Is Varanasi just the beginning?

Investigators and security agencies probing the Varanasi blast are worried that this could be a precursor to serial blasts likely to be set off elsewhere in the country by Indian Mujahideen (IM).

Officials liaisoning with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the recent Varanasi blast share that the apprehension about IM mounting serial blasts in the near future is based on the outfit’s modus operandi in the past.

The security agencies are also worried over the latest intelligence reports that suggest that the IM has now found a new bomb expert, who is capable of using sophisticated techniques and deadly chemicals, which were hitherto unheard of in IM attacks in India.

A top official in the know of things said the IM had been lying low after a series of blasts all over the country in 2007 and 2008 because of two major reasons — the quick and effective action taken by Indian security agencies, and the absence of an experienced and well-trained operative who could assemble sophisticated and lethal IEDs (integrated explosive devices).

Informed sources said IM’s best-known explosive expert was Arif. An electrician hailing from Azamgarh, he developed into an expert bomb-maker after training across the border.

He was arrested from Mumbai after the Delhi serial blasts of September 2008. Two other bomb-makers in the IM’s ranks — Yasin Bhatkal and Mirza Shadab Beg — are reported to have escaped to Pakistan.

However, the terror outfit is now learnt to have got a new bomb expert. Investigators said the Varanasi blast is an example of the new technique and chemicals, which the bomb expert has apparently “tested” out.

“For the first time, we found no timer device, detonator, shrapnel or any residue of the substance used in the blast,” said a senior officer involved in the Varanasi blast investigation. “Forensic analysis suggested that a state-of-the-art explosive like plasticine or C4 was used,” he added.

Ironically, the terror attacks had started in UP in 2005 from the same Dashashwamedh Ghat in Varanasi which the IM targeted once again in its latest attack. It was only after this incident that a series of similar attacks were mounted in different parts of Uttar Pradesh.

This was followed by serial blasts in other parts of the country, including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Surat and Jaipur in 2007 and 2008.
It is this stream of events that has been giving sleepless nights to security agencies now.

“Since the IM has succeeded in its ‘test’ in Varanasi, we foresee a major possibility that it could follow it up with serial blasts as it did in 2007-08,” the official said.