Author: PTI
Publication: Outlook
Date: August 2 2008
URL: http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=594116
Gujarat government and the police believe
that there was substantial local support for the blasts that took place in
the city and several bombs planted in Surat.
"Though the conspiracy has a pan-national
angle, it could not have been possible without the local support," a
government official said.
The investigating agencies are after the locals
who helped in carrying out such a massive operations. They have also launched
combing operations to nab them, the officials said.
Surat Police Commissioner R M S Brar also
believes that the planting of so many bombs on odd locations in the city was
not possible without the local support.
"The terrorist operations of such a massive
scale is not possible without local support. The planting of bombs, the selection
of places, transportation of explosive materials was not possible without
locals," Brar told PTI.
Both Ahmedabad and Surat police have launched
massive combing operations since two days in various parts of the two cities
to nab the locals involved in terrorist acts.
Ahmedabad crime branch had carried out massive
operations last night and detained several persons.
The Surat crime branch had also carried out
a massive combing operations last morning. "In the combing operations
we had questioned 280 people and made preventive arrest of 90 people,"
Brar said.
He further said, "We have found some
leads in the case but we will not declare about it yet."
The police has also found that the car used
in the blast at city civil hospital had made several trips between Ahmedabad
and Vadodara in the last month.
The details were found from records of the
toll booth on the roads between the two cities. The car was stolen from Navi
Mumbai, it bore a fake number plate and had passed through the toll gates
between the two cities for about five times in last one month.
The police is also working to track down local
support received by terrorist organisations from Vadodara city, official sources
said.
Meanwhile, the state police is also rounding
up former SIMI activists who were the active members when the organisation
was not banned, sources said.
Bharuch police had detained 10 former SIMI
activists for questioning yesterday.
The serial blasts in Ahmedabad have claimed
53 lives.
Police had found 23 live bombs from Surat
in the last three days, in which 18 were found on a single day.
