08-26-2008, 07:35 PM
continued..
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In other words, what the Gujarat police is claiming is that the blasts in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and probably Samjhauta Express were conceived, planned and executed by the militant faction of the Students Islamic Movement of India formed after 2005. <b>That also means the usual suspects -- like Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, Lashkar-e-Tayiba or HUJI of Bangladesh -- can't be blamed for some of the recent blasts that have killed more than 200 innocent Indians.</b>
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"It's the height of inefficiency," fumed Ajit Doval, former chief of Intelligence Bureau. "Senior officers are so 'busy' normally that they read only the summary of such confessional statements. In Nagori's statement, the mention of Gujarat and Rajasthan must be in the third paragraph of page number 17," he added, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"We never got a copy of Safdar Nagori's statement," counters Ashish Bhatia, Ahmedabad's joint commissioner of police who is heading the investigation into the Gujarat blasts. "We were unaware that he has mentioned any plans of subversive activities in Rajasthan and Gujarat. We knew generally about the threat perception, but nothing beyond that."
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Enter our doubting Thomas'
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In this case, most experts deemed secular and Muslim leaders do not buy the Gujarat police's version of events. A Bengaluru-based expert on India's madrassas refused to respond to rediff.com because he said the police's findings are based on confessional statements of arrested people, and extracted under pressure.
Doval, however, disagrees. "In the absence of any other evidence I would think the Gujarat police investigation is credible," he says.
Bhatia was emphatic: "<b>I can tell you that we have enough evidence in this case to plead for death sentence for the culprits. Our investigations will withstand trial in any court.</b>"
So, given these two opinions, should one believe the investigations of the Gujarat police?
Here are pointers to form one's judgement.
<b>Special police teams from Rajasthan, Haryana, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru have already lined up in Ahmedabad to interrogate the arrested accused, especially Mufti Abu Bashir and Sajid Mansuri</b>. What they do beyond this will indicate the authenticity of the Gujarat police's claims.
<b>The Kerala government has confirmed that an arms training camp was organised by SIMI in December 2007 and even a First Information report was filed against it in the area, but investigations were abruptly discontinued.</b>
The Gujarat police claims that it has details of the involvement of some 40 persons in the recent bomb blasts in India out of which they have arrested 10 who are directly involved in the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and in planting of bombs in Surat. They also claim that a separate press conference will be held to reveal how, when and by whom the bombs were planted in Surat.
Baroda police commissioner Rakesh Asthana says, "We have no doubt that the same group which planted bombs in Ahmedabad was behind the Surat bombs. The technique used in it didn't work but the bombs were not kept to just scare the people, they were meant to explode. We know where these bombs were assembled in Baroda."
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In other words, what the Gujarat police is claiming is that the blasts in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and probably Samjhauta Express were conceived, planned and executed by the militant faction of the Students Islamic Movement of India formed after 2005. <b>That also means the usual suspects -- like Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, Lashkar-e-Tayiba or HUJI of Bangladesh -- can't be blamed for some of the recent blasts that have killed more than 200 innocent Indians.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"It's the height of inefficiency," fumed Ajit Doval, former chief of Intelligence Bureau. "Senior officers are so 'busy' normally that they read only the summary of such confessional statements. In Nagori's statement, the mention of Gujarat and Rajasthan must be in the third paragraph of page number 17," he added, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"We never got a copy of Safdar Nagori's statement," counters Ashish Bhatia, Ahmedabad's joint commissioner of police who is heading the investigation into the Gujarat blasts. "We were unaware that he has mentioned any plans of subversive activities in Rajasthan and Gujarat. We knew generally about the threat perception, but nothing beyond that."
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Enter our doubting Thomas'
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In this case, most experts deemed secular and Muslim leaders do not buy the Gujarat police's version of events. A Bengaluru-based expert on India's madrassas refused to respond to rediff.com because he said the police's findings are based on confessional statements of arrested people, and extracted under pressure.
Doval, however, disagrees. "In the absence of any other evidence I would think the Gujarat police investigation is credible," he says.
Bhatia was emphatic: "<b>I can tell you that we have enough evidence in this case to plead for death sentence for the culprits. Our investigations will withstand trial in any court.</b>"
So, given these two opinions, should one believe the investigations of the Gujarat police?
Here are pointers to form one's judgement.
<b>Special police teams from Rajasthan, Haryana, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru have already lined up in Ahmedabad to interrogate the arrested accused, especially Mufti Abu Bashir and Sajid Mansuri</b>. What they do beyond this will indicate the authenticity of the Gujarat police's claims.
<b>The Kerala government has confirmed that an arms training camp was organised by SIMI in December 2007 and even a First Information report was filed against it in the area, but investigations were abruptly discontinued.</b>
The Gujarat police claims that it has details of the involvement of some 40 persons in the recent bomb blasts in India out of which they have arrested 10 who are directly involved in the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and in planting of bombs in Surat. They also claim that a separate press conference will be held to reveal how, when and by whom the bombs were planted in Surat.
Baroda police commissioner Rakesh Asthana says, "We have no doubt that the same group which planted bombs in Ahmedabad was behind the Surat bombs. The technique used in it didn't work but the bombs were not kept to just scare the people, they were meant to explode. We know where these bombs were assembled in Baroda."
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->