Haqeeqat.Org Do the Right, Fear No Man&#8230;

28 Nov 08

1 Com.

Mumbai Drama - India Headed towards Hindu Talibanization and Fascist Saffron Violence

My friend and colleague Zaid Hamid makes an excellent point here. As a Pakistani, I too find it intriguing that only days ago, for the first time, the reach and influence of indigenous Indian terror groups was being registered for the first time, with the arrest of two serving senior Indian army officers with links to Hindu terror groups involved in major terrorism acts; acts that were blamed on Muslims. And now suddenly we have a spectacular incident, too sophisticated for any foreigner to execute without massive facilitation and support base, where allegedly Muslim terrorists have left behind an ID card and a cell phone with a SIM card originating in a ‘neighboring’ country. How convenient. They should have checked better since they could have also found an ISI staff card on one of the dead terrorists. There are close to 100 groups in India, of all shades, fighting the Indian state and people, including Hindu terrorist groups. India should get its own house in order before blaming ‘neighbors’. This coming from a country where close to 600 Christians were killed just a couple of months back by Hindu groups, and 2500 Indian Muslims were burned alive in the 21st century’s first incident of genocide, in 2002 and where Kashmiri, Dalit, and other minority women are raped everyday as part of Hindu religious oppression. Please read Zaid Hamid’s anbalysis below and the attached report that exposes India’s extremism.

Courtesy: Ahmed Quraishi

_________________________________________________

Zaid Hamid | November 27th, 2008

Dear all,

Assalam-o-Alaikum

For the past many weeks, the biggest story in India was involvement of Indian Military Intelligence officers in orchestrated acts of terrorism against Muslims to create a Hindu-Muslim riot situation as well as to create a justification for war against Pakistan. Many Indian army officers were caught and Indian Police was forced to work deeper into finding more BJP, Bajrang Dal and RSS terrorists in Indian military and Intelligence setup. This story had created a serious panic in Indian military and their Fascist patrons in Hindu Zionists.

Something had to be done to divert the attention of the world and Indian public from acts of terrorism by Hindu Hardliners. …..Then comes the Mumbai Massacre.

Even when the shootings were going on in hotels, Indian media and army were blaming Pakistan for the attacks. The game is clear and sinister. The Indian Intelligence have diverted the global attention towards another issue where they would blame Pakistan for this slaughter and use Barack Obama’s doctrine of attacks on Pakistan to encircle Pakistan from both sides. It is such a shame that Pakistani media is not highlighting this issue and is only repeating what Indians want the world to see and believe.

There is no such group in India as Daccan Mujahideen.

In the coming days, Pakistan should prepare for a high risk threat response as Indians would go to any limit to open another front against Pakistan to divert the local and world attention from their internal fascist elements in Hindu Zionists and military intelligence. The document written below is a BT Policy Paper and explains the actual sinister game which Hindu fascists are trying to hide.

May Allah protect Pakistan from all enemies.

Wassalam and dua

Pakistan Zindabaad.

Zaid Hamid

_________________________________________________

Date: November 27, 2008
BrassTacks Policy Paper on India
Saffron Sarkaar Raj

India headed towards Hindu Talibanization
by Farzana Shah

Mosque in Parbhani, Maharashtra, where a bomb explosion left many injured, in December 2003. Naresh Kondwar and Himanshu Phanse of Bajrang Dal, who were killed while making bombs in Nanded in April 2006, were allegedly responsible for bombing the mosque.

Backdrop:

‘Samjhauta, Hindi for friendship, Express’ is only one of many CBM’s that have been undertaken by the two countries to improve relations, was initiated to increase people to people to contact between the two arch rivals. On February 17,2007, the train that travels from Delhi to Lahore was hit by a bomb, killing as many as 68 people. Most of the casualties consisted of Pakistani nationals. Many conspiracy theories were hatched in an attempt to explain what had really gone by.

Indian authorities and the media were quick to assert that the evidence overwhelmingly pointed towards Pakistan and ISI. With the immediate release of sketches of the suspects, it seemed that Indians had it all figured out. For Pakistan it was nothing more than a feeling of déjà vu; India is known to have a history of blaming Pakistan and ISI for the smallest of occurrences in India, hardly ever backing it up with any credible evidence. And so when in 2006 Malegaon, a town in the Nashik district of the Indian state of Maharashtra, located at some 290 km to the northeast of state capital Mumbai, was rattled by a series of bombings, the blame was put on groups having links with Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Maharashtra Police blamed the Student Islamic Movement of India, further linking them to Lashkar-e-Taiba and in turn the ISI.

The unlikely twist surfaced recently in India with the arrests of 10 people, including a serving Lieutenant Colonel Prashad Srikant Purohit, a Hindu monk and nun for their alleged involvement in bomb explosions that killed six people in the Muslim- dominated town of Malegaon this year. So far, ten people, including a self- proclaimed Hindu seer and a serving lieutenant colonel, have been arrested for their involvement in the Sep 29 bombing. Besides Purohit, of the accused also include Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Shivnarayan Singh Kalsangram, Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu, Major Ramesh Shivji Upadhyay (retd), Sameer Kulkarni, Rakesh Dattaram Dhavde and Ajay Rahirkar. The suspicion is now directed at the extremist Hindu movement Sangh Parivar, a network linked to a former Major, and now in custody, Ramesh Upadhyay who represents the terrorist organization, Abhinav Bharat.

The chilling part of the entire episode is the involvement of accused Lt Col Purohit in bomb attack on the Samjhauta Express to which he confessed. During investigation Col Purohit has also confessed to training Hindu terrorists for attacking Muslims, besides training them for attacking Samjhauta Express for which he had also supplied them RDX. He further confessed that it was intended to cause armed conflict between Pakistan and India so that anti-Muslim passions could be nurtured in India, leading to violence.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) claimed that Purohit supplied RDX to one “Bhagwan” for Samjhauta Express blast. Public prosecutor Ajay Misar said Abhinav Bharat’s treasurer Ajay Rahirkar had handed Rs2.5 lakh to Lt Col P S Purohit.

Mahant Amritanand Dev alias Dayanand Pandey, the self-styled pontiff who was arrested from Kanpur has revealed that it was under his instructions that Lt. Colonel Shrikant Purohit procured RDX from an army depot that was used in the Malegaon blast. According to reports Pandey was present in all the pre-blast meetings in Bhopal, Jabalpur and Faridabad, monitored operations meticulously and was also responsible for arranging the finances that came in through illegal channels. It is believed that Pandey, a dropout from the National Defence Academy, collaborated with two other accused who are presently on the run - Ramji Kalsangara, who allegedly planted the motorcycle owned by the Hindu ascetic Pragya Singh Thakur in Malegaon, and Sameer Dange.

