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Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Posted by: Awaaz / 8/26/2003 10:12:17 AM45 killed in Bombay bomb blasts
Luke Harding in New Delhi
Tuesday August 26, 2003
The Guardian
More than 45 people were killed and around 140 injured yesterday when two massive car bombs ripped into the heart of Bombay, India's financial capital, in a devastating attack likely to plunge relations between India and Pakistan into fresh turmoil.
One bomb planted in a taxi went off outside the Gateway of India - the city's most famous tourist attraction - killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens of others standing nearby.
Another had exploded minutes earlier in a crowded jewellery market, also in the south of the city, causing a huge number of casualties. There was no immediate claim of responsibility last night - but suspicion is likely to fall on Islamist extremists, possibly taking revenge for last year's communal riots in the neighbouring state of Gujarat, where 2,000 Muslims died.
The blasts follow a recent thaw in relations between Pakistan and India, which has accused Islamabad of supporting Islamist militants who have carried out previous attacks on Indian soil.
Last night India's Hindu nationalist prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, held an emergency cabinet meeting as police put the Indian capital, New Delhi, and Gujarat's riot-hit main city, Ahmedabad, on a state of high alert.
Analysts warned that the blasts would damage already-strained relations between India's majority Hindu community and the country's 140 million Muslims.
The first blast took place shortly after 1pm local time in the Zaveri bazaar, Bombay's packed gold and diamond market which had just opened. The bomb was hidden inside a taxi.
It sent debris flying across a huge area, ripping into shops. More than 30 people were killed in the explosion.
The second blast along Bombay's crowded seafront took place four minutes later, shattering windows in the five-star Taj Mahal Hotel 200 metres away, which is used by the city's wealthy elite and by Bollywood film stars. The taxi which contained the bomb had been dumped in a public car park. The blast left paving stones drenched with blood and littered with abandoned shoes.
The hotel's communications manager, Ravi Dubey, said no guests or foreign tourists had been hurt."This was a terrorist attack. It was too organised to be anything else," he said. "They decided to strike at an elite area."
Ingrid Alva, a public relations consultant who works near the Gateway, said: "The building we were in shook and we heard a loud noise. I rushed out and saw the crowds at the Gateway of India. We saw some body parts lying around, before we were told to move away by the police."
As hospitals struggled to cope with the wounded, police rounded up suspects, including a taxi driver.
Last night police claimed they had also discovered a large amount of explosive concealed near a railway tunnel on the outskirts of Bombay. Around 100 detonators had been hidden along a busy commuter line at Igatpuri.
The bombings bear a grim resemblance to a wave of explosions that shook Bombay in 1993, killing 250 people. Those blasts were blamed on groups avenging Muslim deaths in Hindu-Muslim riots after the razing of a mosque at Ayodhya in northern India.
Yesterday India's chief archaeological body released a report that claimed a temple had existed at the disputed religious site long before the mosque. It was not clear last night whether the report and the Bombay blasts were linked.
ENDS.
Posted by: Awaaz / 8/26/2003 10:09:53 AM
The Times of India, August 25, 2003
EDITORIAL
Murderous Monday It was a horrifying reprise of 1993. Now, as then, the murderous bomb blasts which rocked Mumbai on Monday seemed to be well-planned and co-ordinated to inflict maximum damage on the city's symbols of civic pride and financial power. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=145988
ENDS.
The Hindu, August 26, 2003 Editorial Behind the terrorist strikes http://www.thehindu.com/2003/08/26/stories/2003082604160800.htm
ENDS.
The Indian Express, August 26, 2003 Editorial Unmask the attacker Mumbai cannot, must not, be held hostage to the insanity of the faceless terrorist http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=30267
ENDS.
The Guardian [UK] August 26, 2003
Amid the ruins, new verdict on holy site
Luke Harding
Yesterday's blasts took place only hours after the publication of a long-awaited report on Ayodhya - the temple town in north India, which has long divided Hindus and Muslims.
In 1992 thousands of Hindu zealots tore down the 16th-century Babri mosque in the town, claiming it had been built on the site of an earlier Hindu temple sacred to Lord Ram, Hinduism's most important deity. The incident led to rioting across India, with several thousand killed.
It also propelled the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) to power - which exploited a wave of Hindu sentiment over Ayodhya to defeat India's Congress party. Since then Hindu extremists have claimed that they were entitled to destroy the mosque - because India's former Muslim Mughal rulers did the same when they swept into India in the 15th century.
What happened in Ayodhya was merely a case of righting an historical injustice, they argue. Yesterday's report by the archaeological survey of India (ASI) appears to support them - and claims that a Hindu temple did indeed exist on the disputed religious site long before the mosque.
The report deals a blow to India's Muslim community - and appears to be a belated blessing to Hindu vandals who plunged India into a communal crisis.
Secular historians are likely to dispute the ASI's conclusions. The BJP has stuffed academic institutions and bodies with its own supporters - and has even been accused of altering school text books to support its pro-Hindu version of history. It was not clear last night whether the bomb blasts in Bombay were provoked by the report - or whether the timing was a coincidence.
India's supreme court has been pondering its own verdict on the Ayodhya affair for several decades now. The court has yet to rule on whether a new Hindu temple can be constructed on the ruins of the old mosque - something that India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and most of his cabinet support. Until the court decides, the issue will continue to poison Hindu-Muslim relations.
