<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>'Afzal innocent, attack inside job' </b>
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
ZARA YAAD KARO QURBANI
Five years ago this day, there was Kamlesh Kumari and there were the terrorists. The CRPF constable had died, staving off an attack on India's temple of democracy, its Parliament. Later, Mohammad Afzal Guru was found guilty of facilitating the attack, waging a war against the state and sentenced to death.
Today, Kamlesh isn't the newsmaker; Afzal is. To mark the fifth anniversary of the attack on Parliament, an assortment of self-appointed "human rights" crusaders and conspiracy theorists came together at a book launch and demanded his freedom. They took it upon themselves to plead the case for Afzal during a discussion on 13 December - A Reader (Penguin). Â
With participation by <b>Arundhati Roy, Indira Jaisingh, Nirmalangshu Mukherji, Praful Bidwai and Shuddhabrata Sengupta </b>- all of them have contributed chapters to the book - the discussion revolved around how Afzal was actually innocent, had been framed by the Indian state, and how the attack on Parliament was, by implication, stage-managed.
<b>Roy also compared the suicide strike on Parliament to the Godhra train incineration, not as two terrorist attacks - as most Indians may understand it - but as twin inside jobs, deliberately done to provoke a reaction.</b>
The author activist - who added the "absurd binary of BJP and Congress" to her list of pet hates, which range from President George W Bush to India's nuclear tests to the Narmada dam to a proposed Tata car plant in Singur - also used the event to rhetorically ask 13 questions. These questions figure in Roy's introduction to the book and, in her opinion, mask the<b> "untold ... inside story" of 13/12.</b>
Three of the questions imply that Roy is privy to information that hitherto has not come into the public domain. If true, they represent a scoop that should add a Pulitzer to the Booker Prize she has already won:
<b>The NDA Government had prior information on the attack on Parliament, Roy alleges. In question one she claims that then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee presided over an "informal meeting" on December 12, 2001, where he predicted the attack. No details are provided as to the venue of and participants at the meeting</b>
<b>In question three, Roy approvingly quotes Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi as saying, "I counted six men getting out of the car. But only five were killed. The close circuit TV camera recording clearly showed six men." "Who was the sixth person," Roy asks, "where is he now? The Graham Greenesque 'Sixth Man' that Roy claims Dasmunsi saw is, to her, crucial to the truth. In a sense, she sees Dasmunsi's testimony as crucial to Afzal's defence.</b>
<b>Question six of Roy's 13 queries would suggest that she has inside information on secret troop movements by the Indian Army: "Is it true the military mobilisation to the Pakistan border had begun long before the 13 December attack?" Again no details are provided</b>
Walking out the book release at the India Habitat Centre, one listener compared it to the ongoing conference in Teheran of "experts" who deny the Holocaust. It is not known whether Arundhati Roy had been invited. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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Is there any relationship between Arundhati Roy and Afzal? Why cops are not checking her history?
This Arun-dhoti story ranks with the grand yehudi consipracy of dousing invisible ink over the World Trade Center in New York. <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->
>>Is there any relationship between Arundhati Roy and Afzal?
Both are very friendly with Yasin Malik
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Dec 13 victims' kin return medals </b>
CNN-IBN
Posted Wednesday, December 13, 2006 at 08:14
New Delhi: December 13, 2001: Gunshots in the nerve centre of the world's most populous democracy. The death toll could have been much higher, it may have surpassed a hundred, but for the sacrifice of eight security guards.
<b>And now as differences continue over the death sentence of Parliament attack case accused Mohammad Afzal Guru , the eight families of the victims have reached Rashtrapati Bhawan and have returned the medals - Keerti Chakras - the dead were honoured with.</b>
Caught in a fix, the Union Home Ministry has warned that returning of medals would be considered unconstitutional. "Nobody should do anything against the Constitution," Sriprakash Jaiswal, Union Minister of State for Home, said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the families of the victims say they have lost faith in the sanctity of these medals. For Jaywati Devi, who's husband - head constable Vijender Singh - took a bullet in his chest, a fair trial means death for Afzal.
