ON March 20, 2000, on the eve of US President Clinton’s visit to India, a shooting spree killed 35 Sikhs in Chattisinghpura district in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

India attributed this attack to Laskar-i-Taiba. In her 2006 book The Mighty and the Almighty, Madeline Albright disclosed that it was the act of Hindu militants, which was widely accepted.

On Dec 13, 2001, militants attacked the Indian parliament. India once again attributed the attack to Laskar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. The Indian newspaper The Hindu published a report by its correspondent Anjali Modi, casting serious doubts on the trials of the alleged perpetuators and cover-up.

Following the hanging of alleged Afzal Guru, Indian writer Arundhati Roy, in her book The Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament cast serious doubts on the case.

On Feb 18, 2007, the Samjhauta Express was bombed, leaving 68 dead. Initially, India attributed this to Laskar-e-Taiba. A holy man, Swami Aseemanand, testified that Hindutva radicals were behind the bombing. Indian Lt-Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit was nabbed in due course as the perpetuator of that crime.

Rafi Ahmed

Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2018