Mateen Hafeez | TNN
Mumbai: Come Monday and the special court judge will pronounce the verdict on 26/11 gunman Ajmal Amir Kasab, in what is probably the fastest terror trial in not just the state, but the country. Before that, Maharshtra celebrates its 50th anniversary. But interestingly, there have been more terror strikes in Maharashtra and Mumbai, (except Jammu and Kashmir) between 2001 and 2010, though only 15 terrorists were killed and three convicted.
Since 2001, 485 persons were killed while 2,077 were injured in 52 incidents of terrorism in the state. Data gathered by TOI from across the country shows Delhi had 100 deaths, Gujarat 87, Rajasthan 73, Andhra Pradesh 50, Karnataka 2, and there were no terror attacks in Chennai and Kolkata.
Time and again, Maharashtra has been targeted by terrorists. But even a year-and-a-half after the 26/11 attacks and a few months after Pune blasts, there have been no preventive detentions of suspects part of sleeper cells. Asked why the police do not have an effective strategy to pre-empt collaborators of various outfits, an officer replied, “On what charges should we book them?”
Clearly, the lack of political and executive will has translated into lax surveillance and poor information-gathering. The Malegaon blasts of September 2006 are a case in point. “Prime conspirator, Shabbir Masiullah, was caught much before the blasts but Mumbai crime branch police failed to extract information from him regarding the bombings,’’ said a source. The 2008 Malegaon blast also caught the IB and state intelligence sleeping.
In the last nine years, the state topped terror casualties, four times as many as the next worst-affected, Delhi. In 2001, two armed terrorists killed around a dozen people in the Parliament attack. Gujarat saw casualties in different terror attacks including the strike at Akshardham
temple, Ahmedabad serial blasts etc. In Rajasthan, nine bombs killed 70 in 2008 and three were killed in a 2007 explosion at Ajmer shrine. Bangalore had 1 firing at the Indian Institute of Science, in which a researcher was killed, in 2008 eight bombs exploded killing a woman, on April 17 this year,2 blasts at Chinnaswamy stadium injured 17.
Experts say Mumbai has been repeatedly targeted due to its prominent position the city enjoys and the absence of pro-active measures to provide adequate security. Former RAW official B Raman said Mumbai has been a soft target because of its “financial status’’. “A lot of publicity is given to such attacks and the city is economically advanced than others.To prevent such attacks, a public-police relationship and a good police set up is a must,’’he said.
But only 15 terrorists were gunned down. Moreover, encounters after all blasts between 2003-07 followed a specific script—Mumbai police guns down an ‘LeT operative’ and recovers automatic rifles and ammunition from a Maruti 800. For instance,Mohammed Ali alias Osama, a Faisalabad resident, was gunned down by the ATS in a deserted building at Antop Hill. After three blasts in 2002-03, Andheri crime intelligence unit officers led by now-disgraced Pradip Sharma gunned down three alleged terrorists near Goregaon flyover on March 29, 2003. Those killed were identified as Abu Sultan (suspected to be LeT’s southern India commander), Iqbal Vani, a Srinagar resident and Abu Javed. Sultan and Javed were residents of Lahore. Police seized an AK-56, Rs 5 lakh, timers, switches, detonators and the Maruti-800 car they were travelling in, and said they were behind the Ghatkopar blast. After the Zaveri Bazaar and Gateway blasts, the crime branch gunned down two suspects, Hasan Ahmed, a Hyderabad resident and Nisar. Police claimed they were travelling in a Maruti 800 with firearms. And only three—involved in the Zaveri Bazaar blasts—were convicted.
Maharashtra’s Menace
Terror strikes in state since January 1, 2000 to February 13, 2010
Total Killed 485 (Mumbai toll 427) Total Injured 2,077 (Mumbai victims 1,532) Total Terror Strikes: 52 Total Accused Arrested: 90 Total Accused Wanted: 67 Total Convicted: 3 (The Zaveri Bazaar and Gateway of India blast perpetrators, of which two got death sentence, a woman got life imprisonment)
How Others Fared
Delhi 2000-08
Killed 100 , Injured 374
Gujarat 2002-08
Killed 87 , Injured 291
Andhra Pradesh 2007
Killed 50 , Injured 100
K’taka (Bangalore) 2005-10
Killed 2 , Injured 25
Rajasthan 2007-08
Killed 73 , Injured 223
The Times of India, April 30, 2010
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