US based Indian American Muslim group denounces bomb blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore and expresses solidarity with the victims

Washington D.C., July 27, 2008

Indian Muslim Council-USA (IMC-USA: http://www.imc-usa.org), an advocacy group dedicated towards safeguarding India's pluralist and tolerant ethos, denounces in strongest possible terms the bomb blasts in the Indian cities of Ahmedabad and Bangalore and expresses solidarity with the victims.

According to reports, a series of 17 blast occurred in crowded places in Ahmedabad city leaving at least 29 people dead and over 100 injured. A day earlier, the city of Bangalore was struck with bomb blasts that killed 2 people and injured several others. “Humanity is the ultimate victim in such acts of mindless violence” said Mr. Rasheed Ahmed, President of IMC-USA. He further stated that “The authorities should conduct a thorough and transparent investigation immediately and refrain from adopting the usual template of blaming Muslim sounding virtual groups whose existence or lack thereof cannot be proven”.

In recent months, authorities have come under intense criticism for their ineffectiveness in conducting honest and transparent probes into blasts that rocked other Indian cities. During the blasts in Hyderabad last year, rather than track the culprits, the police arrested scores of innocent Muslim youths associated with various civil liberties groups in the city. After weeks of harassment and torture, almost all the arrested had to be released on account of lack of evidence.

This police embarrassment was preceded by the high profile expose and convictions of top police officials from Gujarat who were running a racket of killing innocent Muslims in “fake encounters” by labeling them as terrorists belonging to Muslim militant groups.

Earlier last year, some Intelligence Bureau officers confessed to an official CBI inquiry that members of Intelligence Bureau itself are involved in “training and manufacturing terrorists” who are recruited and sent on “terrorist missions” where they are handily arrested by awaiting cops. These cops then get promotions and bravery awards.

IMC-USA calls upon government and police authorities to demonstrate political will and nab the perpetrators of this heinous crime by conducting a transparent and honest investigation rather than taking the convenient route of scapegoating innocent people.

Indian Muslim Council-USA is the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States with 10 chapters across the nation.

CONTACT:

Dr. Hyder Khan

phone/fax:1-800-839-7270

email: media@imc-usa.org

Earlier report:

Several explosions went off in crowded neighborhoods in the western city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat State.

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Published: July 27, 2008

NEW DELHI — For the second time in two days, small explosions rocked an Indian city, this time in Ahmedabad on Saturday evening, killing at least 45 people. The Indian government said cities across the country had been put on alert for similar attacks.

Reuters

Two people lay wounded at the site of one of at least 16 blasts on Saturday in Ahmedabad, India.

Ajit Solanki/Associated Press

A cow lay dead after one of Saturday’s explosions.

At least 16 explosions went off shortly after 6:30 p.m. in several crowded neighborhoods in the western city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat State, the chief minister, Narendra Modi, told reporters late Saturday. According to the latest details available Sunday, another 110 people were wounded, The Associated Press reported.

One of the targets was a public bus, which appeared to be badly damaged, according to televised reports.

As crowded as those neighborhoods appeared, the casualties would have been far greater had more powerful explosives been used.

Law enforcement authorities did not immediately say who might have been responsible.

Indian television stations reported that they had received a statement on Saturday from a group that called itself “Indian Mujahedeen” that warned of attacks. There was no way to know whether the statement was authentic or who was behind the group, which had claimed responsibility for serial blasts in Jaipur, in western India, two months ago.

On Friday, a series of similar low-intensity blasts went off in the southern technology hub of Bangalore, killing one woman. The police said the explosions were intended to sow panic.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil said in a statement: “Anti-national elements have been trying to create panic among the people of our country.”

In recent years, well-planned bombings have struck several Indian cities, from an entertainment center in southern Hyderabad to crowded markets here in the capital, in what officials have said were attempts to provoke violence between Hindus and Muslims. So far, those attempts have not succeeded.

Gujarat, of which Ahmedabad is the commercial center, is particularly sensitive to ethnic tensions. In 2002, a train fire that killed dozens of members of a Hindu nationalist group set off Hindu-on-Muslim violence across Gujarat, most prominently in Ahmedabad.

All told, 1,000 Muslims were killed, and Mr. Modi, a firebrand Hindu nationalist politician, was accused of doing little to stop the violence.

Mr. Modi has been re-elected twice since then and is among the most important national figures in the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The state of Karnataka, where Bangalore is located, is governed by the same political party, known by its initials, B.J.P.

At the national level, the B.J.P. is the opposition party, and with national elections scheduled in the next few months, the party’s leaders have seized on attacks like these to criticize the coalition government led by the Congress Party.

After the Bangalore attack on Friday, the B.J.P. issued a statement accusing the government of having a “lackadaisical attitude.”

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