September 2008 
Year 15    No.134
Campaign


The Bajrang bomb

Another Hindutva terror cell is unearthed, this time in Kanpur

August 24, 2008: Two active members of the Bajrang Dal, Rajeev Mishra and Bhupindra Singh, died reportedly making explosives at a house owned by Mishra’s father (which also functioned as a hostel) in the Rajeev Nagar, Kalyanpur area of Kanpur. The Kanpur police seized a large quantity of explosives from the blast site, including one kg of potassium nitrate, three kg of lead oxide, 500 gm red lead, 11 countrymade grenades, several bomb pins and seven timers – all meant for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) similar to those used in various terror strikes across the nation. In addition, there were hand grenades, over two kg of pellets, several batteries and about 50 metres of electric wire. The countrymade hand grenades, which the police say were hollow, were similar in shape and size to those used by the defence forces.

Reports after the incident strongly indicated that the two Bajrang Dal activists killed while engaged in the manufacture of bombs were preparing for a serial bombing in minority-dominated Firozabad and Aligarh. Kanpur zone IGP (inspector general of police) SN Singh told journalists that investigations by the Uttar Pradesh STF (Special Task Force) had revealed "plans for a massive explosion".

A handmade layout of Firozabad, found along with explosives during searches of Singh’s Lajpat Nagar studio, suggest that they had surveyed the glass city several times. The wrinkled and largely soiled sketch contained indicators of exit and entry points into the city and five markings, including one that marked the location of the railway station. It is likely that they were planning to detonate the timed grenades during the month of Ramadan.

The house in which the operatives were reportedly making bombs functioned as a private hostel for students. The room in which the explosion took place was used by Mishra, who worked in Lucknow and visited Kanpur every Sunday. The hostel manager, Raj Kishore Srivastava, told the police that Singh and Mishra had met during Bajrang Dal meetings and had become friends.

Incidentally, Singh had five cases registered against him in the 1992 post-Babri Masjid riots in Kanpur, including one of arrest with a petrol bomb, whereas Mishra had no known criminal record.

National dailies carried reports in their UP editions which quoted several sources in the intelligence and security establishment as saying that they observed a distinctive pattern in the bomb blasts at the historic mosques – the Jama Masjid in Delhi and the Ajmer Sharif dargah. Although a few reports on the Kanpur explosions did appear in local editions of The Indian Express, Hindustan Times and The Times of India, the stories did not make it to the Delhi and Mumbai editions.

What is also of concern is that these explosive substances, like potassium or ammonium nitrate and lead oxide, mixed to create a deadly explosive for manufacturing bombs, are common to several extremist outfits, be it the Bajrang Dal and the VHP or the Indian Mujahideen and SIMI. The large quantity of explosives recovered from this hostel in Kanpur could have caused as much destruction as the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad did.

Questions have been raised about the fact that the police got a student of the hostel, Pradeep Soni, to file an FIR instead of filing one themselves. Soni, who had informed the police about the explosions when the blasts took place, is now apprehensive about being dragged into the case. However, IGP Singh downplayed this aspect.

More explosives found

Two days later, on August 26, similar seizures were made a stone’s throw away from the Kanpur house where explosives were recovered on August 24. Two empty shells and explosives were found in a jute bag in a drain in the Shastri Nagar area under the Kalyanpur police station after some people noticed it and alerted the police. IGP SN Singh told the media that the shells could carry one kg of explosives. The powder that was also recovered has been sent for forensic tests. The UP police also stated that narco analysis tests would be conducted on the wider network of Bajrang Dal activists.

Meanwhile, politics came into play within days of the Kanpur incident with the minister of state for home, Sriprakash Jaiswal (who fights his elections from Kanpur) demanding a CBI probe into the incident! Jaiswal however was reluctant to even suggest the obvious Bajrang Dal link to the blasts, stating instead that an international outfit may be involved. He was similarly defensive about supporting any demand for a ban on the Bajrang Dal.

The UP chief minister, Mayawati, has rejected the union government’s proposal for a CBI inquiry into the Kanpur blasts, stating that she was agreeable to the CBI being brought in only if the centre was prepared to hand over investigations of all recent blasts in UP to the agency. These include the Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi civil courts blasts, the Gorakhpur blast and the terrorist attack on the CRPF camp in Rampur along with the recent Kanpur incident.

"Why has the centre never offered to set up a CBI inquiry into any of these cases even after we requested that the CBI be brought in?" Mayawati asked. "The Congress knows that if the UP police continues to probe the Kanpur blast case the entire truth will be out in the open and those who are trying to spread terror in UP will be exposed. It is clear that the UPA government is sympathetic towards the BJP and its affiliated organisations and wants to help them," she explained. "They (the centre) even defied an Allahabad High Court order that had ordered a CBI probe into the police recruitment scam," the chief minister said. Why then is the centre so keen to take over the Kanpur investigation?

To repeat a Nanded-like cover-up?

 


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