The suspects have also been questioned for May 2007 blast at Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad and the April 2006 twin blasts at New Delhi’s Jama Masjid. In the Mecca Masjid blasts as many as 14 people were killed and over 50 injured. The case was investigated by the city police special wing and was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation which could not come to any conclusion. Investigations into the Samjhauta Express explosion and the Jama Masjid blast also failed to make headway and police could not across on any tangible leads.

Police have already established a strong link between Pandey and some of the suspects in the Kanpur blast case through surveillance. On Aug 24, two members of the right-wing Bajrang Dal were killed there while assembling bombs.

After the arrest of Panday police is expecting to get some breaking clues in the 2006 Nanded blasts in Maharashtra as well. The arrests have reinforced growing suspicions over the last few years of a potential threat from Hindu extremists.

Infiltration of Hindu Taliban in Army?

Interrogation of Major (retd.) Ramesh Upadhyay unearthed that the Bhonsla Military School in Nashik was used as a training ground by the conspirators. The school has

denied its involvement in the blast but it is under the scanner for allowing Bajrang Dal activists to hold training sessions in the use of arms and martial arts.

The school’s links to the RSS is an open secret as it was founded by B.S. Moonje, who was Savarkar’s close friend and who assisted in creating the RSS.

The arrest of the serving army officers and former officers’ link to the recent terror activities points towards a worrisome notion; of the deep infiltration of fundamentalist ideas into Indian army. The critics believe that the constant indoctrination of Hindutva ideology over decades by the VHP, the RSS, the Bajrang Dal and the BJP has resulted in this kind of violence, which has found its way into crucial state institutions like police force, army and the education departments.

Ram Punyani, secretary of the All India Secular Forum and a human rights activist, said that the deep and widespread ideological indoctrination began years ago but was propagated systematically during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.

It placed its members in the bureaucracy, particularly in the education department, and in the cultural arena. “RSS people who once headed a department may have retired, but they have ensured that the damage continues, as they would have hired a number of like-minded people. So you can imagine how deep the penetration is. It will take generations to root this out,” said Punyani.

It is a well known fact that once George Fernandes had asked the army chief, the Air Marshal, and the Admiral to report the Kargil war to MPs. When the three obliged to the given orders and the place where meeting was planned , it was the party office of BJ.

This is how the Saffron Brigade interferes in the affairs of the armed forces, blatantly. The involvement of serving lieutenant colonel of the Indian army in blasts and in the supplying of 60 kg of RDX for terrorist activities, further casts a shadow over the credibility of the army.

In the past BJP has been offering tickets to the former army officers, (many of them are former generals) for contesting elections for Lok Sabha on behalf of the party and to an extent it has been successful in wooing them. One such retiree is the chief minister of Uttarakhand B C Khanduria retired Major General. Another retired officer Sabyasachi Bagchi who is member of BJP proudly praises the RSS for having developed the character of young people.

SS Raikar of Bhonsla military school, a retired army officer, is believed to have allowed the school premises to be used as a den for making terror schemes and devising conspiracies, besides facilitating arms training and providing accommodation.

The former governor of Jammu and Kashmir Lt General (Rtd) S K Sinha is alleged to have allowed Dyanand Padey to stay in the official residence. Daynand Pandey was hosted by him in Raj Bhawan and the two had held a meeting in a famous temple in Kashmir.

RDX and Army connection: (Chilling clues)

Lt Col P S Purohit who provide RDX Samjhota Train blasts and also being interrogated for other bomb blasts in India.

On September two, 2006, Indian police in Ahmednagar seized about 195 kg of cocktail of explosives that included RDX from a local scrap dealer Shankar Shelke which was procured by him from Army Ordnance decommissioned as scrap.

A mobile phone from which he had made over 150 calls was also recovered and during investigation it was found that he had got a cellular connection on a fake name, adding to his already dubious profile.

However, before police could arrest him, Shelke allegedly committed suicide and his employee could not provide any details about him. The case was closed as a suicide, with no further investigation.

The investigations into how the RDX reached some right wing groups allegedly responsible for Malegaon explosions, led to this forgotten case of suicide of Shankar Shelk. Some leads are now emerging that the deadly RDX could have been pilfered during such decommissioning of scrap from the Army.

In the past the law enforcing agencies of India have failed to find out the origin of such explosive used in different blasts, especially in Maharashtra where Bajrang Dal had been imparting explosive and arms training to its activists.

Who is financing ‘Hinduvta Terror?’

According to ATS, the money needed to finance these plots is generally collected by a self-styled religious leader hailing from Gujarat. According to reports the probe into links of Hindu outfits, accused of terrorism, with Army men brought a few business houses under the examination of Maharashtra’s ATS and Central Security agencies, investigating the finances of the group supposedly responsible for Malegaon blast. Sources attached with the probe said that a religious leader from Southern Gujarat was one of those who collected funds from the business houses. According to some other reports foreign funds were used in Malegaon attack.

Reportedly huge amounts of money collected in the US go into the accounts of VHP and other conglomerates of RSS. Sonal Shah and her father Ramesh have been in the core group of VHPA [America] and have been instrumental in sending fund under the name of Eklavya Vidyalaya for backward tribals.

Although the human rights organizations of India complaint that these funds were not used for the backward tribals.

It is also believed that finds collected from abroad by saffron brigade were used in the recent-anti Christian riots in Kanthamal of Orissa and other parts of India and in 2002 against the Muslims of Gujarat. The backward community of Charras was roped in by

the RSS to wreak vengeance on the Muslims by slaughtering them. This confession is caught on camera. There is no audit of this fund collected by saffron from US and western countries.

BJP lacks moral fiber — indulges in double talk.

The BJP connection:

With the surfacing of the connection between Army personnel, BJP and the terror activities, the party too has come under heavy scrutiny. Sensing the gravity of the matter and possible questioning in connection with the Malegaon bombings, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Yogi Adityanath refused to assist in the investigations.

“I dare the police to arrest me and I will offer no help in their probe,” he added, amid reports that he was likely to be questioned in connection with Malegaon.

