Geelani hits streets against Modi, BJP

Hurriyat Conference (Geelani) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani today hit the streets here protesting against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the wake of a sting operation, which claimed the 2002 Gujarat massacre of Muslims were carried out in full knowledge of Modi.

Srinagar, Oct 26 : Hurriyat Conference (Geelani) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani today hit the streets here protesting against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the wake of a sting operation, which claimed the 2002 Gujarat massacre of Muslims were carried out in full knowledge of Modi.

"We saw the Tehelka report yesterday, the revelations have hurt the sentiments of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We are protesting against Narendra Modi, BJP and the Government of India for not taking any action against the culprits," said Geelani.

Yesterday, Tehelka claimed that its investigation into 2002 post Godhra riots in Gujarat found that the massacre of Muslims were carried out in full knowledge and sanction of the Gujarat Chief Minister.

It claimed that the six-month long "investigation brings confirmation that the Gujarat murder of Muslims was not a spontaneous swell of anger, but a planned genocide strategised and executed by top functionaries of the RSS, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and the state authorities, with the knowledge and sanction of Chief Minister Narendra Modi."

The magazine quoted a BJP MLA, who said that he was present at the meeting in which Modi gave them "three days' time to do whatever they wanted."

"He had given us three days time...to do whatever we could. He said he would not give us time after that...He said this openly," the news magazine quoted the MLA, as saying.

After three days "he (Modi) asked us to stop and everything came to a halt," Haresh Bhatt, the then national co-coordinator of the Bajrang Dal was quoted, as saying.

"It appears that bombs were manufactured in factories owned by senior Bajrang Dal and VHP activists. Arms were smuggled from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab, and then distributed to execution squads led by MLAs and senior members of the Sangh Parivar. Consignments of arms were not just smuggled in once, but 'there were tens and tens of them," Tehelka said in a press statement.

The news magazine also claims that elaborate legal subversion was done to save those accused for their role in the genocide. To help the foot soldiers, who actually raped, killed and looted, the strategists had constituted a panel of lawyers sympathetic to Hindu cause.

ANI