PUNE, 14 September 2006 — The president of the Indian Union of Muslim League, G.M. Banatwala, has said it is unfair to target Muslims and blame them for every untoward incident in the country — a fact even accepted by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Banatwala made this comment while speaking at a function held to mark the launch of the book Nishan-e-Imtiaz by Urdu writer Mirza Hamid Baig here. Banatwala said the investigation into the Bombay blasts was not satisfactory.
“Muslims are being made scapegoats,” he alleged, saying that this should be brought to a halt.
Speaking about the Malegaon blasts, the IUML leader said it was the handiwork of those striving to destroy the communal harmony in society and such forces cannot succeed in their evil designs.
The bomb blasts in Malegaon were an affront to humanity, said Banatwala, urging the federal government to take strict action against the perpetrators of the crime.
The news of a huge cache of explosives at Thembha village on the Bombay Nashik Highway earlier this week spawned speculations with the media saying terrorists were trying to smuggle in the explosives to trigger more blasts.
District Superintendent of Police Archana Tyagi said that police seized eleven boxes of 25 gel-explosive sticks, boxes of detonators, 75 pieces of wire and five sacks containing 50 kilograms of ammonium nitrate in a Bolero vehicle with Nashik registration. The driver of the vehicle and his two companions escaped from the scene after a scuffle with the villagers following a road accident.
However, police sources say that the explosives belonged to a licensed contractor and were meant for quarry blasting and this fact has to be ascertained.
In Malegaon, the president of the Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani, demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) into the Sept. 8 serial bomb blasts, alleging that people have lost faith in the police.
Madani accompanied by Congress leader and former home minister Kripashankar Singh met the families of the deceased and visited the injured in hospitals. Speaking to journalists, Madani asked Congress President Sonia Gandhi to send her representative to Malegaon three months later to verify if the promises made by her and state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh have been fulfilled.
Kripashankar Singh assured the Muslims that he would place the new demands for higher compensation before the state and federal governments.
The local unit of the Jamaat blamed the local police for negligence in making proper security arrangements and preventing the bomb blasts.
Prominent Muslim leader and former legislator Nihal Ahmed said that he had given a tipoff about terrorist threat to the Nashik Superintendent of Police Rajvardhan three days before the blasts and that was confirmed by the DSP before the state Home Minister R.R. Patil, Nihal said.
State Congress spokesman Sanjay Nirupam asked why the police did not take the information given by Nihal Ahmed seriously. Nasim Siddiqui, the chairman of the state minorities commission, said he has written to the state Director General of Police Pavender Singh Pasricha about the failure of the police to provide security.
Samajwadi Party leader and a member of Parliament Abu Asim Azmi alleged that he suspected that activists of Hindu militant organizations disguised as Muslims had planted the bombs in Malegaon, which the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has denied.
