|
TAMPA, Fl (Mar. 9, 2006)
– A series of explosions on Tuesday in the holy city
of Varanasi, India claimed the lives of at least 21 people
and injured over 62. Two of the bombs were placed in the city’s
main railway station while another bomb targeted worshippers
at the famous Sankat Mochan temple. Officials believe the
attackers specifically triggered the bomb at the temple on
an auspicious day of the week during evening services to inflict
the greatest casualties on Hindu devotees.
Intelligence officials currently suspect
that the notorious Pakistan-based Islamist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba
(LeT) was behind the attacks. The same group has been accused
of masterminding dozens of major terrorist attacks in India
over the past 16 years including three in the past year alone.
In December 2005, gunmen stormed the campus of the Indian
Institute of Science in Bangalore killing and seriously injuring
several professors and researchers. Last October, on the eve
of the Hindu festival of Diwali/Deepavali, bomb blasts in
a populated market killed 61 in the nation’s capital
New Delhi. In July 2005, LeT militants opened fire on worshippers
and security forces at the Ram Janmabhoomi complex in the
holy city of Ayodhya.
Sheetal Shah, member of the Hindu American
Foundation Executive Council said, “The continued attacks
on worshippers at some of the most sacred Hindu sites reflect
a lapse in the Indian government’s duty to adequately
protect its citizens and a failure of the government of Pakistan
to reign in Islamic militancy.”
The Hindu American Foundation asks for Hindus
to remain calm, and demands a calibrated response from the
state and central governments to these dastardly attacks.
For too long, attacks on Hindu sacred places and on Hindus
have either led to knee-jerk violent responses by some Hindu
groups and/or an apathetic and band-aid response by the ruling
governments. It is time to make everyone feel secure and safe
in India.
The Hindu American Foundation is a non-profit
501(c)(3), non-partisan organization, promoting the Hindu
and American ideals of understanding, tolerance and pluralism.
|