The BJP and its allied Hindu extremist groups are also questioning the investigation and blamed that it was an attempt to malign these groups. They further announced to defend Pragya Singh (Sadhvi) who has confessed her role in the bombing, and to provide her legal help. BJP Initially denied any association with Pragya Singh but later supported her. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh also accused that those parties that once sought lethal POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) charges framed against suspects from minority communities were now asking the government to go easy on the Hindu right-wing extremists.The probe after arrest of Sadhvi and Col Purohit led to Adityanath, the successor of Mahant Avaidyanath of the Gorakhpur Temple Trust, who is believed to be responsible for the BJP’s foothold in eastern Uttar Pradesh and is also known for his Hindu awakening rallies.

He justified the attack on churches in Orissa following the killing of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader. “The Hindu reaction (after the killing of the priest) is justified

and it is high time that the Hindus should pick up weapons just like our gods and goddesses adorn weapons,” had said.

Adityanath has been active in reconverting other religious groups, particularly the low-caste converts to Christianity, back into the Hindu fold. In 2005, a large group of 1,800 people were converted in the town of Etah.

Pragya Singh (Sadhvi) who confesses her role in bombing BJP’s sudden romance with Pakistan

With emergence of Hindu terrorism, BJP which usually does not nurture good opinions about Pakistan much less support India’s friendly relations with her, on November 19 said that Indian police probe into an army officer’s alleged role in the Samjhauta Express blasts among other terror attacks could harm talks with Pakistan

BJP spokesman Ravi Shanker Prasad was quoted by Indian media as saying, “The juvenile investigations would encourage jihadi elements in Pakistan and would have an effect on the talks between the two countries which are due in the last week of this month.”

“There is a risk of Pakistan seeking a review of the entire terrorist attacks in which India had alleged a Pakistani hand”, he said adding “The morale of the Indian Army should be protected at all costs.” And further, “The ATS theory would give Pakistan an opportunity to prove that India is involved in sponsoring anti-Pakistan campaign on terror,”

Reaction of Hindu religious leaders:

Hindu religious leaders are now uniting and some of them met in Panipat on Sunday November 16th to form a Dharam Sangrakshan Samiti to defend the blast accused, from the allegations leveled by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad. In Panipat, the Sangh Parivar demonstrated its united resolve to fight for those accused of terrorism. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) now plans to hold a massive rally of religious leaders on November 26 to demonstrate their support for those accused of a connection in the blast.

Reaction of the Hinduvta leaders (Excerpts)

There was a National debate in India as India was reminded of the spreading of Hindu terror in India, in the face of these investigations. This is the summary of the same.

When Hindu leaders are accused of killing innocent people and indulging in terror acts isn’t it time to do aatmachintan (introspection) just as they want the Muslin leaders to do when Muslim youths are accused of being involved in terror acts. Govindacharya (RSS) claimed that the government has been ignoring the Hindus and such terror acts only reflect the frustration in the society.

“Hindu Samaj has definitely done the aatmachintan and this kind of emotional outburst are the result of such aatmachintan. There are two reasons: First when Hindu samaj (society) feels that there is no government that takes care of their interests and feelings then such outburst are a natural consequence though undesirable.

Similarly when the legitimate established organizations espousing the cause of Hindu society apply double standards to their own convictions and they are not honest about their concern of large section of Hindu society, then definitely the Hindus do the aatmachintan and the result is mushrooming of such outfits.”

BJP President Rajnath Singh said that Hindu saints were being maligned and VHP’s Praveen Togadia says a Hindu can never be a terrorist. Contrary to this, a completely opposite stance to this is taken by the BJP when Muslim politicians are the subject of discussion, particularly in this context.

“Gandhiji also said ‘politics without religious values is of no use to me’. He meant the Dharma. Dharma needs to be in politics otherwise it will become immoral” Singh argued.

Dipankar Gupta argued that BJP can never ever rid itself of its Hindutva agenda. “When you come down to the wire, the defining characteristic of the BJP is Hindutva. It can occasionally take on other issues as well like economic regeneration but everybody is talking about that. So what’s different about the BJP? The difference is Hindutva. So when push comes to shove, its Hindutva colour come out.”

Conclusion:

Chaos and fear continues to haunt India as the poor continue to pay with their flesh and blood, for a senseless war that has been imposed on them by the followers of a violent ideology .More arrests are expected in the coming weeks as the frightening dimensions of a radical Hindu terror plot starts to unravel, with investigators indicating that it had the makings of a larger conspiracy and planning of reprisal killings of Muslims for serial bombings in a number of Indian cities.

Indian analysts are now worried about Hindu terrorism. Some of it has been on display for a long time against the Muslim community. Some of it is recent; targeting Christian missionaries and Christian converts. Because of the rise of Hindu

fundamentalism in the 1980s, which saw a revival of old Hindu supremacist thinkers like Savarkar, who was behind the killing of Gandhi, India is now open to terrorism that is lashing out at the state. People are accustomed to voting the BJP to power as an alternative to the Congress and that in turn empowers the grand Hindu fundamentalist alliance called the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) that contains such extremist outfits as Bajrang Dal.

A common sense conclusion would be that these acts of terrorism are aimed at creating a communal divide in India, to fulfill the ultimate dream of the Hindu Raj over India. A country where mosques are bombed, army men like Colonel Purohit join hands with radical groups like Swami Dayanand Pandey to unleash terror at the expense of innocent lives of their own countrymen is a country that has failed to her own people, let alone by taken as a model of democracy to be followed by the rest of the world.

It is high time India should take lead from the situation in her neighboring country where fundamentalists are on the rampage and blowing innocents into piece.

Before it is too late to root out Hindu Talibanization from Indian society, which is growing fast as Machiavelli said:

“By being on the spot one sees trouble at its birth and one can quickly remedy it; not being there one hears about it after it has grown and there is no longer any remedy.”

Source: BrassTacks

BrassTacks is an independent security consulting think tank, dedicated to creating awareness and educating the people about issues of national security.

1 Comment

28 Nov 08

Video - Real Face of India - The Fascist Nation

Ever wondered why India is called a fascist nation? Gone through the Shiv Sena, VHP and other anti-muslim organizations’ profiles? Read about Muslim genocides STILL going on in Gujrat and all over idea? Hmmm… well, you might have NOT yet, because Indian media does NOT publish such stories, not at least to the globe outside…

Well, if you are unaware of the topic, Gujrat Genocides

Anyway, just give a look at the following:

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

28 Nov 08

1 Com.

Mumbai Massacre - US Expert terms Mumbai attacks domestic issue

Saturday, November 29, 2008

NEW YORK: An American political scientist and South Asia expert has cautioned against rushing to blame anyone for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, saying India’s domestic problems and long tensions between local communities were at the root of the rise of terrorism in the country. “This is a domestic issue,” Christine Fair of the Rand Corporation was quoted as saying in the course of a New York Times dispatch on Friday.

