VHP says ‘answer to terrorism is counter terrorism’

The historical village of Pirana, an embodiment of communal harmony, echoed with extremists thoughts on Saturday with the start of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) three-day meet. The religious leaders expressed the view that the answer to growing terrorism can only be given in the form of counter terrorism.

Pirana, 25 km away from Ahmedabad city, where the Dargah (a Sufi shrine) of Imam Shah Baba exists for the last 600 years, turned saffron colour as hundreds of members of VHP flocked the village for the meet called ‘Dharm Prasar Akhil Bharatiya Karyakarta Sammelan’.

The meeting, which is being held at Gurukul School, was addressed by various religious gurus including Mohan Joshi, VHP, Nanak Dasji Maharaj, president of Imam Shah Baba Sanstha Trust, Vijay Abhaydevji Maharaj, Surishshwar Maharaj, Pravin Togadia among others.

While addressing the crowd on the first day of the meet, the religious gurus largely expressed views which were in variance to the ideas of Pirana Dargah, which is an example of religious tolerance. One of the leaders kept on saying that the time has come to become suicide bombers to give answers to the ‘Jihadis’.

The Muslim trustees of the Dargah (Saiyeds) preferred to stay away from the event as around 30 members of the VHP will be staying in the Dargah’s campus where a temple also exists. Although the VHP along with Hindu trustees (7 Satpanthis) claimed that not a single trustee including Saiyeds raised objection to the arrangement, Saiyed Nuruddin Bade Miyan on the other hand rubbished such claims.

“We are against such meetings and we haven’t given any permission orally or in writing. They (Satpanthis) are doing what they want to do. All we want to say is that if you don’t believe in the ideology of what Imam Shah Baba taught, should leave the Dargah alone,” said Bade Miyan.

They said that such events are signs of converting the place into an extremist form of Hinduism which is against the idea of founder of the Dargah Imam, Shah Baba. He said that everything happening at the Dargah is being done on the basis of power but not with unanimous consent.