"Our martyrs' sacrifice will be futile if Afzal doesn't get the death penalty. We will be returning the medals to the President on Wednesday. The Government is trying to insult us with these medals," says she.
The families of all the eight security personnel killed on that fateful day and awarded for bravery posthumously have joined hands. Their medals have been framed together, ready to be given back to the President.
Says the Chairman of the All India Anti-Terrorist Front, M S Bitta, "If the Government has decided to make a joke of their sacrifice, then there is no point in keeping these medals.
It has been five years since the sound of gunshots echoed in the corridors of power and justice has still not been delivered.
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email:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Today december 13 is the fifth anniversary of the attack against parliament. let us for a moment remember those that died on that day so that our wonderful democracy lives on to insult them ote the following</b>:
1. My lady Roy goes public on this day with her would-be-pulitzer/ booker/nobel book on miscarriage of justice for the execrescence called Afzal guru.
2. This second letter of the alphabet files a curative petition in the SC which according to the mandarins in CNN-IBN cannot be rejected by the SC, has to be heard and delibersated and can be rejected only as part of the judgement order. This second letter of the alphabet files this petition on the fifth anniversary of the attack just to mock at us, at parliament and at the families of those who died on that day.
3. Shivraj Patil, honourable member of the parliament which these ppl died saving declares in the rajya sabha, on the fifth anniversary of the attack "going by past records it takes up to seven or eight years for deciding upon a mercy petition to the president". this means these rascals will not expedite the process and this second letter of the alphabet (SLA) will live at my expense for another seven years. i am tempted to stop paying my taxes.
4. The families of those that died looking tragic wounded and humiliated beyond description return the medals of bravery back to the president.
5. Minister of state for home, another of the unmentionables whose life was saved five years ago declares, "these families, by returning the medals have insulted the constitution, the SC, and the president. by returning the medals they are signalling that they want to control these tall institutions within the palm of their hands!!!"Â
Our wonderful parliament these noble souls beleive that these families are insulting the president, the constitution and the SC but Afzal Guru by filing the curative petiton today, Arundhati Roy by writing this book, and our ministers of Home have enhanced ouir democracy, our parliament, our SC and the office of the president.Â
In case all of you missed it, pl read the hindu editorial on J&K. whoever wrote it thoinks the pieces to the solution puzzle have been provided by musharraf;only he is not sure of the picture that will be made out of these pieces.
tell me all of you, i am stupid but even if all other pieces in the puzzle were confusing, if one piece looked like a trunk, the animal that will be formed will be an elephant, a whale or a dinosaur?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I have a quetsion, now families had returned medals and Sonia 'n' Moron Singh led UPA calls it unconsitutional, I am wondering are they going to arrest them or financial penality.
<b>Afzal decision may take years: Govt </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->New Delhi: Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Wednesday hinted that it might take several years for the government to take a decision on the mercy petition of Parliament attack convict Mohammed Afzal Guru.
Afzal was due to be hanged at Tihar Jail on October 20 this year, but the sentence has been put on hold until President APJ Abdul Kalam takes a decision on his clemency petition.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> "Nobody should do anything against the Constitution," Sriprakash Jaiswal, Union Minister of State for Home, said on Wednesday.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Funny coming from a guy who was caught on camera peeing on the tarmac of airport in Kashmir.
They are now threatening the families of the martyrs - the depth these shameless buggers will sink to <!--emo&:thumbdown--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' /><!--endemo-->
First dishonoured, now maligned: Widows
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->After surrendering the medals at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday, the widows expressed their anger over the statement of Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. The Minister came into the line of fire due to his remarks in Parliament that some political forces have instigated the family members of the martyrs. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Shivraj Patil is a person who CANNOT get elected from his home state and was inducted via Rajya Sabha backdoor a la Manmohan Singh. The people who burgled his home 2 years ago are still loose. And this home minister who can't protect his own home is supposedly our Union Home Minister. And her he's adding insult to injury maligning widows of our heros who laid down their lives!!