Source: The News

1 Comment

28 Nov 08

Mumbai Massacre - UK investigates Mumbai attacks

LONDON, Nov 28: Britain said on Friday it was too early to tell if Britons of Pakistani origin could be among the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks, but acknowledged it was “intensively” probing who was behind the plot.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said British detectives, who have already travelled to India, will work with their Indian counterparts to shed light on the source of the plot.

“We obviously will want to work very, very closely with the Indians on that, but it is too early to say whether or not any of them are British,” he told Sky News TV.

“Obviously, the priority of the Indian authorities is to complete this operation. They can then start identifying who are the terrorists, what is their background.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was cautious regarding a British link. “I would not want to be drawn into early conclusions about this,” he said. “There is so much information still to be discovered and made available.

“But obviously when you have terrorists operating in one country they may be getting support from another country or coming from another country,” he said.

Source: AFP

28 Nov 08

Mumbai Massacre - Pakistani Govt accepts India’s plea for ISI help in Mumbai probe

By Syed Irfan Raza

ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday surprised his Indian counterpart when within hours of his request to send the head of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to Delhi for the purpose of sharing evidence of Pakistan’s possible link with the Mumbai terror attack, the government in Islamabad agreed to send the ISI chief to India to establish beyond doubt that there was no direct or indirect involvement of Pakistan in the incident.

The decision to send Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, director general of Pakistan’s premier intelligence service, to New Delhi was announced by the prime minister’s office after Mr Gilani held a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari and the two leaders discussed the issue and its various aspects with other important players, including the heads of the security establishment.

No date has been fixed for the unprecedented trip, but the PM’s office statement said modalities of the visit were being worked out. Earlier in the day Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to Prime Minister Gilani on telephone and besides exchanging views on the mysterious and agonising developments in India’s commercial hub of Mumbai, requested him to send the intelligence chief to look at what he described as “evidence” which New Delhi thought linked Pakistan with the terror attack.

The situation had become tense earlier in the day when Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee took a step forward in the finger-pointing game by declaring that suspects of the Mumbai carnage might have links with Pakistan. Though this was the first direct attack on Pakistan, a section of the Indian media had already accused Islamabad of being in complicity in the affair, with a few of them referring to the “Punjabi accent” of a couple of terrorists as proof of Pakistan’s involvement.

As the Pakistan-bashing continued in a section of the Indian electronic and print media, some of Pakistani television channels launched an anti-India tirade, with a few indirectly blaming the Mumbai carnage on the Indian establishment.

Official sources said that as the tension started to mount between the two countries, the Pakistani leadership considered that there was a need to look for an out-of-box action to defuse the situation.“Since we had nothing to hide, we thought there was no harm in calling the Indian bluff by agreeing to the request to send the ISI chief to Delhi,” a senior official privy to the developments told Dawn. So, within hours of the telephonic conversion between the two prime ministers, Mr Gilani and President Zardari had a closed-door meeting, which was later joined by other leaders and officials. And as Delhi maintained an eerie silence over the content of the two prime ministers’ talks, Islamabad announced its decision to send the ISI chief to Delhi to discuss the issues with the Indian authorities.

“Mr Gilani has accepted the offer and now the two sides will work out modalities for the visit of the ISI Director General, Lt-Gen Shuja Pasha, which is expected to take place soon,” prime minister’s spokesman Zahid Bashir told Dawn.

However, no exact date of the visit has been fixed, and a senior official said that for reasons of agreeing on the modalities of such an unusual visit, it might not be possible for the ISI chief to travel to Delhi before early next week.

If this visit at all takes place, the recently appointed director general of the agency will be the first head of the premier intelligence service to visit India in connection with the investigation of a terror attack in India.

The prime minister’s spokesman said the Indian prime minister had made a request to Mr Gilani, asking him to send the ISI chief to India to “cooperate in the investigation of the Mumbai attacks and for sharing certain information”. President Zardari also talked to Mr Singh and offered full cooperation from Pakistan in investigating the carnage. “Our government will cooperate with India in exposing and apprehending the culprits and the masterminds,” he said.

Mr Zardari said non-state actors wanted to force upon the governments their own agenda but they must not be allowed to succeed. “We should not fall into the trap of the militants,” he said.

Sources in the government were quick to describe it as a bold move to defuse the tension before the blame game took an alarming turn and started to derail the peace process. “It was an important and bold gesture as the government believes there was nothing to hide,” one of the officials said.

However, some opposition parties and a few former security officials were not impressed. The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N’s spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said the government had not taken their party into confidence before taking the decision. “Although we are committed to extending full cooperation in the investigations, it should be done through established diplomatic channels and norms,” he said.

Mr Ahsan said the PML-N strongly condemned the terrorist acts in Mumbai and termed it an absolute brutality against the humanity.

“Pakistan is a peaceful country with peace-loving people who believe in co-existence with all countries and especially with India being our closest neighbour. We have considered view that the regional peace of the entire subcontinent solely depends on the peaceful and friendly relationship between India and Pakistan. Both the countries being nuclear powers are supposed to show their great sense of responsibility,” he concluded.

When contacted, former ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul opposed the government’s decision saying it was tantamount to summoning top security officials of the country by the Indian government. “Will India ever send RAW’s chief if he is called by Pakistan in case of any terrorist activity in the country?,” he asked.

He said it was happening for the first time in the history of the country that the chief of the premier intelligence agency was being sent to India on its demand amid accusations that terrorists involved in the Mumbai attack had links with Pakistan.

Gen Gul said India had made a demand of disbanding the ISI after it accused the agency of being involved in the Indian Embassy blast in Kabul this year.

Another former chief of the ISI, Lt-Gen Asad Durrani, refused to offer any comment on the issue.

Source: Dawn

ALSO READ THIS: ——————————

Saturday, November 29, 2008

By Rauf Klasra

Gilani phones Singh; Indian PM indicts Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh directly told his Pakistani counterpart on Friday that some Pakistani elements had sent the weapons used in the Mumbai terrorist attacks from Karachi and to sort this out, the ISI chief should immediately rush to India.

Talking to The News in his office at the Prime Minister House, Yousuf Raza Gilani narrated the whole story of how the Indian prime minister had actually made this request during their telephone talk.

