On September 13, over 25 men, women and children were killed in a series of bomb blasts that shook Delhi. Many others suffered grievous injuries. Peoples Voice condemns, with deep anger, these killings of innocent people. Peoples Voice expresses our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims.

All over the country, especially in the cities, there is a terrible sense of insecurity amongst the people, at these acts of terror. Which city will be the next target, who will be the next victims? There is also justifiable anger amongst the masses at the perpetual failure of the state to protect people as well as the unwillingness and inability of the state to catch the perpetrators of these monstrous crimes against humanity.   

Through the corporate media, it has already been as good as declared, that Muslims are behind all the terrorist attacks in India. Names and organisations are bandied about as if everyone knows who the terrorist is. A terrible anti-Muslim communal hysteria has been systematically built up, over the years, with each subsequent terrorist killing. Within the Muslim community, in Delhi and all over India, there is a terrible sense of persecution, with the state forces openly arresting, torturing and killing youth – all in the name of controlling terrorism.

Following these terrorist killings, there has been an orchestrated cry by the BJP and the Congress, and in the corporate media, for stepping up the "war against terrorism". The BJP has accused the Congress of being "soft on terrorism" and has demanded once again, that POTA be brought back into the statute books. Within the Congress Party, and in the UPA coalition, there has been a powerful echo to the BJP's demand.

The Union Cabinet has discussed measures to beef up the police apparatus in Delhi and all over the country. It has also discussed how to strengthen the repressive Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, which has already been amended to incorporate most of the anti-democratic provisions of the draconian POTA, when the latter was repealed. It is reported that there are serious moves to once again make confessions extracted by police through torture as admissible in courts, as well as extending the period of detention of people without filing any charge sheets. In other words, the state is arming itself with increased powers to attack the rights of the people in the name of controlling terrorism.

The Indian people have bitter experience with TADA, POTA and other so called anti-terrorist laws. There was no reduction in incidents of terrorism as a result of these laws. On the other hand, these laws provided the police with powers to arrest, detain without   trial and torture innocent people, targeting specific communities. The state could not bring charge sheets against the majority of people detained under these fascist laws, even many years after their detention. Those few who were brought to trial were on the basis of "confessions" extracted under torture. The saying in India is that Indian police can "make a bear declare itself to be a tiger", by simply torturing it to death. Life experience has shown beyond doubt that laws like POTA and TADA were aimed not at preventing terrorism, but at silencing political opposition to those in power   

On September 19, just a few days after the Delhi massacre, the Delhi police announced that they had killed or arrested the ring leaders of the Delhi terrorist blasts as well as those in Ahmedabad and other cities. According to the police, two youth had been killed in an “encounter” in their home in the Jamia Nagar area of Delhi, in which a police officer who was regarded as an “encounter specialist” was also killed. Subsequently, some other students who are alleged to be part of the terrorist gang have also been arrested. According to the police, they have all "confessed" to their crimes. If the police were to be believed, they have "broken the back" of the terrorist group that carried out the attacks in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and other cities in the recent period.

A wave of chauvinistic fervour is sought to be whipped up, with strong communal anti-Muslim overtones. Lawyers refused to take up the case of some of the detainees, including that of a 75 year old caretaker of the building in which the "encounter" took place. Those arrested or killed have been declared guilty without a trial, and in the present atmosphere, it is hard to believe they will get even a semblance of a chance to prove their innocence. Numerous Muslim organisations, indeed even the faculty and students of Jamia Millia Islamia, as well as the residents associations in Jamia Nagar where the arrested and killed youth lived, have openly expressed their disbelief in the police story of the encounter. However there is immense pressure on everyone, not to speak up too much, for fear of themselves being targeted by the police.

Whoever is responsible for bestial terrorist killings of innocent people must be tried and punished. The problem in our country is that this has rarely happened in the past. Those responsible for the massacres of innocent people in the streets of Delhi and Kanpur in 1984 roam free, with many having achieved high positions in the state. The same holds true for those responsible for the massacres in Mumbai and Surat following the demolition of the Babri Masjid, those responsible for the genocidal massacres in Gujarat following the Godhra train burning. Thousands of innocent people of all faiths have been victims of terrorist attacks in the past 6 years, all over the country. These attacks have taken place in mandirs and masjids, in buses and trains, in market places and so on. The police always claim to know who did it after the incident, some people are eliminated in an encounter a few days later, and the case is declared dead and buried until the next set of terrorist killings take place. In the meantime, hundreds and thousands of innocent people of the Muslim faith are picked up, detained, tortured and killed, as part of the "war against terrorism". It is now a well known fact that the state regularly organised the massacre of innocents in Punjab in the '80s and then blamed people for these massacres, in order to justify further state terrorism and repression and "encounter killings". The same method has been systematically practised in Kashmir.

People must grasp the reality that it is the state which is behind the terrorist massacres. They must grasp the bitter reality that those in power, including both the Congress Party and BJP, have a vested interest in promoting terrorism. At one level, it serves the ruling class to rally the masses of people behind the state and its policies, in the name of "war against terrorism". It serves to blunt and divide the mass opposition to the anti-people policies of the government. In the surcharged atmosphere created by terrorist incidents, the ruling class parties whip up communal and chauvinist hysteria amongst the people, each competing with the other as the biggest warrior in the battle against terrorism. Meanwhile, those who question the role of the state and these political parties in the terrorist attacks are declared to be anti-national and also made the target of state violence. Terrorist massacres serve the ruling class as a ready means to get public approval for fascist laws, depriving people of their democratic rights.

Terrorism and counter-terrorism are favourite weapons in the arsenal of the Indian ruling class. Indeed they are favourite weapons in the arsenal of all the imperialist powers. Signs are that as the crisis of India deepens, as the onslaught on the livelihood and rights of the workers and peasants and working people intensifies, the ruling class will step up terrorism and state terrorism against the people. The times call for great vigilance and united resistance by the people.