Hindu fundamentalists involved in Malegaon blasts, church attacks

The arrest of four Hindus in connection with the Malegaon blasts has suggested the involvement of pro-Hindu groups taking up arms against minorities in the country.

The September 29 Malegaon bombings were a series of bomb blasts that took place in Malegaon, a town in the Nashik district of Maharashtra. The blasts targeting Muslims killed at least 6 and injured several others.

Evidence by the Maharashtra police pointed to the hand of a Hindu extremist group in the blasts. Among those arrested was a sadhvi (Hindu women priest) and members of a Hindu extremist group, Abhinav Bharat.

Two of the accused were also former members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the same organisations involved in the recent Kandhamal violence that killed over 60 Christians and forced thousands to flee to forests.

In Delhi, Union Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal termed the arrest of Lt Col as a matter of "grave concern" and said it was a part of a "big conspiracy" by communal forces to destablise the country.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad (ATS) interrogating Sameer Kulkarni, co-founder of Abhinav Bharat, in connection with the blasts are investigating if Kulkarni was involved in the attack on the founder pastor of the Vineyard Workers Church at Bopodi last year.

An ATS officer told DNA that the local police have been told to investigate if Kulkarni was involved in the attack on pastor Peter David Silway.

ATS sources said that Kulkarni used to print and distribute pamphlets to educate Hindu youth and urge attacks on Churches.

"Kulkarni was the main accused in the FIR and the victim had even identified him,'' said Abraham Mathai, general secretary of Christian Council of India.

According to Mathai, had Kulkarni been arrested and his activities probed thoroughly, the blast in the textile town could have been averted.

"I had written to the police asking them to arrest Kulkarni. Despite him being named in the FIR, no action was taken. Had the police arrested him and conducted a diligent interrogation, Kulkarni's terrorist activities and intentions would have surfaced,'' Mathai said.

Investigators are also probing the possible involvement of Abhinav Bharat's activists in the bomb blast at Nanded on April 6, 2006. The blast at the residence of a local RSS activist Lakshman Rajkondawar killed his son Naresh and another person named Himanshu while four others were seriously injured. All of them were said to be assembling bombs in the premises.