One wonder what goes through the minds of the Z-security forces who guard these two-bit shameless politicians.
ShivRaj and MMS are best in licking Queen and family behind. One can find these rare qualities.
They have love for foreign terrorist or better say Pakis, Indian citizens have no value PERIOD.
I hope in future security guards should duck when they see terrorist attacking Indian politicians.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Patil shocks India </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Who is he batting for?
Seven years is a very long time in politics, and a very, very long time in the life of a terrorist who has been sentenced to death for treason and waging war against the state. By defending the UPA Government's inexplicable - and indefensible - delay in rejecting the mercy petition of Mohammed Afzal Guru, Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist found guilty of masterminding the December 13, 2001, jihadi attack on Parliament House, and slyly suggesting that it can take as much as seven years to decide whether or not to execute him, Home Minister Shivraj Patil has made two points abundantly clear. First, it is unlikely that Mohammed Afzal Guru will get his just desserts till such time the Congress is in power at the Centre. Second, the man who planned the audacious jihadi strike on the heart of India's democracy can now spend his time plotting equally audacious terrorist attacks instead of preparing for his date with the hangman. Such is the Congress's craving for Muslim votes that it does not want to be seen as rejecting Afzal Guru's mercy petition. Of course, this is bad politics; worse, its practitioners are guilty of tarring India's Muslims and casting a vile aspersion on their patriotism. Barring Kashmiri separatists and a handful of mullahs who believe in waging trans-national jihad, are committed to destroying the idea of India and unabashedly wear their communalism on their sleeves, no Muslim in this country would shed tears if Afzal Guru, and others like him, were to be despatched to the other world. Meanwhile, we might as well resign ourselves to a daring jihadi attack to secure the release of Afzal Guru; now that he has been assured a fresh lease of life, he and his friends can get down to this task.
<b>What Mr Patil's shocking statement in Parliament also reveals is the extent to which the UPA Government has weakened the state, making a mockery of our claim that we, too, are part of the war against terror.</b> Within days of coming to power, the UPA Government scrapped POTA to pander to the demand of those who see nothing wrong with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children by the standard-bearers of jihad. Subsequent actions of the Government in dismantling the anti-terror regime put together by the NDA have facilitated India's enemies to strike with increasing impunity and greater ferocity. The Government, however, remains unmoved, firm in its resolve not to lift a finger in admonishment, leave alone take decisive measures to confront the merchants of death and destruction. Much of this policy has been fashioned by the Congress, articulated by the Prime Minister and put into place by the Home Minister. Their insensitivity to the plight of the victims of terror - look at the manner in which rebuke and insult are being heaped on the widows and relatives of those killed in the attack on Parliament House by Mr Patil and other senior Congress leaders - matches that of those who perpetrate terror. Nothing else explains why Mr Patil should have sought to legitimise that which is morally reprehensible and militates against the Government's responsibility to protect citizens from killers. His statements in the past have raised doubts about whether he is equal to his office; this time, by virtually conceding ground to those who want Afzal Guru to walk free, he has proved his critics right.Â
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There is a slow build up of resentment and disquiet at UPA handling of the Afzal Guru case (minority appeasement) and Pranab Mukherjee's statements about negotiabilty of borders wrt to J&K and Arunachal Pradesh. Need to see how this becomes translated into anti-nationalism of the UPA govt. If anyone recalls Jaswant Singh said in BAy Area that the UPA will last till the people realize its basic nature. The LKA statement about PM etc is linked to jockeying for position in case of regime change. Sharad Pawar also wants to be the leader of an alternative to the UPA.
BTW there is no significant backlash on the OBC reservation issue. But there is on the private entity reservation bill coming up.
Entire nation is shocked to see Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Dr
Farooq Abdullah and several other personalities (Gandhian Nirmala
Deshpande, social activist Medha Patkar, writer Arundhati Roy) making a
passionate plea for the life of a terrorist, Mohammed Afzal Guru, the
mastermind behind the Parliament attack, who is facing execution on October
20th.
