Mumbai, June 18
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has landed in yet another controversy by calling for Hindu suicide squads to take on Islamic extremists. Thackeray’s comments in the party mouthpiece Saamna came a day after the anti-terror squad of the Mumbai Police arrested members of a Hindu religious sect for setting off explosives in a playhouse screening a Marathi drama.
Hailing the spirit behind the setting off of explosives, Thackeray hit out at the bomb makers saying their act only resulted in seven Hindus suffering injuries in the blast. “When I heard of Hindu’s making bombs, I was happy but the fact that there were used to injure Hindus made me feel ashamed of them.”
The protesters belonging to an organisation called the Hindu Jangruti Samiti said they were objecting to the portrayal of the Hindus in the play called “Amhi Pachpute”. They were also opposed to the movie “Jodha Akbar”.
While two bombs were defused, one device went off in a theatre. While the actions of this group resulted in security being beefed up in many places, Thackeray hailed the bomb makers. “The only way Islamic terror can be tackled was by unleashing Hindu terror. Hindu society can be assured safety only by setting up Hindu suicide squads,” Thackeray wrote.
The statement by Thackeray, however, has drawn flak from the BJP, the Congress and the RSS. BJP leader Venkaih Naidu came on television to say that terrorism should be tacked by the law enforcement agencies. The RSS retorted by saying the Hindu scriptures did not endorse terrorist activities.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police said they had arrested two more persons in addition to the two men arrested for the theatre blast. The two men Vikram Bhave, 26, of Penn, and Santosh Angre, 26, of Ratnagiri were arrested from the Sanatan Sansthan Ashram in Panvel on Tuesday. The
Sanatan Sansthan was originally founded in the early 1990s as a scientific method of spreading Hinduism. It gathered tremendous following in the Konkan region, particularly Ratnagiri and Goa.
“The explosive that went off at a Panvel theatre was assembled at Bhave’s room in the ashram in Panvel,” joint commissioner of police (ATS) Hemant Karkare said today. He added that further investigations were in progress.
Meanwhile, the Goa government has asked the state police to probe the activities of the HJS and the Sanathan Sanstha.
The Sanstha in a statement had condemned the blasts. A spokesman for the body, Abhijit Nadkarni, in a statement released to Goan newspapers, admitted that some of the persons arrested for the blasts were residents of the organisation’s ashram in Panvel. He, however, stated that the Sanstha was in no way connected with the blasts. Nadkarni further added that the body was cooperating with the police.
