Terror Strikes Again

My sister and her husband decided in the last minute not to go to the laser show that is shown at Lumbini park auditorium, where one of the bomb exploded, because it was raining. In fact the usually packed weekend show was not well attended because of rain - 500 people instead of 1500 capacity. My family was extremely lucky to take a pass at the government created mediocre laser show.

I was seated exactly where the explosions took place, on those blue seats to the middle left of the auditorium, about an year ago, with my and my sister's family - small children running around and playing amongst those seats.

Three months after perfecting mobile phone timed precision IED, terrorists stuck again with a vengeance in Hyderabad. There was intelligence about the explosive material getting across from Bangladesh specifically with regards these bombings. But the state Congress I CM YSR Reddy calculated he would loose Muslim votes, what ever little Congress I gets now, in the next election, almost two years away, if he goes after terrorists, their infrastructure, and their sympathizers, some of whom are his allies in power - apparently all of them Muslims, too hard.

India’s Intelligence services learned over five months ago that an eight-kg consignment of military-grade explosives had been delivered to a Harkat ul-Jihadi-e-Islami terror cell preparing for strikes in Hyderabad. [Intelligence had warned of strikes - The Hindu]

So the terrorists killed with a grin on their face. They killed 40 and maimed 54 in a series of blasts at Lumbini park, near Assembly, on the bank of Tank Bund, and Gokul Chat bandar, an extremely busy standing-only pani puri place in Koti, next to Andhra Bank. Few more unexploded bombs were found in crowed market places in Dilsuhknagar and Narayanaguda. That pretty much covers the entire city not including the old city where the Mecca Masjid bombing took place in May.

Pictures from The Hindu

After analyzing the contents of an unexploded bomb at Dilsukhnagar, experts said the charge in the bomb was that of Neo Gel-90, the Ammonium Nitrate emulsifier-based explosive. The packing indicated that it was made by Amin Explosives in Nagpur. Metal balls, easily available in any spare parts shops, were packed into the device. Police say the device was not similar to the ones that were exploded in the Mecca Masjid, where RDX and TNT were used and the detonation was done through a cellular phone. [External forces behind Hyderabad blasts - The Hindu]

The bags were checked when I went into auditorium more than an year ago. I would think bags were checked on Saturday, especially after the Mecca Masjid bombing just three months ago. So how did the large explosives - that could kill 10s and hurt many more - get into the auditorium? The shows are after dark because it's an open air auditorium. The park personnel clean the place and make sure things are in order before allowing people, usually half hour before the show. I strongly suspect the Lumbini Park bombing was an internal conspiracy job. Instead of breaking the terror infrastructure that the CM enabled by his lackluster attitude after receiving specific intelligence, he wants to point finger at the usual suspects - Bangladeshi and Pakistan terrorists. Those terrorists surely played a role. But the perpetrators are local and infrastructure is local. So is the enabling chief minister.

The mainstream national media, those gate keepers of Nehru family, will not ask tough questions or investigate the missing pieces - they are too busy counting if more Muslims dead than Hindus or there were any Gujarati businessmen in the dead. It's time Muslims stand up and take a stand against the appeasing attitude at the state and central governments. It's an insult to all Muslims to think that terrorists should not be pursued, and their infrastructure destroyed, because those mass murders are Muslims too.