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Terror TANGO IN UP
IT?S A potboiler, UP that is, what with all the favourable ingredients for the rise of terrorism. Tuesday?s terror amply demonstrated that the situation is ?very disturbing?. It is along scripted lines of the brain behind terror operating from outside the country. It was part of their nefarious design to ?export terrorism? outside Jammu and Kashmir. From Akhshardham to Ayodhya and now Varanasi, the plan was to create terror and sow seeds of communal hatred between two communities. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) had thoroughly briefed the UP police officers at the DGs? conference and later J&K police had also told a state police officers? delegation about terrorists? designs in UP.
IT’S A potboiler, UP that is, what with all the favourable ingredients for the rise of terrorism. Tuesday’s terror amply demonstrated that the situation is “very disturbing”. It is along scripted lines of the brain behind terror operating from outside the country. It was part of their nefarious design to “export terrorism” outside Jammu and Kashmir.
From Akhshardham to Ayodhya and now Varanasi, the plan was to create terror and sow seeds of communal hatred between two communities. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) had thoroughly briefed the UP police officers at the DGs’ conference and later J&K police had also told a state police officers’ delegation about terrorists’ designs in UP.
Thus, the attack on Varanasi has once again exposed the State Government’s preparedness to counter insurgency. While the Mulayam Singh Yadav government had been basking in glory of killing five terrorists within a few hours at Ayodhya on July 5, 2005, the terror gang retaliated with ferocity within seven months.
“By carrying out a terrorist strike in Uttar Pradesh, they want to shake the entire world,” said Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, in the Vidhan Sabha, on Saturday. “Shaking the world means…,” said the Chief Minister, and pointed towards the dome of the magnificent and historical building. The Chief Minister was obviously referring to the terrorist threat to the Vidhan Bhawan. He even disclosed that 2.5 quintal of RDX being brought in a jeep to Lucknow, was seized. The CM did not give more details about timing and the place of seizure.
Yet, the CM hinted that skeletons would begin to tumble if more disclosures were made.
“So are our vital installations safe? Are we already in the trap? Is there a way out? Have the authorities woken up? Does coordination exist between security agencies of the Centre and State Government? These and many more such questions of public importance are being asked now.
The terrorists’ threat is quite serious in the State but the State machinery did not appear to be up to the challenge. While the problem had been going on for quite some time, the UP police has now come out of hibernation to constitute an anti-terrorist cell in the State under the STF. Intelligence inputs from the Centre as well from the State unit present an alarming picture.
A mixture of ammonium nitrate with RDX and other explosives in pressure cookers, indeed made for deadly bombs.
And this was not for the first time that pressure cookers were used as bombs. A close scrutiny of explosions that took place at Dashaswamedh Ghat (on February 22, 2005) also indicated towards the use of a pressure cooker with the security agencies initially calling the blast merely a cylinder explosion.
Taking a serious view of the lackadaisical manner in which investigations into the Dashaswamedh Ghat blasts were carried out, DGP Yashpal Singh has announced that the case be reinvestigated. Action would be taken against those responsible for lapses, he said.
Now the police have come out with sketches of two terrorists who planted the unexploded pressure cooker bomb at Dashwamedh Ghat on March 7, 2006.
Incidentally, police had released two sketches of terrorists soon after the Shramjeevi Express blasts on July 28, 2005 that took place soon after the terrorist attacks in Ayodhya on July 5, 2005. That is where the investigations seemed to run into a dead end.
In the Varanasi case, the Hardoi police have detained eight persons on the basis of two sketches released. Will the investigations move further from here, or would they meet the same fate as it did in the Shramjeevi Express blast case?
Meanwhile, in view of the rising ISI activities and its hobnobbing with Maoist insurgents in the Himalayan Kingdom, the Centre has realised that it could further worsen the situation for UP. The intelligence agencies have information about “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 to carry out disruptive activities in India.
“UP tops the ISI agenda”, commented a senior intelligence officer. He said the Union Home Ministry had been regularly providing information in this connection. Highly placed sources said the present dispensation in Nepal was also soft-peddling these terror agents, who have been frequenting between Kathmandu and Bangladesh via Assam. The Indo-Bangla border in West Bengal has become safe route for these Islamist militants to reach UP.
Senior police officers involved in the Varanasi probe did not rule out the possibility of similar “incidents to derail the economy and cause communal clashes”.
In December 2002, the then NDA Government had taken up the terrorists’ infiltration problem with the Bangla government but there is no change in the situation. Even the Akshardham attackers had come from Bangladesh. These terrorists have been coordinating their activities with the Al Qaida network in Bangladesh.
In UP, the problem initially started with the Western region where more than a dozen ISI modules have so far been busted. It has now begun to take root in the eastern region. By targeting the Varanasi temple, they had tried to further surcharge communal atmosphere in the State. With rampant poverty “there is no dearth” of manpower in UP, said an intelligence officer. “Funds are in abundance with terror groups”, he added. He said communal hatred also played a key role in motivation and safe sanctuary to these people.
In Akbarpur, they had succeeded in easily mixing up. The police have identified nearly a dozen districts including Meerut, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Aligarh, Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Azamgarh which are on the terrorists radar for spreading their network in UP. There are reports of “sleeping modules” in these districts, which could be activated at short notice.
With sensitive places on the terrorists’ target once again, the question has cropped up whether the CRPF and UP police should continue with security arrangements of sensitive places or the CISF should be tasked for this purpose.
This question was debated immediately after the Ayodhya attack. However, the State Government had then brushed aside the idea. Before the Ayodhya assault, the entire security arrangement was for “mob control” but July 5 changed the whole perception and the State Government chalked out a ‘counter-insurgency’ plan for these shrines.
Meanwhile, measures are afoot to step up security of vital installations and important places. According to sources, the State Government has asked district magistrates and the district police chiefs to have a dialogue with the managements of temples and religious places to ensure security there.
