'Gujarat probe fuelling terror tendency'

“If Gujarat riot victims continue to feel biased against and India bends over backwards to accommodate US interests, then the day is not far when worst forms of terror like suicide bombings could become a reality (in India),” Bhatt said. Zia Haq reports.

Kicking off one of the biggest state-level anti-terror conferences — the third in a countrywide series planned by Darul Uloom, Deoband, in collaboration with the Gujarat Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind — filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt said on Saturday that people of “questionable reputation” probing the Gujarat riots and India’s “pro-US tilt” were triggering terror tendencies in the country.

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“This is how I feel. If Gujarat riot victims continue to feel biased against and India bends over backwards to accommodate US interests, then the day is not far when worst forms of terror like suicide bombings could become a reality (in India),” Bhatt said, delivering a pithy but fiery talk.

The filmmaker, who was one of the main speakers at the conference, said “justice” was the only solution to terrorism in India, whether it was the so-called Islamic terror or the Naxal issue.

He demanded that the government pull out retired Gujarat High Court judge Akshay Mehta from the Nanavati Commission, which is probing the Godhra carnage and post-Godhra riots. Some months ago, a rioter had allegedly referred to Justice Mehta as apna aadmi (our man) in a taped exposé by the newsmagazine Tehelka.

He said the state-level anti-terror conferences were being organised to make Darul’s fatwa against terror known in every nook and corner of the country.