Maya blames CRPF for attack

Uttar Pradesh chief minister says force did not heed government warning

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati blamed the CRPF on Tuesday for not heeding the state government’s warning about a possible attack on its camp in Rampur.

“Rampur district officials met CRPF officials recently and asked them to take precaution. The incident indicates laxity on the CRPF’s part,” Maya told reporters here.

In a pre-dawn attack, heavily-armed militants struck at a CRPF camp in Rampur on Tuesday, killing eight persons, including seven security personnel, and injuring five.

Refusing to accept the attack as a failure of her government, Mayawati said the state government had acted in accordance with the intelligence input about the threat perception to the CRPF camp and had also alerted the officials at the camp. “The failure, if any, is on their part,” she said.

Even if the terrorists had reached the camp, the chief minister said, it was the duty of the CRPF, who had already been informed of the threat, “to teach them (terrorists) a lesson”.

Central security agencies had also warned the CRPF about the possibility of a suicide attack at their recruitment centres by Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

AP Meshwari, inspector general (operations), CRPF, however, denied that the force did not pay “due attention” to an intelligence alert on a possible terror attack.