Uttar Pradesh could well be on the way to becoming the next Jammu and Kashmir. The serial blasts in Varanasi show that the situation in the state is “very disturbing” and that the attacks were part of militants’ design to “export terrorism” outside the Valley.
From Akhshardham to Ayodhya and now Varanasi, the plan of terrorists to sow seeds of communal hatred has been exposed. The fact that the UP police had received enough inputs from the Intelligence Bureau and the J&K police to avert the recent attack exposes how ill-prepared the state is to handle terror on this scale.
The seven months since the Ayodhya attack saw the Mulayam Singh Yadav government bask in the glory of having killed five terrorists on July 5, 2005 while the terror gang planned and carried out a ferocious retaliatory attack. The UP police seems to have finally woken up to the seriousness of the situation to constitute an anti-terrorist cell under the STF.
According to intelligence inputs from both the Centre and state units, the situation is alarming. In view of rising ISI activity in the region and its hobnobbing with Maoist insurgents in Nepal, the Centre is of the view that UP is definitely in for some more trouble. Intelligence agencies have information of the “ISI using Maoists as a tool in its nefarious design against India”. The ISI, in league with renegade fundamentalists, has already established base in Bangladesh. “UP tops the ISI agenda,” said a senior intelligence officer. He said that the Union home ministry had been regularly providing the state with information in this connection.
According to sources, the present dispensation in Nepal is also soft-peddling these terror agents, who have been moving frequently between Kathmandu and Bangladesh via Assam. The Indo-Bangla border in West Bengal has become a safe route for these Islamist militants to reach UP.
{{/usCountry}}According to sources, the present dispensation in Nepal is also soft-peddling these terror agents, who have been moving frequently between Kathmandu and Bangladesh via Assam. The Indo-Bangla border in West Bengal has become a safe route for these Islamist militants to reach UP.
{{/usCountry}}Senior police officers involved in the Varanasi blasts probe didn’t rule out the possibility of similar “incidences to derail economy and cause communal clashes”.
The problem in the state initially started with the western region, where more than a dozen ISI modules have been busted so far. It has now been taking root in the eastern region. With rampant poverty, “there is no dearth” of manpower for terror acts in UP, said an intelligence officer, adding: “Funds are in abundance with terror groups.”
The officer also said that communal hatred played a key role in motivating these people.