The ISI director-general will be sent to India in the light of the two-year-old agreement between the two countries inked during the regime of Gen Pervez Musharraf, which requires a country to seek help of the other or use information and intelligence in their war on terrorism.

Gilani said he was desperately trying to contact the Indian prime minister for the last two days to offer his condolences over the tragic events in which innocent lives were lost.Gilani said he was very keen to contact the Indian prime minister for the reason that Singh was the first world leader to make a telephone call after the Marriott bombing in Islamabad in September. “I wanted to reciprocate the gesture of the Indian prime minister to be the first to call him during the testing times for the Indian government and its people,” Gilani said.

But he could not talk to Singh as he was not available. Finally, when Gilani got through on Friday, he condemned terrorism on the Indian soil in which over 100 innocent lives were lost.Gilani said during their conversation, at one stage, the Indian prime minister disclosed that the preliminary report into the attack had given clues about the involvement of certain elements present in Karachi who had shipped weapons to India.

The political government in Islamabad decided quickly to rush the ISI director-general, Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, to help the Indian intelligence agencies following an intensive round of consultations between the president, the prime minister and the Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani.

ISPR Director-General Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, when contacted for comments on Friday night, he said no orders had been received by the Army and unless written orders were received giving details of the purpose of the visit, he could not make any comment. Yet it was thought to be a formality as the Army chief had given his consent.

After Gilani talked to Gen Ashfaq Kayani, the Army chief, too, consulted his own uniformed aides before agreeing with Gilani and President Asif Zardari that Pakistan should oblige the Indian prime minister in a bid to clear the deepening mistrust between the two countries.

This is first time that the Indians have claimed to have evidence about the involvement of some elements in Pakistan and have asked the ISI director-general to help the investigations. The extraordinary request of the Indian prime minister caught Prime Minister Gilani, President Asif Zardari and even the Army Chief General Kayani off guard as none of them knew how to react to the shocking request.

As narrated by Gilani, he first talked to Gen Kayani and then rushed to the presidency to brief Zardari where both the leaders discussed the Indian request in detail.Both kept on waiting for the response of the Army chief as they knew that this was not an ordinary decision and only the military high command was in a position to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. However, both the leaders were in favour of sending the ISI director-general so that no one should point any finger at Pakistan.

This argument was also given by Gilani at his news conference in Lahore when he told the media Pakistan had nothing to hide as “we are not involved in any way”. In his telephone talk with Gilani, Singh was of the view that both the intelligence agencies might exchange information and then evaluate it to find out culprits behind this terrorist attack.

Source: The News

28 Nov 08

Mumbai Massacre - Smoking gun to harm Pakistan-India ties, fear US experts

By Anwar Iqbal and Masood Haider

WASHINGTON/New York, Nov 28: US anti-terrorism experts have warned that ‘a smoking gun’ in the Mumbai attacks could not only derail Pakistan-India talks, but also jeopardise Islamabad’s relations with Washington.

Christine Fair, a South Asia affairs analyst for US think-tank RAND Corporation, said that the attacks had raised several questions.

“Was Pakistan involved? “What type of Pakistani involvement was there? Did anyone in the government know?”

She warned that “if there is a smoking gun,” it would have serious repercussions for US-Pakistan and Pakistan-India relations.

“The attacks will increase pressure on the incoming Obama administration to be tough on Pakistan,” she warned.

Bruce Riedel, a former South Asia analyst for the CIA and the US National Security Council who now advises President-elect Barack Obama, agreed.

“This is a new, horrific milestone in the global jihad,” he told The Washington Post.

“No indigenous Indian group has this level of capability. The goal is to damage the symbol of India’s economic renaissance, undermine investor confidence and provoke an India-Pakistan crisis.”

But Ms Fair believed that the attacks were apparently carried out by indigenous Indian militants with some outside support.

“This isn’t India’s 9/11. This is India’s Oklahoma City,” said Ms Fair, referring to an April 1995 domestic attack in the US that killed 168 people.

“It is almost unimaginable that this could have been done entirely by outside militants without Indian involvement; implications are very dangerous,” she told Dawn.

“There are a lot of “very, very angry Muslims in India. The economic disparities are startling,” she said. “This is a major domestic political challenge for India.”

Ms Fair said it was not possible to deny what happened during anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002.

“You have Islamist militants in India and you have a militarised Hindu right; these are small numbers but they feed on each other, without one the other will be difficult to exist,” she said.

Ms Fair said the Indians had a ‘strong incentive’ to link this to Al Qaeda,” but so far no one has presented any evidence to show that Al Qaeda is involved.

Another important question, she said, was how Israel would respond, especially if there’s a Pakistani involvement. “Another important question is: Could this be a reaction to (secret) Pakistan-Israel talks?”

View endorsed

Namrata Goswami, associate fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, agreed with Ms Fair.

“They want to establish some kind of linkage with Al Qaeda,” she told USA Today. “But I don’t believe it is there. The motive is very, very clear. This outfit wants to attract sponsors abroad. There’s a lot of money in it.”

Ms Goswami also endorsed Ms Fair’s views that Indian Muslims bore plenty of grievances against the Hindu majority. They lag behind economically. And they have been targeted by Hindu extremists; hundreds of Muslims died, for instance, in communal riots in Gujarat in 2002, she said.

Gary Ackerman, a pro-Indian Democratic Congressman from New York, worried about the Mumbai attacks’ implications for the United States.

“The implication for us is that there are bad guys still out there, and we’re going to have to learn how to deal with them, because our friends are getting sucked into this big-time,” said Congressman Ackerman, who chairs the House subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.

USA Today quoted Bahukutumbi Raman, former head of counter-terrorism for India’s intelligence agency, saying that the attackers caught Indian security forces unprepared.

“Till now, we were greeting with glee Pakistan’s incompetence in dealing with terrorism,” he said. “We can no longer do so. We have become as clueless as Pakistan.”

One highly placed US intelligence official, who has been briefed on the attacks, told CNN that the head of the operation was a Bangladeshi and that the militants were Indians, Kashmiris and Bangladeshis. The Indian military had sustained a large number of casualties, the source said.

The experts who spoke to CNN also mentioned another group called the Indian Mujahideen. Despite its relatively new status, the organization is thought to have the organisational capability to carry out such attacks, said Paul Cruickshank, a fellow at the Centre on Law and Security at New York University’s School of Law.

Experts and analysts are warning against rush to judgment.

