[File Photo]
Mumbai: Wondering why no action has been taken against the 'terrorist training camps' reportedly run by an NGO Hindu Swabhiman even after vidoes surfaced in the media, Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Shamsher Khan Pathan asked if the camps have government approval.
"Hindu Swabhiman has openly claimed that it is running 'arms training camps' in as many as 100 places in Uttar Pradesh. Yet no legal action has been taken either by the state or the central government. Does this mean that these 'terrorist camps' have the approval of the government?" Pathan who heads Awami Vikas Party (AVP) asked.
"The government should have immediately closed these tratining centres. But, far from taking action, not a single word has been so far uttered by the state or the central government against these terrorist camps", he said.
Stating that these training camps are dangerous for national security, and peace and harmony, Pathan demanded from the state and the union government to close these training camps and arrest the members of Hindu Swabhiman.
Pathan's statement cam a day after Lawyer and activist Shehzaad Poonawala sent a petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, CM Akhilesh Yadav and home minister Rajnat Singh expressing concern over the Hindu Swabhiman training camps.
"Seeing terror of different hues differently will lead to disaster, as is evident from Pakistan's case. If the PM and the BJP government fail in doing its duty as required by my petition, I will approach senior lawyers to take my battle up in the SC and ensure rule of law, secularism and our zero tolerance on terror is not diluted", Poonawala wrote in his petition.
The petition has been endorsed by senior Congress leader Manish Tewari. Tewari, a former Union minister in the UPA government, issued a statement saying, "The rise of vigilantes in the backyard of Delhi is very disturbing".
"While ISIS is an ominous threat to humanity but by the government's own assertion, it is non-existent in India. To use that as a peg to raise militias requires to be curbed. If the government does not act, courts would be the only option", he added.
On January 20, leading English daily The Times of India had reported that from the outskirts of India's capital to the Uttarakhand border, an outfit known as Hindu Swabhiman is raising and training what it calls a "dharma sena" to wage war against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), which it believes will occupy western UP by 2020. Its leaders claim there are already 15,000 "soldiers" who are ready to die to safeguard their faith.
Besides government admission that ISIS is non-existent in India, the Indian Muslims too have condemned that the terrorist activities of ISIS with many believing that the terrorist group has nothing to do with Islam and Muslims. They are of the view that the ISIS terrorist group is formed to malign the image of Islam and target Muslims.
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