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The ATS believed it had cracked the September 29 Malegaon bomb blast case, and about a month ago arrested Hindu extremists in a breakthrough that shocked the nation and added a new twist to the entire discourse on terror and religion.
But as the probe unravelled the alleged plot and the role of some Hindu leaders, the case got caught in the politics of terror and the ATS was at the centre of charges that it was being used as a tool to target the Sangh Parivar amid allegations of illegal detention and torture by some of the 11 arrested for the blast.
The BJP, RSS and VHP leaders, among others from the Hindu nationalist brigade, accused the ATS of being on a witch-hunt, with some even demanding that ATS officers be subjected to a narco-analysis to establish their motives.
No less a leader than the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, L K Advani, had demanded a change in the ATS team and a judicial inquiry into the torture allegations made by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a key suspect in the Malegaon case.
The Shiv Sena too had come out in support of the suspects and on Wednesday had threatened in its mouthpiece Saamna that it would publish the names of some ATS officers and shame them as it said they had tortured the Malegaon suspects.
That Karkare was affected by this was apparent when we met at his office on Tuesday to get an update on the probe, less than 36 hours before he was killed. The Indian Express has decided to break the confidence of what was an off-the-record conversation in an attempt to highlight the anguish of the investigators over the currents in which the Malegaon probe was getting caught as well as the larger debate over the politics of terror.
"I don't know why this case has become so political," was one of Karkare's first comments. "The pressure is tremendous and I am wondering how to extricate it from all the politics."
Was the pressure telling on the investigation, what with someone who could be the next prime minister of the country questioning the credibility of the ATS?
"Of course," was the answer. "We are being very very careful. In fact, when we want to question a suspect and if he or she has any Hindutvawadi connections, we make sure once, twice, thrice, that we have enough reason and evidence to even question. Normally it is not like that. We are able to freely question anyone we suspect."
"In fact, immediately after the blast I had visited Malegaon along with the Deputy Chief Minister and other officials and witnessed the anger of the locals who shouted some slogans," Karkare said. "After that I told my men that we have to pursue this case very objectively and not start with assumptions that people of this community or that community could be responsible."
Originally from Madhya Pradesh, Karkare studied mechanical engineering in Nagpur and worked at the National Productivity Council and Hindustan Lever before making it to the IPS in 1982. Known to be an upright officer who served in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) as well as the Indian mission in Vienna, Austria, as a counselor, Karkare did not hide his love for Mumbai or his discomfort with the predominantly political-bureaucratic culture of Delhi where he was posted.
During a stint in the Chandrapur forests near Nagpur in 1991 to fight Naxalites, he took an interest in driftwood, discovered artistic shapes in them and converted them into wooden sculptures, making about 150 of them over a two-year period. Talking to the media about sensitive cases such as Malegaon could prove to be a double-edged sword, he had said as we parted, adding that he would like us to meet informally once a month so that he could learn the ways of the media.
His last visuals as seen on TV showed him working with his men near the VT station, the target of one of the attacks, although it is perplexing at this point in time why such a senior officer ended up getting exposed to a brazen terrorist attack. Initially, he was shown wearing a shoddy helmet normally seen used by constables during riots. A little later, a policeman lowers a flimsy bulletproof vest over his shoulders, one that was obviously of little protection when those fatal shots were fired at him.
The previous evening, hours after our meeting, TV channels had ‘breaking news’ that he had received a fresh death threat from some unidentified caller, apparently in connection with the Malegaon probe. An Indian Express reporter SMSed him asking him if this was true or if he had anything to say. His reply: just a smiley.
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Though sad, God punished Karkare. It is a lesson for every ani-national officer, politician and citzen be honest and work in favor of country else die like karkare. Why he went for fighting ? Probably he misthought it that it is high time to score publicity over his tarnished image in pleasing his Italian and arab masters. As a chief rather he would have spent his duties in organising, controlling and monitoring the situation. He even did not think he is torturing Hindu saints who are in themselves "Khuda ke Farishte".