The New York Times said on Friday “many security experts insist the style of the attacks and the targets in Mumbai suggested the militants were likely to be Indian Muslims, with a domestic agenda” suggesting it may not be the work of Pakistan’s intelligence services or Al Qaeda.

Referring to a claim by a previously unknown outfit ‘Deccan Mujahideen’ that it has carried out the attacks, an Indian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity with the newspaper, said the name suggested ties to a group called Indian Mujahideen.

The Indian Mujahideen has been implicated in a string of bombing attacks in the country killing about 200 people this year alone.

Source: Dawn

28 Nov 08

Mumbai Massacre - Different Investigative Approaches - ممبئی حملے: تفتیش کے مختلف پہلو

Fariday, 28 November, 2008, 16:45 GMT 21:45 PST

ریحانہ بستی والا بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام، ممبئی

ممبئی میں دو روز قبل ہونے والے حملوں کی تفتیش کے بارے میں مختلف پہلو سامنے آ رہے ہیں۔ اس پر آئی بی، پولیس اور انسداد دہشت گردی کا عملہ کام کر رہا ہے۔

ممبئی میں پولیس کے ایک اعلیٰ اہلکار نے بتایا ہے کہ حملے کرنے والے دو افراد نےگرفتاری کے بعد بتایا ہے کہ وہ ایک ماہ سے شہر میں موجود تھے اور حملوں کی تیاری کر رہے تھے۔

اس کے علاوہ حکام پورٹ بندر میں تیرہ نومبر کو درج کروائی گئی ایک درخواست پر بھی کام کر رہے ہیں جس میں ایک شخص ونود مسانی نے کہا تھا کہ پانچ مچھیرے ان سے ایک کشتی لے گئے تھے اور پھر واپس نہیں آئے۔ شبہہ ظاہر کیا گیا کہ حملہ آوروں نے سمندر کے کنارے واقعے ہوٹل تاج اور اوبیرائے پہنچنے کے لیے یہ کشتی استعمال کی تھی۔

اس کے علاوہ کوسٹ گارڈ اور بحریہ کے ایک ترجمان کیپٹن منوہر کے مطابق سمندر کے کنارے ایک لاش ملی ہے جس کے بارے میں ونود مسانی کا کہنا ہے کہ یہ ان پانچ لوگوں میں سے ایک کی جو ان سے کشتی لے گئے تھے۔

ممبئی کے پولیس اہلکار نے جمعہ کو صحافیوں کو بتایا کہ پکڑے جانے والے افراد کے نام ابو اسمعیل اور اجمل عامر ہیں اور ان کا تعلق انڈیا سے نہیں۔ حکام کے مطابق کارروائی میں آٹھ حملہ آور ہلاک ہوئے ہیں۔ پولیس اہلکار کی طرف سے بتائی گئی باتوں کی آزاد ذرائع سے تصدیق نہیں ہو سکی۔

اہلکار کے مطابق حملہ آوروں نے بتایا کہ وہ ایک ماہ قبل ممبئی آئےتھے اور ان میں سے دو دو نے تاج اور اوبیرائے ہوٹلوں میں کمرے بک کروائے۔ حملہ آوروں نے بتایا کہ وہ ایک ایک ہفتے کے لیے کمرہ بک کرواتے اور حملے کی تیاری کے لیے ہوٹل کی تفصیلات جمع کرتے رہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ وہ ہوٹل میں سامان اور اسلحہ بھی جمع کرتے رہے۔ انہوں نے بتایا کہ ایک ہفتے کے بعد ان کے دو ساتھی آ کر بھی وہیں کمرہ بک کرنے کے لیے کہتے اور مزید تفصیلات جمع کرتے۔

پولیس اہلکار نے بتایا کہ حملہ آوروں کے مطابق انہوں نے حملے سے ایک روز پہلے ہوٹل کے کچن سے بڑی مقدار میں کھانے پینے کی چیزیں بھی جمع کی تھیں۔

پولیس اہلکار نے یہ نہیں بتایا کہ ان دو حملہ آوروں کو کہاں سے پکڑا گیا۔

Source: BBC Urdu

28 Nov 08

Mumbai Massacre - Clues nudge India to look beyond Pakistan

By Jawed Naqvi

NEW DELHI, Nov 28: The recovery of the bodies of a Brooklyn rabbi and his wife on Friday at the end of the seizure of a Jewish centre in Mumbai by terrorists could be as good a reason as any to start a discussion on India’s Middle East policy, among other questions the attacks raised.

Instead, as Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi probably noted here on Friday, the penultimate day of his ill-

fated visit, that India — mainly its media, the leadership, and a middle class that easily acquires the demeanour of Shakespeare’s mob-like crowds — remained obsessed with a Pakistani hand in the horrific blood-letting.

Mr Qureshi, on his part, was adamant at a news conference hosted by Delhi’s women journalists that there were no longer training camps for terrorists in Pakistan. Few would accept that he had not overstretched the point. Asked if the killers of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the truck bomber of Marriott Hotel were trained elsewhere, he waffled, saying something about an international link, and named Iraq as a factor.

Between India’s threat of retribution against Pakistan for the Mumbai massacres and Mr Qureshi’s denial of terrorists thriving in his watch, lies an opportunity to clear the vision on both sides. There is a good chance that the chief of ISI, an institution hitherto blamed for all the ills of Pakistan and for bad blood with India, may yet clear the air with a promised visit to New Delhi to discuss Mumbai’s tryst with terror.

Mr Qureshi sought to allay Indian fears that the ISI was an untrustworthy rogue entity, telling reporters that the agency was today taking orders from an elected government, and not from anyone else. He did not, how-

ever, entirely rule out the presence of rogue elements “in your society and ours”.

In the meantime, the Indian media has picked up what it said was enough evidence from two or more men, apprehended from among the terrorists for questioning, to claim clinching evidence against “elements in Pakistan” for the act. A satellite phone was said to have been used to call Karachi a few times during the three-night standoff. Some incriminating credit cards were said to be found as well as a boat that apparently transported them from Karachi.

The Indian government threw its weight behind the reports. An Indian foreign ministry statement described a telephone call Mr Mukherjee made to Mr Qureshi in terms that could be seen as terse. Mr Mukherjee conveyed “the hope that the Government of Pakistan will take immediate action with regard to the terrorist attacks on Mumbai”.

