GANDHINAGAR, India, 26 September — The central government in New Delhi yesterday dispatched thousands of troops to its turmoil-ridden western state of Gujarat in an attempt to prevent another explosion of sectarian bloodletting after 30 people were killed in an attack on a Hindu temple by suspected militants.
The killings have brought hostilities between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan back to an ominous simmer after Delhi accused its rival of playing a role behind the scenes — an allegation that the Pakistanis dismissed as nonsense. Indian troops stormed a Hindu temple early yesterday, killing two young Muslim gunmen who massacred 30 men, women and children in an attack which raised fears of an anti-Muslim backlash. More than 70 people were wounded when the gunmen attacked the Akshardham Temple in Gandhinagar on Tuesday evening.
Security forces besieged the temple overnight before commandos stormed the complex. One commando was killed during the assault and two policemen died later of their wounds, police said, bringing the total death toll including the two gunmen to 33.
In Gujarat itself, attention focused on the possibility of another installment of the nightmarish communal violence of February and March, when an estimated 2,000 people — mostly Muslims killed by Hindus — died in reprisals for an attack on a train carrying Hindu activists, in which 59 died.
The risk of more rape, death and beatings was considered sufficiently serious for the Indian government yesterday to send 3,000 soldiers to Gujarat, at the request of the state, whose officials faced fierce criticism for failing to act decisively over the last bout of killings. In Gandhinagar — the state capital and scene of the blood bath — shops, schools, colleges and most businesses were closed, partly because opposition groups called a strike.
The attack and siege at the temple came to an end at dawn yesterday after a night of sporadic gunfights when commandos stormed in, and killed the two gunmen. It began in the early evening on Tuesday, when the attackers pulled up in a car and burst into the grounds of the temple and opened up with Kalashnikovs and grenades. Inside, there were some 500 Hindus, saffron-robed priests, guides and souvenir traders.
Witnesses said the death toll would probably have been higher, but for the swift action of volunteers inside the building who shut the doors when the raid began. The incident has caused anger across India, adding fresh strains to the troubled relationship between the Hindus and the Muslim minority. The Indian media reported that the gunmen belonged to a hitherto unknown group called Tehreek-e-Kasas and — incriminatingly — carried notes in their pockets written in Urdu. There were appeals for calm from the Indian government — including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who visited the scene — but these were countered by extremist Hindu groups who demanded official action against the "jihadi terrorists". Vajpayee urged people of the state to maintain communal harmony after what he said was a "well-planned" attack. "It seems like the outcome of a well-planned conspiracy. We have to get to the root of this," Vajpayee told reporters after a visit to the temple. "Brotherhood should be continued to be preserved. There is no place for communal hatred.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, and the gunmen were not identified. But Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani blamed Pakistan, citing a speech made two weeks ago by President Pervez Musharraf to the United Nations in which he spoke about the killing of Muslims in Gujarat. "Our enemy went to the United Nations and spoke about Gujarat," said Advani. "From that, it appears they had been planning for some time and this attack has been executed to implement their designs."
In Ahmedabad, just a short distance away from Gandhinagar, many shops and businesses closed early ahead of a nationwide protest strike called by Hindu extremist groups for today which some feared could turn violent. "We fear that if even a small incident takes place tomorrow, it can spread to the whole city," said grocer Jagdish Sindhi.
Officials said troops were on standby in Gujarat and could be deployed if violence erupted. "The army is being airlifted from border areas. They are on standby and could be deployed in major districts and sensitive areas," Interior Secretary K. Nityanandam told reporters. One army brigade has been made available to state authorities for precautionary deployment, Brig. Shruti Kant added.
"Most of the soldiers have already reached the state." Among the groups calling for the nationwide strike was the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which heads the ruling coalition, and the militant Vishwa Hindu Parishad group. "We appeal to all communities to maintain peace during today’s dawn-to-dusk strike to protest the massacre of Hindu devotees by terrorists in Gujarat," B.L. Sharma, senior leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) told reporters yesterday.
Sharma added that the VHP, which is an ideological parent of Vajpayee’s BJP, had called the strike to pressure the government into taking steps against Pakistan. "There can be no peace in India as long as Pakistan exists... We demand that the government end its inaction," said Sharma.
Another VHP leader Surendra Jain also said such acts of violence were not possible without support from Muslims living in India. "Can this kind of incident happen without local support? Majority of Muslims in India are supporting jihad and helping Pakistani aims," he added.
He said Muslim religious schools called madrasas were instrumental in spreading such kind of ideology in India.
In Islamabad, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan called the accusation "ridiculous" and condemned the temple attack. A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Islamabad described the Indian allegation as "highly irresponsible", saying it would only add to tension in the region.
The nuclear-armed rivals massed close to a million men on their border after a December raid on India’s Parliament which India blamed on Pakistan-based militants, and the neighbors came to the brink of war in June over disputed Kashmir.
But despite India’s rhetoric, analysts said they did not expect the temple raid to raise the risk of war, as New Delhi would rather focus on a state election under way in Kashmir. "I think the primary concern at the moment would be the elections in Jammu and Kashmir and to get through that, so the probability that they would allow this to escalate is low," said Uday Bhaskar from the Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis in New Delhi.
India hopes the election will produce a new state government with a mandate to hold talks that could lead to greater autonomy for Kashmir and ease a 13-year-old revolt against its rule in its only Muslim-majority state. The temple raid came just after polls closed in the second round of voting in the election, which ends in October. Indian markets shrugged off the attack after early jitters and the Bombay share index closed down 0.04 percent.
Police stepped up security throughout Gujarat, especially in Gandhinagar, after the attack and ahead of a strike called for today by Hindu extremists. "We do not anticipate any kind of backlash or trouble but we are also not ruling out any such possibility," said local police chief Pramod Kumar.
"Any general strike has the potential to create violence. All VIPs, holy shrines, government buildings and installations are being protected."
India’s junior Home Minister I.D. Swamy had earlier blamed the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba, which with Jaish-e-Muhammad was blamed by New Delhi for an attack on the Indian Parliament last December. (The Independent)
