Hindu extremists in Maha, MP shared deep ties: NIA

Hindu extremists in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh worked closely to attack mosques and places frequented by Muslims, a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has revealed. Rajesh Ahuja reports.

Hindu extremists in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh worked closely to attack mosques and places frequented by Muslims, a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has revealed.

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The agency has found deep ties between Hindu extremists of the Maharashtra module and those led by Sunil Joshi, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak who was murdered in December 2007.

The death of two right-wing extremists, Himanshu Panse and Naresh Rajkondowar, while making a bomb on April 6, 2006, in Nanded has helped the agency connect the dots.

The NIA chargesheet in the Malegaon 2006 blast reveals Panse and three other Marathi boys - who have not been identified - participated in a weapon-handling and bomb-making exercise in Bagli near Dewas in MP in early 2006.

"We also know that Panse had visited Joshi in Madhya Pradesh in 2006," said an investigator who did not want to be identified.

The Panse-led group is believed to be behind blasts in several mosques in Maharashtra: Parbhani (November, 21, 2003), Purna (August, 27, 2004) and Jalna (August 27, 2004). All these blasts took place after the Friday afternoon prayers.

In Malegaon too, on September 8, 2006, two blasts were triggered outside a mosque after the Friday afternoon prayers.

The NIA has charged four Hindu extremists - Manohar, Dhan Singh, Rajendra Chaudhry and Ramji Kalsangra - of the Joshi-led group for planting four bombs in Malegaon that killed 31 people.

Another accused, Lokesh Sharma, has been charged with making calls to media houses in Delhi to claim responsibility for the Malegaon blasts in the name of 'Dharmasena'. Sharma did not get any response from the media.