Probes yield little result in terror-hit India

EASY TARGET: Following Hyderabad blasts, Junaid was arrested and tortured for five months and then released.

    

Other stories in the section:

Cong steps on trade mill to maintain vital stats

So who stands where in the count? Here's the political chessboard.

• One killed in Dera-Sikh clash, Punjab on alert

Featured Blog

Ashutosh

When our MPs went on sale

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Cong steps on trade mill to maintain vital stats
• One killed in Dera-Sikh clash, Punjab on alert

Keywords: Jaipur Blasts, Terror

New Delhi: The terror attack on Jaipur on May 13 was swift, unexpected, and ruthless. Within 15 minutes there were eight blasts killing 63 people.

Bomb after bomb went off near temples on the one day of the week they were sure to be packed.

Jaipur, with its large Muslim population, had never seen a terror attack before. And this one seemed to have a definite purpose - to divide communities and provoke religious violence.

The Jaipur serial bomb blasts show that our intelligence agencies have failed. It is a stark admission made by National Security Advisor MK Narayanan.

"Why didn't they see the Jaipur blasts coming? Why have they been unable to identify sleeper cells and why don't state agencies co-operate with the Intelligence Bureau?" Narayanan has asked intelligence officials.

India has seen many terror attacks and serial bomb blast with some of the recent ones being - Varanasi, March 2006; Malegaon, September 2006; Hyderabad, May and August 2007.

Over 120 people were killed in the bomb blasts that rocked the three cities.

Each of the attacks targeted a religious site on a day of religious importance.

The Sankat Mochan Temple in Varanasi was targeted on a Tuesday while the Noorani Masjid and the Mecca Masjid on Fridays. In every case, authorities were quick to accuse terrorist groups of carrying out the blasts.

In Hyderabad, the police first blamed the Bangladesh-based terror outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI) and its leader Bilal, for the Mecca Masjid blasts.

After the blasts 200 Muslim youths were detained and questioned, but no arrests were made.

After Bilal reportedly died in an encounter in Karachi, the case was handed to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is also yet to make any arrests.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner B Prasada Rao now admits that the earlier accusations were just guesswork.

"There is nothing concrete that has come out. The case is under investigation but nothing concrete has emerged," says Rao.

Ibrahim Ali Junaid was one of several young men detained by the Hyderabad Police after the twin blasts in August 2007.