Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Chandigarh: Is the murder of Sultan Masih, who was a pastor in a Church at Ludhiana, is part of the large game plan to push the state back in the cauldron of violence? This question has assumed significance owing to the particular pattern followed in bumping off the clergyman. Though the video of the incident is available but there is no clue yet about the killers. The family has stated that the pastor had the enmity with none. Police is probing various angles to find out assailants.
But what has the striking similarity with certain other violent attacks on religious, semi-political and political persons is the way pastor was shot dead by the two motor-cycle borne masked men. That makes one to think about the objective behind such killings. Though reality will come out only after the solving of these cases by the investigating agencies, but as of now there seems to be purpose behind such attacks. That is to push the state back in the dark phase that it witnessed three decades ago.
What makes one think on these lines is the chain of events that started about two years ago with the incidents of sacrilege of holy books. At several places holy books were desecrated. People in the countryside protested against these incidents. Many of these cases have not been solved yet. The motive behind these happenings was clearly to inflame the passions to create an atmosphere of communal tension in the state.
During the same period, certain leaders of Vishav Hindu Prishad, Shiv Sena and RSS were also attacked. Among them was Jagdish Gagneja, a senior functionary of the RSS, an ideological parent of the BJP, a ruling party in the Centre and some states. He was attacked by two bike borne assailants in August last year. He remained in a hospital in Ludhiana for about seven weeks before succumbing to bullet injuries. Earlier, Shiv Sena leader Durga Prasad Gupta was shot dead by two motor cycle borne youth. Another RSS activist Naresh Kumar was attacked in Ludhiana last year by two persons with muffled faces.
Some months ago, two persons-Satpal Sharma and his son Ramesh Kumar- who were followers of a religious sect, were killed by two persons in a shot at a dera near Ahemdgarh. There are some other cases of identical nature. The pattern of committing the crime in all these cases has lot of similarities. The use of the fire arms in almost all these cases has a striking similarity.
In the latest pastor killing case two persons with muffled faces shot him dead and escaped on the bike they were riding at the time of firing on him. Same happened in other cases involving sectarian leaders. One can make out from the video footage available regarding the killing of pastor that it was a well planned and well executed murder. It appears to be an act of trained persons and not raw hands.
These targeted attacks on religious persons and members of other organizations are seemingly a part of the large game plan to disturb Punjab once again. There have been protests following such incidents. It is other matter that the state has remained free from communal tension in spite of these provocative violent incidents.