ENDS.
The Times of India
No evidence of temple at Ayodhya: Expert
PRANAVA K CHAUDHARY TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2003 11:10:22 PM ]
PATNA: No evidence of an ancient Hindu temple had been found at the disputed site in Ayodhya. The ASI report is "vague and self-contradictory and something prepared under political pressure".
This observation has been made by one of the experts who had been recently summoned by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court hearing the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit to make their observation.
Sita Ram Rai a former director of Bihar state archaeology, who has already spent more than a fortnight at the Ayodhya excavated site during the month of June alleged that the ASI has carved "pillars out of the excavated floor to "draw" some inaccurate conclusions in favour of the contesting party.
The ASI which released its report on Monday with "motivated suggestions and wilful omissions makes its clear that its saffronised heart is in the right place", he said.
Besides Rai, other experts were former head of the department of archaeology, Kurukshetra University, Suraj Bhan, former professor of archaeology, Allahabad University, D Mandal and former professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi, Shireen Ratnakar. Both Rai and Mandal belong to Bihar.
Rai who conducted several archaeological excavations at Nagarjunkonda (Andhra Pradesh), Vaishali and Lota Pahar in Singhbhum, told TNN on Monday: "No structure was demolished before the construction of mosque (1528 AD)".
Rai, who has written on the excavations of Chirand (Saran) and Sonepur in the Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology, had appeared as a witness before the Lucknow bench in April, 2002.
These archaeologists made detailed studies of the ASI's method of excavation and the artefacts recently excavated at the Ayodhya site. "All of us believe that there was no temple at the Ayodhya site", Rai said.
According to Rai, from the 13th century onwards artefacts belonging to Muslim period including coins belonging to Akbar's period have been in abundance in the whole region. The structural remains of broken bricks represented the habitation of the common masses, he said.
Rai says," whatever few structural remains of bricks have been used in the construction of houses were brought here from outside during the pre-mosque period".
The court had summoned these "progressive archaeologists" in view of complaints from the Central Sunni Wakf Board and other plaintiffs in the Ayodhya title suit, sources said.
ENDS.
Deccan Herald [India] August 24, 2003
Ayodhya row: It's time to let go Temples, churches and mosques have social, cultural and political significance, but hardly any spiritual worth
By Swami Agnivesh & Rev Valson Thampu
Assuming that we have the patience and humility to consult Lord Ram on Ayodhya, very likely he will counsel, "It's time to let go on this much ado about nothing." The belligerent Ram bhakts, however, are disinclined to do so, underlining the ironic truth that the clamour for Ram temple is independent of devotion to Lord Ram. This is proved by the stand of the pro-mandir hawks: "We will build the temple in the disputed area, even if Lord Ram were to ask us not to." The VHP, typical of its attitude to the rule of law, has made it clear that it will accept the court's verdict only if it is in its favour.
The Muslims are reluctant to let go on Ayodhya on the pretext that the property under dispute belongs to Allah, which they are not free to give away. This notwithstanding, in deference to the rule of law and the ethos of a modern secular society, they will abide by the judicial outcome unconditionally. By the same token, they must realise that the theological notion that this piece of land belongs to Allah is not a self-evident fact in the secular context.
They should not, like the VHP, assume that all people are obliged to endorse esoteric assumptions simply because they are religious. Even theologically, this assumption is of dubious merit. On what basis can Muslims or any religious group assume that God is particularly interested in a certain piece of real estate?
The idea that God is particularly interested in a place of worship is a piece of clever invention by the priestly class in order to manipulate popular religiosity to their advantage. There are two contrary perspectives on the significance of places of worship.
Religiously conditioned, the faithful feel fervently for places of worship. In our multi-religious society, it is important for every person to recognise and respect this fact. In a spiritual sense, however, God does not live in structures of brick and mortar, but in human hearts sanctified by love. Temples, churches and mosques have social, cultural and political significance, but hardly any spiritual worth. Founders of religions never attached themselves to places of worship.
Continuing madness
All through religious history, places of worship have been vulnerable to corruption, perversion and politics. The religious elites have, besides, dragged credulous followers into their selfish squabbles sugar-coated as jihads and holy wars. Millions have suffered and perished; but the madness continues.
It is high time we outgrew the crippling communal obsession with Ayodhya, not least because it is a non-issue imposed over the helpless people of that town. It is time to allow Lord Ram, the embodiment of righteousness, to be a blessing, rather than a nightmare, to the people of Ayodhya, Hindus and Muslims alike.
The Ayodhya imbroglio defies solution simply because it is engaged from a predatory mentality of taking by force rather than of giving in grace. The threat to take the disputed land by force activates the vanity to defend it at all costs, irrespective of the worth ascribed to the object of dispute. At times it seems as though the Muslims are looking to the courts for a face-saving formula: "Please give an adverse verdict, so that we can wash our hands off this mess".
The Ayodhya mess can be cleaned up only if the concerned parties desire a solution. As long as communalists, who see Ayodhya as a goose that lays golden eggs for them, are allowed to meddle with it, no amicable solution can emerge. [...]. {See Full Text at: http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug25/top.asp }
ENDS.
Exchange Ayodhya for rights for Muslim dalits: Muslim Morcha (Press Trust of India | Chennai, August 22) http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_347125,001300020001.htm
ENDS.
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