Yes. The death of a police officer who proved that a case was falsely put to terrorists should be investigated. I hope the media do not lose focus and give appropriate focus to the police officer deaths. Its apparent that the Malegoan blast investigations were showing the deep roots of terror linked to both the Indian Army officials and the wide network of Hindu activists - looks like the shiv sena , abvp, bjp have deep connections to the underworld and terror network.....This is now affecting the local citizens and deteriorating the Indian society and soon will affect the local economy. We are losing capable officers - look at the list of the 3/4 dead officers and what they achieved. This breaks the spirit of every Indian and definitely every Mumbaikar....Lets learn a lesson from the Indian cricket team, show what the new India is about - lets get these criminals and political criminals....whoever they are - whether its the Shiv Sena or the BJP or the Islamic terrorists or Pak
Few brave and dedicated officers like Hemant Karkare struggled and continue to struggle to have a professional police force.But do the Indian electorate realise that the politicians and other assorted VIPs have always used Indian Police as their personal "sevadars"?How can we have a professioal force under these demeaning circumstances?The lack of training and motivation of the force is glaring in every crises situation and the political elite bear the sole blame , not the poor policemen.
Mr. Karkare, had you focused on real terrorists in the last few months you would possibly been alive (may your soul rest in peace). The Congress party and ATS need to understand from this tragedy that appeasement will not win you any medals with Islamic terrorists. Some ignorant and uneducated people here keep bringing up RSS, VHP etc..remember most of the terrorism across the world is not caused by RSS, but by terrorist Islamic radicals. When the Govt can't secure people they will obviously do something out of frustration. Muslims across the globe need to rethink as to why every Islamic country has failed, why despite 70% of world's resources they are so poor ? That is not America or VHP's fault ..it's their failed religion, corrupt leaders and hate spewing clerics that's the main cause for all this.
Here is my humble opinion. I can't figure out how someone as senior officer as Hemant Karkare happened be at the front to get shot when hundreds of policeman who actually fight the terrorist have survived. I can't imagine him to be incompetent or reckless. There is some chance he was by his enemies within the police (people who didn't like his investigation in Malegaon bomb blast case). His quick cremation without post-mortem is suspicious. We will never know the full truth
rss,vhp,shivsena,nav.nirman sena , bjp the true extremist of the indian nation
Hemant and other officers were killed by fellow policemen from close quaters at the behest of the people who did not like progress in islamic terror. No post-mortem and quick cremation, no one will ever know the truth. Lesson for other honest officers.
It is sad to know the death of many brave policemen in this episode. Only if Maha-police and ATF focused their energy on the real enemy of the nation, Islamic-terrorism and not the political enemy of UPA then the things would have been diffefrent.. Sorry ATF chief, you were ordered to focus to solve UPA political problems not national security problems.. at the end you have to pay that with your life! Hope now at least ATF will focus on real enemy and refuse to be part of UPA-Communist political drama.To those who want to club nationalist RSS with anti-national SIMI, beware ATF may be looking for you after a nationalist Govt. comes to power, after next elections! Be prepared to pack to go to Karachi.....!
That's precisely the game. The one who benifits from these terror are the ones who are behind the terror. And no wonder, BJP was so farsighted to have 'Terrorism' as a key election campaign agenda even from 7 to 8 months back itself. Sadly millions of Indians have been fooled into their game without knowing that BJP is playing the same fascist game as US does, which they play at the expense of innocent lives. Blame everything on Muslim terrorist !..
Attackers on Parliment are still roaming free. What message are we giving here....come to india , bomb us and you will walk free. My message to SONIA ( Christian crusader) , SINGH ( guy with no guts) and SHIVRAJ. (puppet ) .... Either kill terrorist or kill yourself.
Bhagwan ke ghar der hao par andher nahi hai.But Bhagwan ke ghar itni bhi der nahi hai.What ATS officials hve done with innocent Hindu Riligious sadvhi and sant,GOD could not have given better death to hemant Karkare and his people.They need to wake up now and know who are the real terrorists.
I was not quite surprised over the terror attacks that have been taking place in India for the past 6 or 7 months in a row. B'coz the main clue about the incidents came to me 6 - 7 months back in an article that I read in TOI or Indian Exp. It stated the major election campaign agendas of both UPA
Sir, Al-Qaida, SIMI, RSS,VHP, Bajrang Dal must vanish from India.They have created a mini Al-Qaida like Afghanistan in India.
this bloody pakistanis are a nuisance not only to india but the world.my deep condolences to karkare and salaskar family.
