RSS mouthpiece likens Mah ATS to rouge agency

New Delhi, Nov 22 (UNI) Launching a blistering attack on the Anti Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra, the RSS today likened it to ''rouge agency and a willing pawn'' in the hands of political masters wanting to wreak vendetta on ideological rivals.

In a front page editorial in 'Organiser', the mouthpiece of RSS, said one could not believe that an investigation agency could stoop to such a low level framing ''law abiding citizens on false charges'' and indulging in barbaric third degree methods that reminisced fascist and stalinist era.

Pooh-poohing evidence against Sadhvi, the paper said no criminal in his senses would use his own bike for planting a bomb. The so called hearsay conversation that occurred between two people on phone was nothing but ''cock and bull''.

''The ATS is a faceless body speaking through leaks in the obliging media and the face is that of Congress,'' the paper remarked.

Questioning the narco tests as the basis for arrests, the editorial said the Nationalist Congress Party Chief Sharad Pawar himself could be booked going by ''serious allegations'' levelled by kingpin of stamp paper scandal Abdul Karim Telgi, the paper added.

The silence of the National Human Rights Commission, National Commission of Women was ''surprising'' in the face of heart wrenching submissions of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Srikant Purohit arrested in connection with the September 29 Malegaon blast.

The agencies had played 'activist role' in riots and attacks on Christians in Orissa, Karnataka and Gujarat earlier and were not willing to link terror with religion whenever suspects arrested were linked to ''Islamic terror'', the mouthpiece charged.

The editorial also quoted former Punjab DGP K P S Gill, who ended terrorism in the state, saying he had not come across a case where a woman was kept in custody for 10 days.

UNI MCN SW PK HT1512