Pakistan to India: Arrest terrorist Bal Thackeray

Bal Thackeray should be handed over to Pakistan to face trial

Comparing Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray with wanted Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JuD) chief Hafeez Muhammad Saeed Pakistan wants New Delhi to take action against the Bal Thackery–the leader of a bigoted organization that routinely spouts venom against Pakistan. Mr. Bal Thackery is wanted for murder in Pakistan.

Wanted dead or alive Bal Thackery

During an interaction with a visiting India media delegation here, Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit was asked as to why Islamabad was dragging its feet on taking action against Saeed despite India providing numerous dossiers, which nails his direct involvement in the Mumbai carnage.

“I don’t hold brief for Hafiz Saeed. We arrested him. Have you arrested Bal Thackeray for making hate speeches against Pakistan,” Basit replied.

Commenting on India’s consistent claims that the groups like the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were still running terror training camps inside Pakistan’s boundary, he said Islamabad is ready to take on those camps if exact information is shared with it.

Basit reiterated Islamabad’s demand for re-starting the stalled composite dialogue with India, saying such talks had proved to be of great help in building confidence between the two neighbouring countries.

“It helped us sign prior notification of missile trials, it helped us in ceasefire and to agree on confidence building measures on Kashmir. It created a congenial atmosphere as well,” the spokesperson said.

Basit also pointed out that disputes like Siachen could not be settled unilaterally.

“We had made enormous progress on Siachen and Sir Creek. These issues can be handled quickly if the dialogue is resumed,” he said.

He also objected to India’s hardened stance on the resumption of the
composite dialogue, saying its better not to engage in any form of deliberation than to add ‘pre-conditions’ to composite talks.

Basit also condemned India for labelling happenings in Kashmir as a ‘terrorist struggle’, and said Pakistan would never accept those claims.

Bal Thackeray continues to publish inflammatory editorials in his party’s newsletter, Sâmna (Confrontation). When explaining his views on Hindutva he has conflated Islam with violence and has called for Hindus to “fight terrorism and fight Islam.” In an interview that is published in Suketu Mehta’s book titled Maximum City, he advocates the hanging of Indian Muslims and mass expulsion of Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. One of his more acerbic statements needs attention: “They [Muslims] are spreading like a cancer and should be operated on like a cancer. The…country should be saved from the Muslims and the police should support them [Hindu Maha Sangh] in their struggle just like the police in Punjab were sympathetic to the Khalistanis.”

Moreover, Thackeray had criticised and challenged the Indian Muslims through his party newspaper, Sâmna, when the 16th century Babri Masjid was demolished by members of the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the northern town of Ayodhya, on December 6, 1992. The razing of the mosque was followed by mass killing and genocide of the Muslims. The Justice Srikrishna Commission of Enquiry, which investigated the communal riots in Mumbai, named Thackeray for sparking anti-Muslim violence that had led to more than 1,000 deaths in several ensuing riots.

The Srikrishna Commission found that Thackeray was personally responsible, not only for inciting the mobs through his incendiary speeches, but also directly coordinating the movement of the rioters. In a deposition before the Srikrishna Commission a witness alleged Thackeray coordinated much of the January 1993 Mumbai carnage. Yuvraj Mohite claimed: “Balasaheb ordered that not one Muslim be left alive to stand in the witness box, and asked his men to send the additional police commissioner, A A Khan, to his Allah.” Balaji later announced: “I am proud of what my boys have done. We had to retaliate and we did. If it was not for us, no one would have controlled the Muslims.” He has since made more inflammatory statements regarding Muslims, and reiterated his desire for Hindus to unite across linguistic barriers and to see “a Hindustan for Hindus” and to “bring Islam in this country down to its knees.”

---