“Frankly, we have nothing to start with at the moment. No eyewitness accounts, no sketches, no leads. We are hoping that once the injured at the hospitals recover a bit, some of them would be able to tell us if they saw anyone suspicious. But having said that, this blast prima facie has the signature of the Indian Mujahideen. No doubt about that. But we won’t say anything officially till we get definite leads,” he explained.
His colleague, Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, the police commissioner of Cyberabad in whose jurisdiction the second blast took place, was announcing a “handsome reward” to anyone who comes up with useful information. The CCTVs installed by the traffic police, he said were in any case, focused on the roads and not on the sides and were unlikely to provide significant clues. Another CCTV has reportedly provided a hazy video of a person parking his bicycle in the area and walking away.
By the demeanour of these two top cops, it was clear that the Andhra Pradesh police is on a weak wicket. They have picked up a few persons for questioning and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is spreading the net beyond Hyderabad. It has already started finding out if the jehadi terrorists lodged in jails in Hyderabad have been up to anything suspicious behind bars in the last few months. Both agencies suspect the recce and the actual planting of the bomb was an outside job.
“It is quite likely that someone from outside, say a place like Nanded would have conducted a recce here. He would have been taken around by a local who may or may not have known what the recce is all about,” the cop said. In November last year, the state police had information that a couple of Indian Mujahideen operatives, named Imran and Maqbool had done a recce around Dilsukhnagar, Abids and Begum Bazaar, all three busy commercial areas in the city. The cops had subsequently stepped up checks. The blasts are proof that the terrorists were one step ahead of the protectors.
Certain pockets in Hyderabad and in neighbouring districts have been home to sleeper cells for jehadi terrorists in the past and the police believed they had been neutralised. Thursday’s blast is proof that like Kumbhakarna, the sleeper cells have woken up and been reactivated by their masters.
The Centre and the state have been involved in a tu tu main main over the nature of the intelligence input that was sent to Andhra Pradesh. Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has batted for his cops, saying the alerts were generic in nature, implying such non-specific intelligence isn’t of much use, especially when sent to different cities at the same like a weather bulletin. The alerts that Union Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde referred to were indeed sent to five cities, including Hyderabad.
But somewhere everyone is not telling the entire truth. Sources in the police force reveal that a confidential message which contained more precise intelligence about a possible terror attack was passed on to the top brass of the Andhra Pradesh police some five days back but it was not passed on to the next level soon enough. But it is highly unlikely that the cops will wash their dirty linen in public.
“It is not as if we do take alerts seriously,” the cop went to elaborate. “An area like Dilsukhnagar is home to hundreds of educational institutions and hostels. Some policemen would have gone to these places, checked registers, seen if there were any suspicious characters who may have been spotted by locals. We also do surprise checks on vehicles.” What he isn’t saying is whether an elaborate drill of this kind was done in the last fortnight.
The choice of target, near the bus stand and an eatery near two theatres was to maximise the terror impact. Dilsukhnagar being a very crowded area, also makes it easy for an outsider to melt into the crowd.
“The blasts took me by surprise,” confessed Kiran Kumar Reddy. That is also because he had been lulled into believing all is well in his kingdom by his sleuths. He admits Hyderabad would have been chosen to create communal tension but once bitten twice shy, desists from naming any group, after the manner in which his police force landed up with egg on its face after the 2007 Mecca Masjid blasts. Fingers were pointed at Jehadi groups immediately after the attack and some one hundred Muslim youth arrested. All of them were acquitted after the CBI probe established a saffron hand and the government was forced to pay compensation to the youth.
To be fair to the police, without adequate technological aids, the danda-wielding constable is hardly equipped to keep every citizen safe. In a country where no one – the politicians, media or the aam aadmi - bothers about the importance of keeping a blast site sterile so that crucial forensic evidence is not lost, to expect the police to crack terror plots in a jiffy would be to expect the moon. In a country where a person flashes a “jaanta hai mera baap kaun hai” line when his vehicle is stopped for a traffic violation, it is a contradiction when he demands the same police catch all culprits.
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