“The Government of Pakistan has said that it wants a leap forward in our bilateral relations, (but) outrages like the attack on our Embassy in Kabul and now the attack on Mumbai are intended to make this impossible,” the statement quoted Mr Mukherjee as saying.

There was a glimpse of conciliation though. “The groups responsible and their supporters are, therefore, also acting against the direct interests of the Government of Pakistan.” But the bottom line was that India expected “Pakistan to honour its solemn commitments not to permit the use of its territory for terrorism against India”.

Dr Singh received a call from President Asif Ali Zardari, who assured him that Islamabad “will cooperate with India in exposing and apprehending the culprits and masterminds behind” the attacks in Mumbai.

Earlier India’s national security adviser M.K. Narayanan claimed a Lashkar-i-Tayyaba hand, which he said took the link right up to Al Qaeda. A key question, however, remained untended. If it was possible for the killers of Mumbai to have belonged to Pakistan, and who evidently harboured a specific hatred of Jews, Americans and Britons, as reports have suggested being the case, then was it not even more likely that the terrorists bore a greater grudge against President Asif Zardari’s policies for exactly the same reasons.

In his own way this was more or less the burden of Mr Qureshi’s fulminations in the meeting at the Indian Womens’ Press Club. “I have come here to build bridges. I am mourning with you,” he said. “I want to turn the tide from confrontation into cooperation.” Mr Qureshi recalled Pakistan’s woes with terrorism, saying he too had narrowly escaped assassination recently.

Yet neither the Indian establishment nor Pakistan appeared ready to address the mocking absurdity in the fact that Muslim extremists, whether originating in Pakistan or anywhere else, had chosen India to vent their anger with the West, even more tragically towards Jews.

Mr Qureshi did say that terrorism was a global phenomenon in which India and Pakistan were equal targets. But he did not say why this was so. The cold-blooded killing of the rabbi and his wife link the tragic events in Mumbai to the politics of the Middle East as much as they are rooted in the fanaticism breeding in our own region.

Source: Dawn

28 Nov 08

Mumbai Massacre - Kuch anasir ka ta’lluq Pakistan sé - کچھ عناصر کا تعلق پاکستان سے

Friday, 28 November, 2008, 10:50 GMT 15:50 PST

ہندوستان کے وزیر خارجہ پرنب مکھر جی نے کہا ہے کہ ممبئی پر حملے میں ملوث کچھ عناصر کا تعلق پاکستان سے ہے۔

صحافیوں سے بات کرتے ہو ئے مسٹر مکھرجی نے کہا کہ شدت پسند کہاں سے آئے اور ان کی شناخت کیا ہے اس کے بارے میں واضح طور پراس وقت تک کچھ کہنا مشکل ہے جب تک تمام تفصیلات نہیں مل جاتیں’ لیکن جو ابتدائی ثبوت ملے ہیں ان سے پتا چلتا ہے کہ اس واقعہ کا پاکستان کے کچھ عناصر سے تعلق ہے۔‘

انہوں نے کہا پاکستان کے سا بق صدر پرویز مشرف اور موجودہ صدر آصف علی زرداری نے یہ یقین دلایا تھا کہ کہ وہ کسی کو بھی پاکستان کی سرزمین کو ہندوستان کے خلاف استعمال نہیں ہونے دیں گے۔ انہوں نے کہا’مجھے صرف اتنا کہنا ہے کہ جو وعدہ آپ نے کیا وہ پورا کیجئے۔‘

وزیر خارجہ نے پاکستان پر زور دیا کہ وہ اپنے یہاں موجود شدت پسندوں کے ٹھکانوں کو تباہ کرے ’جو درانداز ادھر سے آرہے ہیں ۔ ادھر تربیت اور اسلحہ وغیرہ حاصل کرنے کی جو سہولیات ان شدت پسندوں کو مل رہی ہیں وہ آپ تباہ کیجیئے ۔ جو لوگ یہ کر رہے ہیں انہیں گرفتار کیجیئے۔‘

پاکستان کے وزیر خارجہ شاہ محمود قریشی نے اپنے ہم منصب کے اس بیان پر اپنا ردعمل ظاہر کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ ممبئی جیسے بہیمانہ واقع پر سیاسی بیان بازی سے گریز کرنی چاہیے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ اس صورتحال کو سمجھنے کی ضرورت ہے جس میں سینکڑوں معصوم لوگ اس وقت پھنسے ہو ئے ہیں’اس معاملے پر سیاست مت کیجیئے ۔ یہ ایک اجتماعی معاملہ ہے ۔ ہمیں ایک مشترکہ دشمن کا سامنا ہے ۔ ہمیں مل کر اس کا مقابلہ کرنا ہو گا۔‘

مسٹر قریشی ہندوستان کے چار روزہ دورے پر ہیں۔

Source: BBC Urdu

28 Nov 08

Another student cries foul over Farah Hameed Dogar’s admission

Saturday, November 29, 2008

By Usman Manzoor

ISLAMABAD: As the controversy touched off by extra marks awarded to the chief justice’s daughter rages on, another student has come up with the claim that he has been refused admission to the Riphah International University on reserved quota.

Muhammad Haris Hassan, son of former assistant registrar of Supreme Court Chaudhry Abdul Razzaq, was allegedly denied MMBS admission, as the Al-Meezan Foundation recommended Farah Hameed Dogar for the seat reserved for children of the judicial staff.

According to an application, whose copy was made available to The News on Friday, Razzaq asked the Supreme Court registrar to recommend his son through the Al-Meezan Foundation for admission on the quota reserved for children of judicial employees.

In his application dated October 18, 2008, the retired assistant registrar wrote that his son Haris Hassan had secured 731 marks in the FSc (pre-medical) examination. He requested the apex court to propose the name of his son for admission on the reserved seat.

Speaking to this scribe, Razzaq complained the Al-Meezan Foundation had no transparent system of recommending students for admissions. The foundation’s secretary reportedly told him a candidate with 912 marks from Sindh had applied for the admission.

“Later, I came to learn from the press reports that the chief justice’s daughter, securing 661 marks, has been admitted to the Riphah International University,” he said, adding: “The secretary was solely responsible for administrative functions of the Al-Meezan Foundation, which lacks transparency and regard for merit.”

His son had every right to admission on the reserved seat because he had obtained higher marks than Farah Hameed Dogar, reiterated Chaudhry Razzaq, who underlined the need for adherence to merit.

A day earlier, the daughter of an Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court judge charged she had been deprived of admission to the university despite the fact she had got higher marks than Farah Dogar.

