New Delhi: The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) Saturday demanded stringent measures against extremist forces, claiming that 254 Hindus have been killed in alleged attacks till August this year.
The RSS affiliate demanded that cases involving attacks on Hindus driven by religious hatred be referred to fast-track courts without delay and that those found guilty be given stringent punishment swiftly.
Addressing a press conference, VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain also demanded that minors involved in violence or murder in cases allegedly motivated by religious hatred be tried as adults.
Legal proceedings for barbaric acts — such as murder and attacks motivated by religious hatred — must mandatorily treat these individuals as adults, he said.
No other country has had to struggle against extremist mindset as much as Bharat (India) has. Although Bharat should have been liberated from this mindset following the painful, religion-based partition of the country, the policy of appeasement — pursued in the name of secular politics — has only exacerbated Bharat’s suffering, he alleged.
Jain claimed that attacks by extremists on Hindu religious events, abduction of Hindu women through force or deception under the guise of Love Jihad, and assaults on Hindu settlements are becoming daily occurrences.
There appears to be no end to the pattern of killing Hindus by extremists on one pretext or another, he said while releasing a list of alleged attacks and killings of 254 Hindus between January 1 and August 31.
The fact that such a large number of Hindus have been killed — despite efforts by ‘Ram-bhakt’ (Ram-devotee) governments in several states to curb this deadly trend over the past decade — should be a matter of concern for all patriotic and nationalist Bharatiyas, he said.
Jain appealed to people to rise above partisan mindset and vested interests and strive to save the country from the crisis.
Such a situation is unacceptable to any patriotic Bharatiya, he said.
Urging Hindus to remain vigilant, Jain claimed that they are the primary targets of extremist forces in Bharat and said people should exercise caution and remain prepared for self-defence.
He also demanded stringent measures to regulate madrasas, alleging that they serve as hubs for religious fanaticism and the propagation of hatred.
Many countries have banned madrassas, and the Rajasthan High Court has also recently urged their regulation, he said.
Jain demanded that high-resolution cameras be installed in sensitive areas, mosques and madrassas, with monitoring systems linked to local police stations.
He also called for monitoring the activities of organisations and politicians that, according to him, encourage radicalism, and sought curbs on their alleged anti-social activities.
The VHP also appealed to the peace-loving leadership within the Muslim community to acknowledge terrorist and separatist plots instead of denying or attempting to cover them up and encourage introspection and self-correction.
They should abandon separatist and extremist tendencies and move towards peaceful coexistence, Jain said.
The Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal cannot remain mere spectators to these states of affairs. We are considering constitutional measures to ensure the protection of Hindus, he said.
The VHP also hailed Indian Captain Smit Machchhar for displaying bravery and nerve in averting an alleged mid-air crash attempt by his co-pilot on an Israel-bound flydubai flight.
Machchhar was attacked and seriously injured by his Omani co-pilot in the cockpit of flydubai flight FZ1073, which was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv with 174 people on board. The aircraft was later diverted to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia, where it landed safely.
Calling it another 911-style extremist conspiracy and catastrophe, Jain said radicalisation poses a challenge to humanity.
While the global community, affected by this, definitely expresses concern, it is about time the entire world came together to adopt a unified strategy to defeat this challenge of global terrorism on land, sea and sky, he said.