Bengaluru blast: Police ignored alerts from intelligence agencies?

Bengaluru: Sunday’s terror attack on Church Street just outside Coconut Grove, a popular restaurant, is a huge intelligence failure, executed as it was in the middle of constant alerts from the Central and state intelligence agencies.

The perpetrators managed to execute their plan. It killed an innocent woman Bhavani Balan, a mother of two, who had come to the city to spend Christmas holidays with her children and relatives. The bomb tore into Bhavani, who was rushed to Mallya Hospital with shrapnel lodged inside the parietal area of the skull, which had been shattered. She died within no time despite best attempts to revive her. The other victim, Sandeep, had shrapnel wrapped in a fabric embedded inside a 6cm hole in his left knee joint, which had to be surgically extracted.

“Sunday’s terror attack was not a low intensity blast. It was meant to kill. The nature of injuries is very serious. The fact that it occurred in the midst of intelligence alerts points to a massive intelligence failure. There are constant alerts on the fugitive terror suspects – Faisal’s gang of five, former members of banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the kingpin of proscribed outfit – Al Umma - Abu Baqr Siddique, who is behind the April 2013 Malleswaram blasts. They have sympathisers everywhere but there is neither any data on them nor is there any actionable intelligence on their activities. In August, three terror suspects of Al Umma – Abdul Shameem, Sadiq and Shahid Ali Nawaz – were arrested from the house of their sympathiser Sameeullah in Viveknagar in Bengaluru,” said the officer.

Faisal’s gang comprising Aizazuddin alias Aizaz Mohammed Azizuddin, Zakir Hussain alias Sadiq Badrul Hussain, Mehboob alias Guddu Ismail Khan, Aslam Ayub Khan and Amzad Ramzan Khan may be taking shelter with some sleeper module in some part of the country, including Karnataka, after escaping from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh in September. They escaped from the Khandwa prison in Madhya Pradesh in October 2013 with their mentor Abu Faisal alias Doctor, who was later arrested.

“The fugitives are behind the May 1 blast in Bengaluru-Guwahati Express in Chennai, which killed a young techie – P. Swathi and the Rs 46 lakh bank heist in Karimnagar in Telangana. They must have used this money to set up a frontal organisation or even a small business to hoodwink the police,” the officer added.

Bengaluru: a major target

Bengaluru, a high-security city, has been the target of the global jihadi outfits since 2000.

Deendar Anjuman – a banned Islamic outfit, planted bombs in churches in Karnataka in June 2000, that killed two of its members Zakir and Siddiqui. The police had filed a chargesheet against 29 people in this attack and the special court convicted 22 of them. The High Court on December 17 this year upheld the convictions.

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) had executed the first fidayeen attack in Bengaluru on the Indian Institute of Science on December 28, 2005, when its top cadre – Abu Hamza –supported by Sabahuddin from UP had shot Prof. Puri of IIT Delhi, who had come to attend an international science conference. The police had chargesheeted Sabauddin, who is in judicial custody and Abu Hamza, who is absconding.

Harkat ul Jihad al Islami (HuJi) and LeT backed Kerala module was behind the July 2008 serial blasts in Bengaluru, which killed one woman and injured several others. The trial is underway and the police have chargesheeted 31 persons in this case.

Indian Mujahideen (IM) was behind the April 2010 Chinnaswamy blasts in which over 15 people, most of them policemen, were injured. IM leader Yasin Bhatkal had planted one of the bombs before escaping to Chikkamagaluru.

A fringe group, including 15 young professionals reportedly owing allegiance to LeT, was reportedly planning to assassinate some Right wing leaders in the State in August 2012. Three of them were not chargesheeted for lack of prosecutable evidence. The case was handed over to the NIA.

Al Ummah was behind the April 2013 Malleswaram blasts near the BJP office, which injured 16 people. The police chargesheeted 20 accused, all from Tamil Nadu. The prime accused – Abu Backer Siddiqui – is at large.  In 2002, the Al Ummah leader Imam Ali along with four others, who were reportedly behind the 1998 Coimbatore blasts during BJP leader L.K. Advani’s tour were killed in a police encounter in the city.

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria cheerleader Mehdi Masroor Biswas was arrested on December 12 after he was outed by UK’s Channel 4 for reportedly inciting young foreigners to join the violent global jihadi movement.