NEW DELHI, Aug 11: Leading Indian human rights activists on Thursday raised serious doubts about the mysterious attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 and alleged that the ensuing war hysteria against Pakistan was drummed up by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government for political gain.

“That mobilization brought us to the brink of a nuclear confrontation with Pakistan,” said Ms Nirmala Deshpande at a news conference virtually boycotted by most mainstream media.

Speaking as chairperson of the recently set up Committee for Inquiry on December 13 Attack, Ms Deshpande said the military standoff, which lasted through much of 2002 and cost the public exchequer almost Rs1,000 billion, led to the death of about 800 Indian soldiers, over a hundred children and the loss of livelihood of thousands of farmers living in the border areas.

Members of the committee include lawyers, professors, and human rights activists, close to the ruling United Progressive Alliance and its Left Front supporters.

Referring to the death sentence confirmed last week by the Supreme Court for Mohammed Afzal, a Kashmiri activist, in the parliament attack case, Ms Deshpande said the only evidence of the identity of the terrorists was the alleged identification of them by Afzal to the police and his confessional statement.

Afzal along with Shaukat Guru, his wife Afshan Guru and Delhi teacher Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani were arrested by the special cell of the Delhi police, which claimed to have solved the case with remarkable speed.

“Afzal’s confession along with Shaukat’s had been obtained by the special cell before their DCP, since under POTA confessions before police officers became admissible in evidence,” Ms Deshpande said.

The Supreme Court has, however, acquitted Geelani, Shaukat and Afshan of the charges of conspiracy ‘blowing a gaping hole in the conspiracy story concocted by the special cell, which was faithfully reproduced by sections of the media again and again, even during the trial’.

The court has however convicted Shaukat of an entirely new charge of concealing knowledge of the conspiracy, though he was neither charged of this offence, nor was there any argument in court on this issue.