Indian opposition demands probe into Hindu militant campaign (22 January 1999)

22 January 1999

Indian opposition demands probe into Hindu militant campaign

AFP

NEW DELHI, Jan 22 (AFP) - The Indian opposition has demanded an independent and "impartial" inquiry into the sabotage campaign by Hindu militants against Pakistan's first cricket tour in 12 years.

"We are not not demanding action against any individual ... It is for the state agencies to investigate who violated the law," Congress party spokesman Ajit Jogi told reporters.

"We are for an independent and impartial inquiry into the entire episode."

Right-wing Hindu leader Bal Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena party, spearheaded the campaign. He opposed the tour because of Pakistan's support for Moslem separatists in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Party activists dug up the pitch at one of the Test venues two weeks ago and ransacked the Indian cricket governing body's national headquarters in Bombay.

Thackeray's Shiv Sena party, which rules the western Indian state of Maharashtra, is allied to the nationally ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian People's Party).

"It is for the state agencies to decide who violated the law ... and punish all those including Thackeray if found guilty on the matter," Jogi said.

Thackeray withdrew his sabotage threat on Thursday after Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani met him in the state's capital Bombay.

Pakistan, who last played a Test on Indian soil in March 1987, will play a two-Test series, the Asian Test championship opener against the hosts and a triangular one-day series also featuring Sri Lanka.

The BJP said Congress was interested in only "disruptionist" politics instead of welcoming a solution to the cricket crisis.

"The actions and utterances of the party leadership show that the Congress believes in being a disruptionist opposition, negative in its approach and confrontationist in its politics," BJP spokesman Krishan Lal Sharma told reporters.

"It is regrettable that the Congress has chosen to criticise the government, thus reacting in a cussed manner.

"It would seem the Congress leadership was keen that the Test series should have been disrupted rather than be held in a friendly atmosphere free of tension ... whose side is Congress batting for? It is definitely not for the Indian side."

Sharma said he hoped the cricket matches would open a "new chapter" in relations between the two countries and said the militants' decision to withdraw the threat demonstrated "the political determination of the government in the face of protests."

Shahrayar Khan, Pakistan team manager, said the goodwill arising out of the cricket tour had no political overtones.

"This is purely cricketing exchange. If there is tension-free cricket, people will appreciate it.

"If that reflects in other fields, good. But I don't want cricket in a political frame."

The former Pakistani foreign secretary said political problems should be resolved through the political process.

"Fundamentally, we are here for sport. It is not aimed at resolving issues between India and Pakistan," he said.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two over the disputed region of Kashmir, since the subcontinent's freedom from Britain in 1947.

Source :: AFP