Condemn the terrorist massacre in Malegaon

Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, September 10, 2006

Over 38 people were killed and hundreds injured in a series of terrorist bomb blasts that shook Malegaon, Maharashtra on September 8, 2006. The blasts were organized just outside a mosque and kabaristan, where people had come in large numbers for Friday prayers in the afternoon on a day considered particularly auspicious for mourning their near and dear deceased ones. The attack was timed to cause maximum death and destruction. The Communist Ghadar Party of India condemns this terrible terrorist attack. We share the grief of the families of the dead and injured.

Barely a week ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing a conference of Chief Ministers, specially called for steps to deal with “terrorism and Naxalism” had remarked more than once that his government had credible information of impending terrorist attacks. Now police officials in Maharastra are saying that they thought that the attacks would take place with Hindus as targets. This, when people in the community in Malegaon had warned the police that a large number of people were expected to come from different parts of the country to Malegaon on this occasion on September 8, and that they were worried about some attacks. Instead of heeding the concerns of the people of Malegaon, a town with a Muslim majority in North East Maharashtra, the police had been harassing people everywhere else, in the name of looking for alleged terrorists and Pakistan agents who could be organizing terrorist strikes in different parts of India. No wonder the people of Malegaon are extremely angry and bitter with the Central and state governments and the police forces!

As during the Mumbai terrorist killings in July, and numerous other terrorist killings in the past, the people, irrespective of their religious faiths, came to assist each other in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. And as on earlier occasions, the parties of the ruling class, notably the Congress Party and BJP and some others have tried their best to exploit the situation for political advantage. Meanwhile these parties are giving sermons to the people about the danger of “communal violence”, indicating that the state and these parties have precisely this in mind.

Whose hand lies behind this gruesome terrorist massacre? What are its aims? All kinds of conspiracy theories are being floated in the media, including that it could be Hindu fundamentalists, Islamic terrorists, ISI and so on. And the aim is allegedly to trigger larger scale communal massacres. The issue arises, why should the killing of people in a terrorist strike, such as in Malegaon now, or Mumbai earlier on, trigger large scale communal massacres, unless there are political forces operating in India with the full blessings and connivance of the state security forces, who are organizing for the same? How are the intelligence agencies of the state unaware of this? The people must be clear that all large scale communal massacres in India have been state organized with the full participation of the ruling party and opposition parties, either Congress Party or BJP, or both. The attempt to blame “Hindu fundamentalists, Islamic terrorists” and so on is to divert attention from the role of the Indian state and the main parties of the ruling class in organizing terrorist attacks and in unleashing communal pogroms.

The people of Malegaon have revealed, in their moment of deep grief, their terrible anger at the state and their distrust and alienation from the state and the ruling class parties. The telling manner in which the father of a young victim of the terrorist strike, threw back the cheque of rupees one lakh offered by Congress President Sonia Gandhi at her face, and said that he would give her 10 lakh rupees if only they would arrest the perpetrators of the bestial crime within 24 hours, reveals what people think of this state and this government of Manmohan Singh. The families of the victims have pointed out the terrible neglect of their town of over 7 lakhs, in which there is not even one modern hospital run by the state, so that the victims had to be taken 55 km away to another town for treatment.

A grave situation confronts the people of India. The Indian state is savagely fascising and attacking the people in the name of “war against terrorism”, and preparing to unleash communal pogroms to drown the struggles of the people in blood, so that it is free to continue on its anti-social course. The danger of more terrorist killings unleashed by the state and its agencies including the ruling class parties is very real. In these conditions, it is extremely important both to maintain utmost vigilance and to direct our fire against the source of the terrorism and communal pogroms, the source of the attack on the livelihood and rights of people, that is, the Indian state. The Communist Ghadar Party appeals to all those interested in ending this scourge of state terrorism and state organized communal massacres to keep this in mind.