State emerging terror hub

NEW DELHI: From the blasts in Ahmedabad last Saturday to the serial explosions in some Uttar Pradesh courts nearly a year ago, the email trail leads to Maharashtra.

The email received from a group styling itself as Indian Mujahideen just before the Ahmedabad blasts has sent has prompted investigators to dig out the emails received just before the serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh courts on November 23, 2007, and soon after the Jaipur blasts on May 13, 2008.

Sources across the security establishment are beginning to agree on a few points: The emails were written in Maharashtra or by people with significant interest in the state; all the emails have been written by the same group of people; the emails were from people who are key players in the serial blasts that have rocked Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Uttar Pradesh; and the emails have significant indications about the direction in which this violent group will proceed.

The investigators are already working on the theory that the explosives and the vehicles used in the Ahmedabad blasts were brought in from Maharashtra, and the ringleaders then escaped to either Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh.  

The PDF document that was sent as an email attachment warns the Vilasrao Deshmukh government that the Ahmedabad blast is a “deadline to take heed before it is too late”. It lists several instances of “alleged” state atrocity against Muslims. Noticeably, the letter even refers to minor communal incidents as late as a week ago. In fact, the mail has details of only incidents in Maharashtra. Talking about those incidents, the letter asks: “Have you forgotten the evening of 7112006 so quickly and so easily?”

The letter also talks in detail about fast-track courts created for the 1993 blasts and how it let off Madhukar Sarpotdar while many Muslims “arrested in the bomb blast case are being tried in the courts for years and years.”

The mail has threats to Mukesh Ambani, Muslim filmstars in Bollywood, the chief minister and others. There is also a heavy dose of vitriolic on the state of affairs in Maharashtra.

Sources point out that most places across India that the letter refers to in derisive terms are also areas where SIMI’s violence preaching faction led by Safdar Nagori, who is in the custody of Madhya Pradesh police, has come under police scrutiny.

Meanwhile, sources also point out that that the regrouping of local SIMI activists in Gujarat had figured prominently in a state level of meeting on July 11 of officials from IB, RAW, state police and others. The meeting had also expressed concern over the huge amount of fake currency coming into Gujarat.

After Maharashtra, the terror network seems to be strongest in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka.

Bangalore blunder
The Bangalore blasts last Friday could have been avoided, sources are now beginning to believe. They point out that the local police of Chennapatna seriously erred in not investigating an accidental blast there a day earlier.

If the police had acted swiftly in Chennapatna, they could have located the explosives meant for Bangalore, investigations indicate. Sources here have told DNA that the explosives used in Bangalore were part of the consignment in Chennapatna, when the accidental blast took place.

The police seized 8kg explosives from Chennapatna on Monday. The Chennapatna blasts may have made the bombers cautious, because intelligence sources say the bombs were planted in an extremely ‘amateurish manner’ in Bangalore. They were all found on the left side of roads, meaning they were dumped in a hurry by people most probably on two-wheelers.