Temple Terror

Its resplendent milk-white marble floor stained by the red of blood, its sandstone walls chipped by bullets and grenades, the usually bustling Akshardham Swaminarayan Temple Complex in Gujarat's sleepy capital of Gandhinagar today echoes a deafening silence. Outside, a storm of questions rage through the minds of many who sat up all night on Black Tuesday to watch the siege on TV: Why was this temple targeted? Why did this happen in Gujarat? Haven't the people of the state suffered enough?

No one has the answers. But to many, the September 24 strike came as a reminder of the price to be paid for practicing the politics of hatred. No politician, however, would like to admit that the attack—which left 31 dead and over 70 injured—was a ghastly and condemnable act of revenge perpetrated by two angry and misguided youth barely out of their teens. Deputy prime minister L.K. Advani and chief minister Narendra Modi were quick to club the attack on the temple complex with the September 11 WTC strike, the December 13 attack on Parliament, the October 1 attempt on the J&K Assembly as well as the efforts to disrupt the election process in Kashmir. Congress president Sonia Gandhi sought to remain politically correct as she took the larger position that her party is with the government in fighting terrorism and that it is a joint battle.

The political class seems to have completely glossed over the possible linkage of the Godhra and post-Godhra killings with the September 24 strike. However, senior police and intelligence officials told Outlook that there is adequate evidence on the ground and in the government's own records to suggest the possibility of a chain reaction. Their reading: if the post-Godhra riots were a reaction to the action in Godhra, the attack on the temple is a reaction to the former. They point out that there does not appear to be a more plausible reason for the targeting of Gujarat. The one person who has said this, though not in so many words, is Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee: "The trend of killings and counter-killings in Gujarat must stop and the people of Gujarat should fight terrorism by peace and harmony."

The BJP though, has every reason to delink the attack on the temple from the post-Godhra communal riots. According to the chief minister's detractors in his own party, if the attack on the temple is linked to the post-Godhra violence, then the Modi government will have to shoulder the blame for its failure in preventing the terrorist strike. The BJP would also have to account for Modi's inflammatory speeches during his gaurav yatra that rubbed salt on the wounds of the minorities.

Realising this, Vajpayee and Advani have now prevailed upon the chief minister to put off his yatra yet again. Even the latest intelligence report, for which three officials of the state intelligence department were transferred, had warned that Modi's speeches could hurt religious sentiments and disrupt law and order.

The attack, for obvious reasons, has only brightened Modi's prospects. The polarisation of Hindus in the state is complete and even Congressmen privately admit that the BJP's electoral battle is virtually won. This is one reason why Modi and other senior BJP leaders have been calling for restraint and have gone out of their way to absolve Indian Muslims from involvement in the terrorist attack.

It was not as if the state government was not aware of a possible attack. Outlook has learned from senior intelligence officials that the state home department had been repeatedly apprised of the possibility of "revenge attacks" following the post-Godhra violence. Says a state intelligence official, "We had given enough warnings. But nobody took us seriously." Another official is more specific: "We had said that there are many angry Muslim youngsters who have lost their families in the post-Godhra massacres and are itching for retribution."

The Gujarat director-general of police, K. Chakravarthi, was candid enough to tell reporters at the Swaminarayan temple complex that "we had reports that important public and religious places, including those which perennially have large public congregations as well as industrial and other sensitive installations in Gujarat were soft targets. We had beefed up security but if unexpected targets like this temple are picked on, we are helpless".

The "unexpected" target is located just across from the Raj Bhawan, the official residence of the chief minister and the residential enclave for ministers. It also happens to fall in Advani's constituency. The target chosen is a sprawling temple spread across 25 acres which usually has nearly 5,000 devotees at any point of time. The temple complex is just adjacent to the busy Sector 21 market. The group headquarters of the Central Reserve Police Force, the Border Security Force and the army are located just a few kilometres away from it. According to intelligence officials, the strategic location of the Akshardham temple could be one of the key reasons for the terrorists singling it out for their attack.

Of course, there is no denying the fact that the Black Cats of the National Security Guards (NSG) lived up to their reputation and ended the nightmare after an overnight operation called Vajrashakti. The state police and its commandos too did their job well in gradually extricating the devotees trapped in the temple complex. Two members of the state police and a Black Cat commando lost their lives in the operation.

