Moumita Das
As the police of different states are probing into the recent wave of bomb blasts, it appears that 'Masterminds' of the attack has become an unsolved mystery. People of the nation have been left puzzled by the contradictions in the claims made by the police. Just when police of one state manage to push its story down the people's throat, cops of some other state come out with a fresher version, only the characters are changed. The entire nation would want to know who is the real mind mastering so many blasts. What is anguishing is that by the time our intelligence sleuths discern the real culprit, tens of people would be rendered scapegoat in the administrative cog.
Abu Bashar, Shahbaz Hussain, Tauqeer, Atif, Shadique Shaik and so on, no one knows who will be the next so called mastermind of the recent bomb blasts that rocked Bangalore Ahmedabad and New Delhi. We can't rule out one or two names in the list, if police of some state come out claiming another mastermind ostensibly to score points over its counterparts.
It all began with the Gujarat police who claimed to have cracked the serial blasts case of not only Ahmedabad but also at other places, nabbing the alleged mastermind Abu Bashar from UP's Azamgarh. The Police termed Bashar, a cleric from Azamgarh, as key rumours in wreaking havoc across the country. The police officers received a pat on their back from their masters for achieving a major breakthrough in the case within a short span of time.
However, the success of Gujarat police came as a jolt to their Rajasthan counterparts, who were so far clueless about the perpetrator of Jaipur blast. In a knee jerk reaction, the state police arrested Shahbaz Hussain, a Lucknow based businessman and claimed that he planned the May 13 Jaipur blast.
Amid all this, the name of Tauqeer aka Abdul Shubhan Qureshi cropped up as a head of the Indian Mujahideen. The Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra police came to the conclusion that he is the mastermind behind the recent blasts and has been sending emails claiming responsibility after every terror attack.
But the Delhi police's version follows the encounter in Batla house of Jamia Nagar contradicted the above claims. According to the special cell sleuths of Delhi police, the 24 year old Mohammad Atif, who was gunned down in the encounter on September 19, was the chief of the Indian Mujahideen and mastermind of recent blasts.
Another claim, which the Delhi police made, came as a shock for the UP police, as per the Delhi police Mohammed Saif who has been arrested and Sajid who was killed in the encounter, planted bombs in Varanasi Court. However UP police have already branded one cleric Waliullah Imam of Phoolpur mosque in Allahabad as a HuJI terrorist and held him responsible for the said blast.
The Delhi police also went on to say that Arif and Junaid (accomplices of slain Atif) both at large planted bombs in Lucknow court and Shahzad and Shadab aka Malik who are absconding planted bombs in Faizabad court. While the police also said that Atif along with his associates Saif and Salman had played a role in Gorakhpur blast, but UP police has got its own story. As per the UP police Mukhtar alias Raju and Dr Tariq Quasmi were behind the blast in Gorakhpur, Faizabad, Sankat Mochan Temple and in Varanasi.
The Mumbai police claims the main controller is Amir Raza, a Lashkar-e-Toiba operative based in Pakistan. They also claimed to have arrested the founding member of Indian Mujahideen, Sadiq Shaikh. They gave directions to Atif, the man killed in the Delhi encounter. It seems that many innocents are becoming victims of a rat race among the police of different states who are bent on proving themselves efficient.
We cannot question the dedication of our police officials, as we all know about police officer Late Mohan Chand Sharma who died recently after the Delhi encounter. It is also understood that without specific inputs the helpless police is compelled to shoot in the dark. But what about the families of hundreds of innocents, who are held in the name of interrogation? Some are allegedly fixed in the terrorist frame and others who are lucky enough to get released, are left with life long trauma as well as the social stigma associated with the said tag. Hence, instead of playing random games to escape opprobrium, the police needs to verify the tips before picking up innocents in the best interest of the nation and to reinforce their credibility. One thing should be understood by our administration that 'eating crow too often, will only leave them with bad breath'.