She accused the Al-Meezan Foundation, a trust working for the welfare of judges and which has reserved a quota in the university for children of judges, of giving the daughter of the chief justice priority over her competitors.

Misbah Mustafa Mughal, daughter of Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, said she had obtained 787 marks in the intermediate examination and 74 per cent in the entry test, in which the chief justice’s daughter was awarded 61 per cent marks.

However, Misbah Mughal was told by the foundation that she was on the second number while there was only one reserved seat for the children of judicial News repeatedly tried to contact Talat Faruq, Al-Meezan Trust secretary, but he has been unavailable for the last three days. Several messages were passed on to him, but none was answered.

Source: The News

28 Nov 08

Muslims Barred from Media Coverage at Obama Event

Barack Obama Steered Away From Photo-Op With Muslim Women

By Ben Smith

Two Muslim women at Barack Obama’s rally in Detroit on Monday were barred from sitting behind the podium by campaign volunteers seeking to prevent the women’s headscarves from appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate.

The campaign has apologized to the women, both Obama supporters who said they felt betrayed by their treatment at the rally.

“This is of course not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama’s commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. “We sincerely apologize for the behavior of these volunteers.”

Building a human backdrop to a political candidate, a set of faces to appear on television and in photographs, is always a delicate exercise in demographics and political correctness. Advance staffers typically pick supporters out of a crowd to reflect the candidate’s message.

When Obama won the North Carolina primary amid questions about his ability to connect with white voters, for instance, he stood in front of a group of middle-aged white women waving small American flags.

On the Republican side, a Hispanic New Hampshire Democrat, Roberto Fuentes, told Politico that he was recently asked, and declined, to contribute to the “diversity” of the crowd behind Sen. John McCain at a Nashua event. But for Obama, the old-fashioned image-making contrasts with his promise to transcend identity politics and to embrace all elements of America. The incidents in Michigan, which has one of the largest Arab and Muslim populations in the country, also highlight an aspect of his campaign that sometimes rubs Muslims the wrong way: The candidate has vigorously denied a false, viral rumor that he himself is Muslim. But the denials at times seem to imply to some that there is something wrong with the faith, though Obama occasionally adds that he means no disrespect to Islam.

“I was coming to support him, and I felt like I was discriminated against by the very person who was supposed to be bringing this change, who I could really relate to,” said Hebba Aref, a 25-year-old lawyer who lives in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills. “The message that I thought was delivered to us was that they do not want him associated with Muslims or Muslim supporters.”

In Detroit on Monday, the two different Obama volunteers — in separate incidents — made it clear that headscarves wouldn’t be in the picture. The volunteers gave different explanations for excluding the hijabs, one bluntly political and the other less clear.

In Aref’s case, there was no ambiguity.

That incident began when the volunteer asked Aref’s friend Ali Koussan and two others, Aref’s brother Sharif and another young lawyer, Brandon Edward Miller, whether they would like to sit behind the stage. The three young men said they would but mentioned they were with friends.

The men said the volunteer, a 20-something African-American woman in a green shirt, asked if their friends looked and were dressed like the young men, who were all light-skinned and wearing suits.

Miller said yes but mentioned that one of their friends was wearing a headscarf with her suit.

The volunteer “explained to me that because of the political climate and what’s going on in the world and what’s going on with Muslim Americans, it’s not good for [Aref] to be seen on TV or associated with Obama,” said Koussan, a law student at Wayne State University.

Both Koussan and Miller said they specifically recalled the volunteer citing the “political climate” in telling them they couldn’t sit behind Obama.

“I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you serious?’” Koussan recalled. Shimaa Abdelfadeel’s story was different. She’d waited in line outside the Joe Louis Arena for three hours in the sun and was walking through the giant hall when a volunteer approached two of her non-Muslim friends, a few steps ahead of her, and asked if they’d like to sit in “special seating” behind the stage, said one friend, Brittany Marino, who, like Abdelfadeel, is a recent University of Michigan graduate who works for the university.

When they said they were with Abdelfadeel, the volunteer told them their friend would have to take off the headscarf or stay out of the special section, Marino said. They declined the seats.

After recovering from the shock of the incident, Abdelfadeel went to look for the volunteer and confronted her minutes later, she said in an e-mail interview with Politico.

“We’re not letting anyone with anything on their heads like baseball [caps] or scarves sit behind the stage,” she paraphrased the volunteer as saying, an account Marino confirmed. “It has nothing to do with your religion!”

In most work and school settings, religious dress — such as Jewish yarmulkes, Sikh turbans and Muslim hijabs — is permitted where secular clothing, such as baseball caps, is not.

“The scarf is not just something she can take off — it’s part of her identity,” said Marino.

Photographs of the event also show men with hats in the section behind Obama and former Vice President Al Gore, though not directly behind the candidate.

Abdelfadeel, like Aref, felt “disappointed, angry and let down,” she later wrote.

She said she was “let down that the Obama campaign continuously perpetuates this attitude towards Muslims and Arabs — as if being merely associated [with] one is a sin.”

The two women’s friends who witnessed the incidents were disappointed, too. Aref’s friend Miller said he was “shocked” by the contrast between Obama’s message and their experience.

“He was the one candidate who you would expect to stand up for something like that — and behind the scenes, you have something completely contrary to what he was running on,” said Koussan, Aref’s other friend.

Aref and her friends complained to the campaign, and after those complaints and an inquiry from Politico, Obama’s director of advance, Emmett S. Beliveau, called her to apologize.

An Obama aide also noted that the campaign has no policy against the candidate’s appearing with women in headscarves: The next morning at Wayne State University, Obama posed for a picture with a student wearing a hijab.

Photographs from a Seattle rally earlier this year also clearly show a couple in Muslim garb behind the candidate.

The administrator of the Muslims4Obama group on Obama’s website, which is not a formal part of the campaign, also said she had “not heard anything regarding Muslim supporters being steered away from sitting behind Sen. Obama at the event” and noted that he had Muslim supporters present at events in Minnesota, including one at which he stood with a Muslim member of Congress, Keith Ellison.

Aref said she was glad Obama had apologized, but she was not entirely satisfied.

“I think this is a much bigger deal than maybe they’re perceiving it as,” she said, noting that Obama had placed a personal call to a television reporter he’d dismissively called “Sweetie.”

“An apology from him personally would be better,” she said, then reconsidered. “If they are true to their word, I think it would suffice to have an invitation to their next rally and have seats behind him and show up on TV.”

Source: Politico