Mercy to a terror mastermind is an insult to the entire nation and
especially to the families of the victims of the security personnel that
were killed during this attack. In the past 59 years, many had laid down
their lives for the nation and if the Government of India has any
respect for them, then a terrorist should not be pardoned at any cost. If
our government is so concerned about the terrorists then why should
anybody sacrifice his or her life for the nation that shows sympathy to a
terrorist?
Therefore, its time for the concerned people to send a letter to the
President of India to reject the mercy plea that was received on behalf
of the terrorist. Evil can succeed only when the good people choose to
keep quiet! Let us do our part of sending a petition to the President.
The following user friendly screen will do most of the work for you.
Just fill Fill the details and Click. Your pre-drafted email will be sent
to President of India, Prime Minister of India, Sonia Gandhi, Congress
President.
UPA Govt has a Home Minister who was defeated by the people in the elections. Yet he was made minister by Manmohan Singh. He is an insult to the will of people.
Family members of those who gave their life to save the lives of ministers and other MPs are still waiting for fulfillment of the promises made to them by the government. Now these politicians and their parties are talking of giving freedom to those who conspired to kill them. Had the security people not defended them many of these politicians would have been killed. What can be more shameful than this?
<!--QuoteBegin-ramana+Dec 15 2006, 10:40 PM-->QUOTE(ramana @ Dec 15 2006, 10:40 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->There is a slow build up of resentment and disquiet at UPA handling of the Afzal Guru case (minority appeasement) and Pranab Mukherjee's statements about negotiabilty of borders wrt to J&K and Arunachal Pradesh. Need to see how this becomes translated into anti-nationalism of the UPA govt. If anyone recalls Jaswant Singh said in BAy Area that the UPA will last till the people realize its basic nature. The LKA statement about PM etc is linked to jockeying for position in case of regime change. Sharad Pawar also wants to be the leader of an alternative to the UPA.
BTW there is no significant backlash on the OBC reservation issue. But there is on the private entity reservation bill coming up.
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Patil was defeated by the people in elections. MMS never contested an election. India today has a Prime Minister who was not elected by the people, and a Home Minister who was defeated by the people in the elections. What a shameless govrnment!!
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Dec 15 2006, 06:55 AM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Dec 15 2006, 06:55 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->ShivRaj and MMS are best in licking Queen and family behind. One can find these rare qualities.
They have love for foreign terrorist or better say Pakis, Indian citizens have no value PERIOD.
I hope in future security guards should duck when they see terrorist attacking Indian politicians.
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Patil is an insult to the will of Indian people. By bringing him in through backdoor, MMS has also insulted the will of the people. Shameless people running a shameless Govt.
First dishonoured, now maligned: Widows
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->After surrendering the medals at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday, the widows expressed their anger over the statement of Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. The Minister came into the line of fire due to his remarks in Parliament that some political forces have instigated the family members of the martyrs. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Shivraj Patil is a person who CANNOT get elected from his home state and was inducted via Rajya Sabha backdoor a la Manmohan Singh. The people who burgled his home 2 years ago are still loose. And this home minister who can't protect his own home is supposedly our Union Home Minister. And her he's adding insult to injury maligning widows of our heros who laid down their lives!!
One wonder what goes through the minds of the Z-security forces who guard these two-bit shameless politicians.
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Lets see how long UPA can delay his hanging. <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Someone should remind these Brit MPs that we aren't a Brit colony anymore and the sun set on their raj 60 years ago. 2 British MPs seek mercy for Afzal
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->British Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Roger Godsiff have signed a letter urging President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to consider sympathetically the mercy petition of Mohammed Afzal Guru,
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The signatories included a number of U.K.-based South Asian activists â Amrit Wilson (South Asia Solidarity Group), Sarbjit Johal (Asian Women Unite), Naeem Malik (South Asian Alliance), Shafaq Hussain (Association of British Kashmiris), Anandi Ramamoorthy (1857 Committee), and Najib Afsan (Anti-Mangla Dam Association). <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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