help of biased police and one-sided media blamed them on Muslims. That helped them in 2014 Loksabha elections,” the affidavit says.
Saying that he was present at RSS camps that gave training in carrying out bomb blasts, Shinde named top RSS leader Indresh Kumar as involved in the training for bombings. Kumar was in the past accused of a series of bombings.
Shinde also named many leaders from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an RSS affiliate that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) classified as a militant organization in 2018.
Shinde said while he adhered in the RSS ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism, he also believed that the Hindu religion was a noble one without terrorist tendencies.
He said he did not wish to be part of the bombings and that he discouraged those with whom he had better connections in the organisation from carrying out bomb blasts, thus saving the lives of many innocent Hindus, Muslims and Christians, the affidavit said.
Falsely charged with public violence, Muslim man gets bail after four months in jail
Babuddin, a 43-year-old Muslim man from the inner city neighborhood Jahangirpuri of India’s capital Delhi, was on Tuesday granted bail by Delhi’s High Court after spending four months in prison on false charges of leading street violence.
Justice Yogesh Khanna wrote in his order that CCTV footage clearly showed Babuddin was merely a bystander and did not instigate and incite the mob towards violence. The prosecution had claimed he had led the violent mob.
On April 16, Hindutva extremist group Bajrang Dal organized three religious processions with participants armed with guns and swords and genocidal slogans against Muslims, as seen in videos of the event. Violence broke out as they attacked a mosque.
While taking no action against the Bajrang Dal, the police arrested Muslims for the violence. Charges filed in the court claimed that the protests were a continuation of the nationwide protests from 2019 against the anti-Muslim Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.
Masked men vandalize church, burn pastor’s car in Punjab village
Four masked men vandalized a church in a village in Punjab state’s Tarn Taran district, close to India’s border with Pakistan, police said on Wednesday. The men entered the church at night with firearms and tied up the guard before vandalizing the church.
They broke an idol and burnt the pastor’s car before leaving, the police said.
After the incident, a police team led by Senior Superintendent of Police, Tarn Taran, Ranjit Singh Dhillon, reached the spot to take stock of the situation. Heavy police deployment has been made in the area, they said.
A group of Christians on Wednesday held a protest against the incident and blocked routes, demanding that the vandals be arrested.
Hindu men attack Muslim man for speaking with a Hindu female classmate
A Muslim student was beaten up by his college mates in In Karnataka state’s Dakshina Kannada district, for chatting with a Hindu girl on Tuesday.
According to the police, Mohammed Sanif, 19, was assaulted after some Hindu students objected when he was speaking with a woman friend who is a Hindu.
The Hindu male students then called Sanif to the college grounds and attacked him.
