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- Purnima Maheshwari trembles with rage when she recalls the horrific death of her two elder brothers — 23-year-old Ram Kothari and 21-year-old Sharad Kothari. They were killed in police firing while performing ‘symbolic’ kar seva at Ayodhya in 1990, two years before Babri Masjid was brought down.
- KOLKATA
- “We were made to believe that it was only a matter of time for the temple to be built. My brothers believed it and were ready to risk their lives for the cause. Though the BJP rode to power on the temple issue, it conveniently swept it under the carpet. It hurts very much to realize that my brothers and hundreds others like them were taken for a ride,” said Maheshwari.
Ram and Sharad were active RSS workers and students of Umesh Chandra College. They had been gearing up for kar seva ever since L K Advani announced his ‘rath yatra’ in mid-1990. - “It was a bolt from the blue since everything was apparently peaceful in Ayodhya. There was no news of any clash or firing on TV. Neither did we expect any trouble for it was supposed to be just a symbolic kar seva and not the real one that happened two years later,” said Maheshwari.
Police refused to hand over the bodies to the family and insisted on a cremation in Ayodhya. “We didn’t even get to see them.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
My sons died for a poll plank: Kar sevaks' mother - The Times of India