I hope Indian electorate (at least educated ones) take the political leadership - both in power and opposition - to task. Political leadership is a reflection of what people want and ultimately they themselves are to be blamed. As long as they elect the leaders, whose only aim is to somehow capture power and personally benefit (obviously illegally) from it. Only solution is to address the issue honestly, through legal and ethical means, but firmly. Blaming minority community or appeasing them won't help. We have to make the majority of good people in minority community realize that the bad minority in their community has hijacked their leadership and in a democratic society, the solution should come from them. Otherwise, ultimately all - majority or minority - will perish.
Raju and Krishna must be RSS followers else they will not talk bad about an honest guys. SUch people are real enemy of the country. Such people should be kicked out of this country. RSS is the one organization whose aim to keep the whole Hindu Community divided based in castes and caste supriority.
seriously guys, come to think of it.. why would someone kill ATS chief. and that in the heat of the moment. coming on the heels of the exposure of the culprits of Malegaon blast and the due revelation of known notoriuos leader, mainly of the BJP, RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP parties, in the days to come. Everyone knows Hemant Karkare was threatened a fe days back. and of course, we all know why and who did it. there's no use just hiding the plain truth and blaming abstract groups like 'deccan mujahideen' etc etc. Bah..Humbug! it's all happeneing in front of our eyes, politics is deep shit, u knw. what we know is just the tip of the iceberg. i desperately wish all these old crooked bas**rd politicians are caught off the hook, and a new young youthful democracy replaces. its time we youth take the reins of this country. its high time we unite....!!
An iconic Hero, at the service of the nation! Dear Hemant Karkare, every sensible Indian is immensely proud of you, at this moment of national agony! I salute you and hearty condolences to your family! A word to all those who now doubt, question and analyse the elements of unprofessionalism, ignorance of basic rules of fighting terrorist attacks, or relate such a heroic sacrifice within the context of political allegations against ATS: shame on you! You forget that this man did not shy away from dangers and threats on his life; that he did not merely order his junior officers and staff to manage the situation! You exemplify intellectual acrimony of presenting committed servants in negative images!
to whomsoever it considers......n i hope so it considers patriotic humans of dis country india....dis is a high trouble going on ....its time to be united n give coperation to fight against terrorism in every possible way.....let the land be proud of ur patriotism.......mind fills up wid respect wen brave humans like hemant karkare,ashok kamte n many other gave their lives 4 peace .....its a noble feeling we had dese brave officers wid us....indians do wake up n fight unitedly against terrorist attacks........
The man who forgot his duty and become a part of conspiracy got the fate he deserve! In rare case were persecuted get punished by the fate in short time! In these case he joined hands with congress anti national elements and he is punished by some unexpected cornter....SATANS OF TERROR!
Now BJP got a strong poll issue and they should be pleased with more and more terrorist attack and also ATS Hemant Karkare was killed as he was the target by parivar and Advani. Now the Malegaon blast can be forgotten and Prohit and Sadhvi will become BJP candiate for the general election.
Hats off to you Mr. Hemant Karkare. You died doing your duty towards us but we are not going to return you the favour. We will just say words of praise for you but we will not demand any probe into how you received 3 bullets from a moving vehicle and yet no one standing next to you got even bruises. We are not going to demand that the probe in Malegaon blast should be continued till end when all the culprits are caught and punished. We salute you but we are sorry that we cannot do anything to get you justice. Our heartfelt condolences are with your near and dear ones but that's the best we can do for you.
It is sad that Mr Karkare had to make the supreme sacrifice to prove his devotion to the country. It is horrible that some politicians want to conduct narco tests on people who are putting their lives on the line trying to protect the country. It's time that you politicians come out of your n tier security ring and try fighting for our country for a change and experience true sacrifice
Mr. Karkare's end is not surprising given the arrogant attitude of Indian police. He had very little intelligence frame work to unearth and prevent terrorist attacks. The brave men can torture helpless citizens like Sadhvi Pragya but do not know the basics of fighting terrorists. A sad loss but was he and his department not responsible for not probing and prosecuting the real terrorists.
Amar singh should question "why did Kakare went in to this operation and get killed" and demand high level commision to investgate the entire operation rescue. Our rescue operation should not have killed those innocent terrorists. Amar singh, please announce Rs. 10,00000 reward to all those terrorists, with correct number of zeros after 1. Announce legal support to all those captured terrorists. Terrorists are the future of our INDIA. Terrorists AMAR RAHE