29 September 2008 western India bombings

On 29 September 2008 three bombs exploded in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra of India killing 10 people and injuring 80.

Quotes

Tiwari, D. P. The great indian conspiracy. 2019.

Tiwari, D. P., (2019). The great indian conspiracy. London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.

• The NIA’s special court has acquitted the eight accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. The learned judge had reportedly observed that all of them were Muslims and could not have killed the people belonging to their own community to incite communal violence, that too on a pious occasion like Shab-e-Baraat. While the court’s argument seemed valid, the judgement raised a question over the probe conducted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). Aspersions were cast on the 10,000-page chargesheet filed by the ATS that linked the accused to the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The chargesheet had divulged in detail how these men had procured explosives and how the bombs were planted. It had even alleged the involvement of a Pakistani citizen in the conspiracy.

• The SIMI angle to the Malegaon blasts had almost been forgotten amidst the cacophony surrounding the alleged saffron terrorism. Our agencies had suspected the hand of a Pakistani operative much before the US intelligence agencies. The verdict on the Malegaon blasts had clear ramifications for the Samjhauta Express blast case. The theory of saffron terrorism had emanated from the Malegaon blast investigation and later remoulded the Samjhauta Express blast probe.

• The irrefutable evidence against Col. Purohit, Aseemanand and the other co-accused was nowhere in sight. But when the alleged SIMI activists were released despite proofs or details of their modus operandi, the real purpose behind raking up the issue of saffron terrorism without any solid evidence started to unveil.

• The acquittal of the accused in the Malegaon blast had other dangerous connotations. The question of whether the real culprits would ever be exposed remained.

• The term ‘saffron terrorism’ became a part of public discourse after the first blasts in Malegaon. Its genesis dates back to the 2002 Gujarat riots. Many news magazines had used this expression to depict the post-Godhra riots. It acquired political colour only after the Malegaon terror attack.

• After Delhi, it was Gujarat and Maharashtra’s turn again. On 29 September 2008, i.e, just two days after Mehrauli incident, similar bombs exploded in Modasa and Malegaon. In Malegaon, two bombs planted on a bike went off near a hotel, killing ten people. Seventeen other explosive devices were diffused in other parts of the city. The blast in Modasa ended the life of a 15-year-old child and injured 10 others. The bomb was kept on a bike there as well, and the target was the vicinity of a local mosque. While these two explosions gained the media’s attention, the recovery of a bomb from Faridabad around the same time went largely unnoticed. It was the month of Ramzan and Navratri, and the bomb at Faridabad was planted near a temple. The terrorists clearly wanted to target large crowds belonging to both the communities.

• The bike used for the Malegaon blasts belonged to a man in Surat who was linked to a right-wing Hindu organisation. This clue ultimately led investigators to Pragya Singh Thakur aka Sadhvi Pragya, and a new theory of terrorism took shape. This was a paradigm shift in the history of terrorist activities in India. Nowhere had the term ‘Hindu terror’ ever been used till now, and it gave Pakistan an alibi to escape the blame for its misdeeds.