Sangh Parivar activists planted bombs at Malegaon: Abu Asim Azmi

MALEGAON: Samajwadi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Abu Asim Azmi on Sunday said he suspected that activists of Sangh Parivar outfits disguised as Muslims had planted bombs that went off here on Friday.

"A local shopkeeper had overheard a non-Muslim warning many Hindus against moving towards the town on the day of the explosions, saying there could be a bomb blast," he said.

Azmi alleged "non-Muslim" labourers laying drainage pipes at Mushaira Chowk, another site of the blast, were asked to leave at 11 a.m., almost three hours before the blasts that claimed 31 lives and injured nearly 300.

Azmi refused to say more on the matter, saying he would provide further information he had to Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and state Home Minister R R Patil.

The SP leader said that despite a meeting between trustees of Kabrastan mosque and police before Shab-e-Baraat on September 3, only three security personnel were deployed at the spot on the fateful Friday.

"Locals have since lost faith in police. Guilty officials must be transfered," he demanded.

Azmi also accused the central government of being responsible for the blasts by "unnecessarily raking up the Vande Mataram controversy and thus creating tension between different communities".