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Seven people killed in Ludhiana cinema blasts

	October 22, 2007

Terror reared its head in Punjab again when two consecutive powerful blasts rocked Shingar Cinema Hall in the industrial town of Ludhiana on Oct. 14, killing seven people and injuring over 30. The bombs exploded within seconds of each other.



In the first explosion, a high intensity bomb exploded under a chair at about 8.45 p.m. It was followed in a few seconds by a second blast.



Investigations so far reveal that RDX was used in the blast.

The security agencies are looking at the possibility of pro-Khalistan militant groups having carried out the attack in con¬nivance with Pakistan-based groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba.



Observers say that the needle of suspicion is on the Babbar Khalsa International which was believed to have been dormant for the last couple of years. The organisation may be using the blasts to mark its anger at the sentencing to death of Jagtar Singh Hawara in the Beant Singh assassination case. Hawara was given the death sentence in July this year while six others got various terms of imprisonment in the case.



National Security Advisory Board member B. Raman says that the Babbar Khalsa is still active and in the last six months has increased its propaganda drive, especially in the western coun¬tries, from Pakistan where its leader Wadhwa Singh is based. He said the Babbar Khalsa has the capability, motivation and deter¬mination to carry out the explosions which took place in Ludhia¬na.





Chief Minister says, no revival of terrorism



Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal says that the investigating agencies are working on leads on joint involvement of jehadi and Khalistani terrorists in the explosions. But he said that the incident does not indicate any revival of terror¬ism in the state. Speaking in Ludhiana where he had gone to meet the injured, Badal termed the explosions as the most heinous act of anti-national elements. He said the forces inimical to peace and communal harmony would not be allowed to succeed in their nefarious designs.



Union Home Ministry sources in New Delhi said that the Home Ministry had alerted Punjab to the risk of terrorist attacks during the festival season. This was in the light of intel¬ligence reports on the activities of local terrorist groups trying to revive militancy in the state. Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said that the state security agencies may not have taken adequate follow up action on the leads.



“The state government’s intelligence agencies in the dis¬trict are not working properly. There is a lapse somewhere. They are not able to inform the concerned people at the right time of when and where such an incident is going to take place,” Jaiswal alleged.



The Punjab Government, however, bounced off any charges that it was not doing enough to beef up the security arrange¬ments. Chief Secretary Singh, while accepting that an alert had been sounded by the Centre days before the blast, pointed out that the Central inputs about the impending terror attack could not have been more general. “No actionable intelligence was passed on by the Centre indicating a specific terror threat to Ludhiana,” he clarified.





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Intelligence agencies warn of more terrorist attacks



Intelligence agencies have said that jehadi organisations may be planning more terrorist strikes in various parts of the country.



At meetings with senior officials of the Union Home Ministry in New Delhi on Monday, Oct. 15, representatives of the country’s covert services said the developments in Pakistan led to the loosening of shackles imposed on Islamist terror groups in the wake of the 2006 serial bombings in Mumbai.



Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had promised to restrain Pakistan-based terror groups operating against India after the 2006 attacks. While no action was taken to dismantle the in¬frastructure of groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami, their leadership was pushed to terminate large operations that could provoke an India-Pakistan crisis.



Over the last six months, General Musharraf’s domestic position has weakened, and with it his appetite for confrontation with Islamists operating against India. That, experts say, ac¬counts for the increasing frequency - and lethality - of terror strikes this year.



Intelligence analysts fear that Pakistan may be preparing the ground to justify its failure to crack down on terror groups operating against India.



On September 30, for example, Pakistan’s Foreign Office claimed that India was interfering in the country’s tribal areas.



Like India, the United States and Britain have been pushing Pakistan to come down harder on the Islamist terror groups. But Pakistan’s leadership claims that it is doing the best it can in the face of resistance from Islamists within the military.



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Chief Ministers’ conclave to discuss tackling terror



The Centre is planning to hold soon a meeting of Chief Ministers to share perspectives, information and discuss the way ahead to combat terror. National Security Advisor M.K. Naraya¬nan said in an interview with the Indian Express last week that the Government was concerned at the wave of terror strikes in different parts of the country. He said there does not appear to be any connection between the blasts in Ludhiana, Ajmer and the Macca Masjid, Hyderabad, other than suspicion of the involvement of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).



On the Ludhiana blasts, Narayanan said: “There has been a manifest attempt in Pakistan to build up a radical Sikh environ¬ment. We had intelligence about four to six months back that a lot of effort was going into attempts to foment militancy.”



The blasts at Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif, the intel¬ligence establishment believes, are connected to the larger jehadi network - in the Indian context, translating into Lashkar-e-Taiba and, more recently, the HUJI.



“They have a feeling that the Kashmir issue is not able to attract the kind of attention they would want it to. Our informa¬tion is that they may try high profile targets in and around Kashmir and also outside the state,” Narayanan said.



While he did not absolve the Pakistani establishment of its “inability to rein in the ISI”, the NSA said that “very often such agencies develop their own momentum and are difficult to control”.



Meanwhile, the death toll in the bomb blast at the Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Dargah in Ajmer has gone upto three.





Soft approach cause of terror attacks : BJP



The BJP has blamed what it calls, the Manmohan Singh Gover¬nment’s ‘nimble footed’ approach for the increase in jehadi strikes in the country. BJP president Rajnath Singh said in New Delhi on Oct. 15 that the Congress-led UPA government’s soft approach towards the issue, exemplified by the decision to repeal POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) had emboldened jehadi groups. He said that the terrorists believe that India has become a soft state under the UPA government.



“Security forces and intelligence agencies are feeling hamstrung and their hands have been tied inspite of the avail¬ability of credible intelligence that demands prompt action. The Government insists that they first come up with sufficient evi¬dence and then take appropriate action. Security forces and intelligence agencies are now beginning to lose confidence and are feeling a sense of helplessness because of the government’s approach”, Rajnath Singh said.