First the Sangh Parivar saw a pattern in the killings of its leaders. Now, it claims that the “outfits”, emboldened to carry on their activities owing to the “softness” of certain political parties pursing votebank politics, have become more aggressive in Tamil Nadu. More so, due to the prominent presence of Hindu organisations like Hindu Munnani and RSS which safeguarded Hindus through proactive measures.
Citing the serial bomb blasts in Coimbatore on February 14, 1998, as the first instance of terror attack targeting leaders of various Hindu organisations, the interim report prepared by Sangh Parivar on the “jihadi” killings in Tamil Nadu and submitted to the BJP fact-finding committee led by Prakash Javadekar on July 26, said a dangerous aspect of these outfits was the imparting of military training to their cadres.
It claimed that the BJP had during 1998 to 2004 brought down terror activities, while the Congress government began to pursue a policy of “appeasement” with lavish concessions and repealing of the anti-terrorism ordinance Pota. This resulted in widespread spurt in terror across the country.
Detailing the chronological sequence of events since 2006, it said at least half-a-dozen cadres of Al Umma were suddenly released from Palayamkottai prison. TMMK attempted to construct a mosque close to Sri Kasi Viswanathar Temple in Tenkasi town of Tirunelveli district but Hindu Munnani activists, led by Kumar Pandian, thwarted the attempt, it said.
The “culture of using henchmen” for murders has been on the ascendancy in Tamil Nadu since 2006 and this was being utilised for the present killings of leaders like BJP state general secretary V. Ramesh and Hindu Munnani state secretary V. Vellaiappan.
This strategy helps outfits to trivialise the motive behind such killings as personal or professional enmity, land grabs and illicit relationships.
This was evident from the voluntary surrender of the accused in the BJP’s former state medical wing president Arvind Reddy’s murder in Vellore and the attack on RSS pracharak Baskar in Dindigal.