Author: Samudra Gupta Kashyap
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: October 31, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/guwahati-was-on-jehadi-priority-list-for-long-police/379537/
As a series of explosions rocked Assam on
Thursday, the Assam police pointed the finger of suspicion at jehadi groups,
with Special Branch IGP Khagen Sharma saying there were intelligence reports
that Guwahati always figured on the 'priority list' of these groups.
"Our main suspicion is on the jehadi
elements. We do not have any definite and immediate clues about the involvement
of HuJI, but you never know," Sharma said.
He also did not rule out the involvement of
local groups. "But the fact remains that the primary aim is to spread
terror. That is why they have struck simultaneously and in different towns
apart from the state capital," Sharma said.
Last month, security forces had gunned down
seven suspected jehadis in Dhurbi district close to the Indo-Bangla border.
The Assam Police had stated that several small groups of jehadis had entered
Assam from Bangladesh and Guwahati was one of the most important targets that
they had apparently fixed.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who briefed the
media later in the evening, did not have anything specific to say except denying
that there was any intelligence failure in the state. "We had inputs
about such blasts in Guwahati. But we did not anticipate such a serious attack,"
Gogoi said.
Gogoi said the Government had inputs about
terrorists planning to attack Guwahati during Durga Puja and Diwali. "I
am not pinpointing any group at the moment. A special task force is being
constituted to go deep into the incident," he said.
Guwahati's first encounter with foreign Terror
operatives was almost a decade ago. The Assam Police arrested four Islamic
terrorists in the heart of the state capital, two of whom were Pakistani nationals
-Md Fasiullah Hussaini of Hyderabad (Sind) and Md Javed Waqar of Karachi-in
August 1999. Both of them are top activists of the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
Nine years after they were arrested, all four
were released by a sessions court here on June 11 due to lack of "solid
evidence". Billal Miyan, a Bangladeshi national arrested in West Bengal,
was also released along with them.
