Author: Vishwas Kumar
Date: The Pioneer
Date: June 20, 2000
Is there a link between
the June 8 church blasts in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa and Sunday's
twin blasts in the Capital's Red Fort area, which left two dead and 11
injured?
Investigators probing
Sunday's blasts in the Walled City, have pointed out that the case has
remarkable similarities with the church explosions in South India.
Although the Central
Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) report on the Red Fort blasts is still
awaited, police sources say that in both instances, the blasts were triggered
through an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), were of medium intensity,
and probably used similar chemical compounds (potassium chlorate and sodium
nitrate).
This has given rise to
strong suspicions that the Old Delhi blasts were engineered by the same
group that was behind the South Indian church blasts.
It has also given credence
to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's charge that the
church blasts were engineered by Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence
(ISI)-backed fundamentalist organizations --- and not by Hindu fundamentalist
organisations, as was being suspected by some sections.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police
on Monday sounded a red alert in the Capital, following Intelligence reports
that more such blasts were likely to follow.
"From January this year,
a definite pattern had emerged in the medium-intensity blasts taking place
around the country, especially in the southern and northern states", a
senior police official said. "These states had always remained the hub
of ISI-backed fundamentalist organisations. There has been a sudden spurt
of explosions, in which crude bombs manufactured with commonly available
materials are being used".
A team of north district
policemen probing the twin blasts on Monday, left for Philakua in western
Uttar Pradesh, which is the epicentre of the ISI-backed Laskhar-e-Toiba
(LeT) group.
The LeT group, led by
Abdul Karim Tunda, was responsible for the 32 serial bomb blasts in the
Capital, in the year 1997-1998.
Intelligence sources
said that Tunda, a native of Philakua is now reported to be in Lahore,
but keeps moving to Dhaka, from where he was operating while triggering
the blasts in the Capital.
The police suspect that
the ISI has again activated the Tunda module.
"After lying low for
almost two years, it seems that Tunda restarted his activities by triggering
blasts in the Shamli Express on January 5 this year, at Old Delhi railway
station", a police official said.
Earlier investigations
had revealed that Tunda, also called "Amir" by his followers, had created
a strong base in the States of Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharasthra,
Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.
