Target Hyderabad

Given the State administrations failure to heed security warnings, the bomb blasts in Hyderabad were waiting to happen.

in HyderabadAt the Osmania

FOR long, the intelligence machinery in Andhra Pradesh was known to be in a state of stupor. Given this fact, the deadly terrorist strikes at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat in Hyderabad on August 25 appeared to be incidents just waiting to happen.

It was only some hundred days earlier that terrorists with cross-border connections had set off a bomb during Friday prayers at the famous Mecca Masjid near Charminar. It left nine dead; five were killed when police opened fire to quell mobs that were protesting against the blast in the Old City.

In 2005, a suicide bomber of Bangladeshi origin killed himself and a policeman close to the official residence of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. But these bombings did not seem to be provocative enough for intelligence officers to sit up and act.

And neither did State police heed the warning when the Intelligence Bureau (I.B.) issued an unofficial order to pursue the lead about delivery of a consignment of RDX to a Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI) terror cell preparing for strikes in Hyderabad.

Just like any other weekend, tourists had flocked to the 2,000-seater open-air laserium in Lumbini Park, right opposite the State government Secretariat, and also to the fast-food eatery at Koti. A wet evening had kept the locals away from the laser show. But it did not deter tourists like the group of students from Amritavahini Engineering College near Nashik in Maharashtra, who were looking forward to some diversion from their industrial tour of Hyderabad. None of them would have known that a tragedy awaited them in the form of an explosives-laden bag beneath one of the seats in the laserium.

Around the same time, a bag full of explosives was lying atop the icecream counter at Gokul Chat.

At around 7-45 p.m., the bomb at Lumbini Park exploded, killing three people on the spot. Minutes later, the one at Gokul Chat went off, claiming 27 lives. Before the end of the week, the death toll in the twin bomb blasts had risen to 42; 52 were injured.

Even as the bodies of the victims were being taken to Osmania General Hospital, a passer-by alerted the police about a backpack lying on the foot overbridge at Dilsukhnagar. The bomb disposal squad found a bomb inside the bag.

The unexploded bomb provided invaluable clues to the police about the explosives used in the blasts. Police deduced that the substance used in the two bombs was an ammonium nitrate-based emulsifier, Neogel-90, manufactured by Amin Explosives of Nagpur.

This improvised explosive device was placed in a wooden box shaped like a horse shoe. It was filled with Neogel-90 and a large number of metal balls to cause maximum damage. The alarm mechanism comprising a clock fitted with a nine-volt battery was to set off the detonator, which, in turn, was to blast the Neogel-90.

The blast at

The nature of the explosives used as also the intelligence reports suggest that the bombings were executed by the HuJI of Bangladesh. Its key operator is Abdul Sahel Mohammed, a one-time Hyderabad resident who uses aliases such as Shahid and Bilal. Although several Bangladeshi nationals have been picked up for questioning and two of them subjected to narcoanalysis tests in Bangalore, no breakthrough has been achieved in locating Bilal, the prime suspect.

The Andhra Pradesh police have attracted all-round flak. Its argument that frequent search operations in the Old City would cause communal tensions to flare up has found few takers.

The government must take the rap for the total lack of cohesiveness between the political, anti-extremist/terrorist and VIP security wings of the intelligence machinery. To make matters worse, the field staff lack motivation since they are not given incentives for their anti-terrorism efforts. By the Chief Ministers own admission, the recommendations made in 1994 by a top Indian Police Service officer, C. Anjaneya Reddy, for overhauling this crucial wing of the police are lying in cold storage.

Rajasekhara Reddy initially defended the police saying that the I.B.s warning about terrorist designs in Hyderabad was general in nature. Moreover, he argued, the government did not possess the resources to deal with situations arising out of cross-border terrorism.

But in a city where terrorists had struck just three months ago, the police had no excuse to forsake caution the way it did. Also, it is no secret that Pakistan- and Bangladesh-based terrorist outfits maintain numerous sleeper cells in Hyderabad and can ignite the communal tinderbox without much difficulty.

As criticism against the government reached a crescendo, Rajasekhara Reddy changed tack and said that he owned moral responsibility for the tragedy. He unveiled plans to constitute a powerful and vibrant elite force modelled after the Greyhounds, the special anti-naxalite unit of the Andhra Pradesh police, to fight terrorism. It would have two wings one serving as a counter-intelligence agency and the other to conduct field operations.

The bombings raised doubts about Rajasekhara Reddys political ability to maintain peace and tranquillity in Indias sixth biggest city. They also dented the average citizens confidence about personal safety. Law and order was better during the time of the Telugu Desam Party government, observed a youth at a function presided over by Energy Minister Mohd. Ali Shabbir to distribute ex-gratia payment to blast victims families.

Y.S. Rajasekhara

TDP workers marched to the Raj Bhavan to urge Governor N.D. Tiwari to act against the Chief Minister for his inept handling of the law and order situation. But Congressmen dismissed this as a ritual by the main Opposition party. Did A.B. Vajpayee resign as Prime Minister after terrorists attacked Parliament in December 2001? said Finance Minister K. Rosaiah. The Chief Ministers critics allege that his anxiety to please the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) was affecting the citys safety. They question the transfer of Police Commissioner A.K. Mohanty even after Congress Member of Parliament V. Hanumantha Rao pleaded against the move at the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committees brain-storming session in January. According to them, the quid pro quo for the transfer of this upright and no-nonsense officer was the MIMs offer to campaign for the Congress in the Karimnagar Lok Sabha byelection (which the r uling party anyway lost by a huge margin). The government earlier transferred police officers whom the Majlis held responsible for the deaths in police firing following the Mecca Masjid blast.

Fast emerging as a key economic hub of the country with huge amounts of Indian and foreign investment in information technology, bulk drugs and biotechnology industries and in the swank international airport on the outskirts, Hyderabad can ill afford repetition of such man-made catastrophes.

It is only at its own political peril that the Rajasekhara Reddy government may ignore its paramount duty of maintaining law and order effectively. It has already burnt its bridges with the Left and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

When the State goes to elections in 20 months from now, the Mudigonda firing in Khammam district, the bomb blast at the Mecca Masjid, the governments weak response to the MIM attack on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin, and the latest bombings are likely to play a decisive role in influencing the voters choice.