Spread of Hindutava

BANGLADESH:Bombs found in Maitree’s route

Some crude bombs have been found on a rail track through which the Dhaka-Kolkata Maitree Express will start rolling on Monday, Indian officials said.The bombs were found between Ranaghat and Gede railway stations, north of Kolkata, late on Sunday evening, the officials said.

Bangladesh rail officials were unaware of the "bomb discovery".

"The bombs are crude and are meant to scare, but we are taking no chances," said Dilip Mitra, inspector-general of Railways Safety in Kolkata.Trains between India and Bangladesh are being resumed after 42 years, after they were stopped during the 1965 India-Pakistan war.Indian Intelligence blamed the Nikhil Banga Nagarik Sangha (All Bengal Citizens Group), an organisation of Hindu refugees from East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in planting the bombs.
The group has close links with the Hindu fundamentalist Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the RSS. The Sangha has opposed the "friendship express" and called upon their supporters to disrupt it.

"Why should democratic and secular India seek to develop such intimate links with Islamic Bangladesh…?" the Sangha's general secretary Subhas Chakrabarti said in a statement this week.

NEPAL:MILITANT HINDUTVA RAISES ITS UGLY HEAD

Needless to say, not everyone was excited by the 18 May 2006 declaration of secularism. Nepal’s Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) elements, with backing from Hindutva forces in India, immediately increased their intolerant rhetoric and exploited the confusion of the Hindu masses. On 22 May 2006 some 5000 Hindus rallied in Birgunj, a southern town in the “Hindutva belt” on the border with India, protesting the parliament’s resolution to turn Nepal into a secular state. The rallies were organised by activists from the World Hindu Federation (WHF) and Shiv Sena Nepal. The protestors blocked the Tribhuvan highway on the Bara-Parsa industrial belt near the Indian border. Shouting “Jay Shree Ram!” (Lord Ram is great!), they burnt tyres, logs and newspapers that supported the resolution. (See LINK 2)

A group calling itself the Nepal Defense Army (NDA) committed several minor acts of terrorism during 2007, primarily targeting Maoist institutions. It claims it is fighting for Nepal’s reinstatement as a Hindu state.

On the evening of Wednesday 12 March 2008 a bomb exploded in the regional office of Kantipur Publications in Biratnagar, a city some 240 km south-east of Kathmandu in the Hindutva belt on the Indian border. Kantipur, a Nepali news service, reported that the explosion caused no harm to the staff or the office property. “Though it was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, the pamphlets found at the explosion site suggested that ’Nepal Defense Army’ was responsible. The pamphlets read ’Nepal Defense Army for Hindu Kingdom’.” (LINK 3)

MOSQUE BOMBING

On the evening of Saturday 29 March 2008, three powerful bombs ripped through the Sarouchiya Mosque in Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s hometown of Biratnagar. A fourth bomb failed to explode and was later defused. Two locals were killed in the blasts, while two others were hospitalised with critical injuries.

According to Kantipur, “Two unidentified persons, who came on motorcycles, had lobbed four bombs while over 60 persons were busy reciting evening prayers inside the mosque.”An eyewitness, Malik Alam Kuresi, said the unidentified men hurled the four bombs from the gate and fled the scene. ’However, only three of them (bombs) went off immediately.’

“Meanwhile, an underground group — Nepal Defense Army — took responsibility for the blasts. One R P Mainali aka Paribartan, who identified himself as ’supreme commander’ of the group, owned up the group’s involvement in the blast, in a press statement.” (LINK 4)

In a statement sent to media outlets, the Nepal Defense Army vowed it “would continue such attacks until Nepal is reinstated as a Hindu nation.”

The Times of India reported: “Soon after the attacks, Muslims began demonstrations on streets. Fearing a riot, the district administration clamped curfew from Saturday night. When the curfew was lifted in the morning, Muslims called a strike in Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari districts, ignoring [PM] Koirala’s appeal to show restraint.” (LINK 5)

An October 2007 article by Prashant Jha in the Himal SouthAsian entitled “Royal Hindutva — The Hindu right in Nepal is currently down, but not out” provides insight to the relationship between Hindutva forces in Nepal and India. [In fact, Jha’s article makes one wonder: what would it mean for Nepal if India’s BJP won power in India’s 2009 federal elections?]

Concern Nepal, Jha writes: “India’s Hindu right does not like what it sees taking place in Nepal. Angry that the country is headed towards becoming a secular, democratic republic, it can see its traditional influence in Nepali politics waning. A terminal blow has now been dealt to the two pillars central to what the Hindutva-wallahs have cherished about Nepal: a Hindu rashtra [state] with a Hindu monarchy.”But Hindutva leaders from both India and Nepal have not given up. They have been brainstorming — at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in New Delhi, the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur, and at the residence of royalist politicians in Kathmandu — as well as with King Gyanendra at the Narayanhiti Palace. However, the Indian and Nepali Hindu right recognises the limits of its capacity, and does not have a clear rescue plan as yet [Oct 07]. . ." (LINK 6)

Maybe the recent mosque bombing in Biratnagar signals a shift in Hindutva strategy. Perhaps the Hindutva agenda will be advanced, not through riots or minor acts of terrorism against Maoists and journalists, but, as in India, through the fomenting of sectarian strife.

Elizabeth Kendal

PAKISTAN:Hindu fanatics are behind the anti Islamic and anti Pakistan propaganda in Pakistan.

India has dismissed Pakistani allegations that it was involved in a train bomb explosion which Islamabad says killed 22 people and left 36 injured.

The bomb turned the carriage into a mangled wreck. Owen Bennett-Jones reports.

The Pakistani authorities said the time bomb went off in the early hours of the morning as the Karachi to Peshawar train approached Khairpur in the southern province of Sindh.

It exploded in a packed train carriage while most of the passengers were asleep, according to an official.

The blast was so powerful it brought the train to a halt

Although no group has admitted responsibility for the bomb, the Pakistani authorities told the BBC they had "unimpeachable" evidence it was the work of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of the Hindu extremists intelligence service rss.