But before the nightmare ended, the two terrorists had exposed the poor security arrangements in the vvip area of Gandhinagar. The duo clambered over Gate 3 of the temple complex in broad daylight and ran amok, opening fire and throwing grenades. Gate 3 happens to be diagonally across from the backyard of the CM's official bungalow. It was around 4.30 pm that the gun-wielding youths sneaked into the complex. The police arrived 45 minutes later but by then the bloodbath had begun.

At a press briefing on September 27, Modi was full of praise for the commandos and declared a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the family of each jawan who died and Rs 50,000 each for those who sustained injuries. He was also not wrong in saying that there was no casualty in the temple after the police arrived on the scene. "They (the terrorists) had a bigger plan to take people hostage and cause major damage to the temple. But because of the swift and effective action by the police and the NSG, this plan was foiled."

But Modi shrewdly ignored the fact that his government was actually caught napping. That it had not acted on any of the intelligence warnings and had, in fact, been dismissive of them. The CM has also found an ingenious way to delink the temple attack from the post-Godhra violence: "The very fact that the two terrorists were carrying identical chits in their pockets (stating that they were seeking revenge for the post-Godhra massacres of Muslims) was to mislead the investigation." The chief minister offered no concrete evidence to buttress this theory.

When reporters pointed out to him that it is not unusual in terrorist strikes for fidayeen to carry on their person a written explanation for the act of terror, Modi taunted the media: "They carried the notes knowing well that there are people willing to buy this story. They know what sells." The note (written in Urdu) which Modi says was to mislead everyone identified the two persons as members of the Tehreek-e-Kasas (Movement for Revenge) and addresses the "thousands of conscienceless enemies of the Muslims of India". The note is also clear that the two were seeking revenge for the killings of the minorities in the post-Godhra violence."We will never rest in peace if we do not take revenge for the killings of our people," it says.

Although Modi is dismissive of the note, the state's anti-terrorist squad (ats) does not seem to be taking it lightly. Evidence of this came from ats dig Vipul Vijoy, who on Thursday told reporters at his office in Ahmedabad: "The Tehreek-e-Kasas (the group which the terrorists claimed to represent) may be an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Toiba. We are exploring this possibility, but are yet to reach a conclusion." Vijoy says the identity of the terrorists is yet to be clearly established and that his team is at it.

While the investigating agencies are yet to get a fix on whether the terrorists had come from across the border or were locals trained in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Modi is certain that they were from Pakistan: "They could be from PoK or even the enemy country. They don't seem to be locals." But intelligence officials say that no external terrorist group could have either identified the target or struck in the heart of the state capital without local support.

Few deny that the rehabilitation of the riot victims has been haphazard. Even today, many families from the minority community do not have the courage to return home. The latest evidence of the fear gripping the minority community came on the eve of the VHP-sponsored countrywide bandh to condemn the attack on the temple. Many Muslim families hurried back to relief camps in Ahmedabad, fearing a reprisal.

The bandh, however, passed off peacefully, barring a few stray incidents. The VHP's international general-secretary Praveen Togadia declared with pride that the success of the bandh was a warning to all pseudo-secularists. "The people of Gujarat will have to be trained to be like soldiers to teach a lesson to the terrorists from Pakistan. India should declare a war on Pakistan, which should be blown into 40 pieces."

The anti-Pakistan rhetoric is understandable. The moment Modi or the Sangh parivar concedes that the attack on the temple was linked to the post-Godhra riots, the state government would be held responsible for provoking Muslim terrorists to act. Similarly, the moment the Union home ministry admits the link, uncomfortable questions about Modi's irresponsible utterances during his gaurav yatra would crop up.

Rather than be dragged into any controversy, the BJP would rather play the role of being a responsible party which does not over-react. It is quite clear that the September 24 attack has further consolidated the Hindu vote. Gaurav yatra or no gaurav yatra, the Hindutva card will work even better after the attack. As one BJP leader puts it, "Narendrabhai has to only sit back and relax. The elections are already won." That is, of course, if the people of Gujarat fail to see the larger picture.