PUNE, 11 September 2006 — The Maharashtra state police released sketches of two men yesterday in connection with the Malegaon blasts, as the state government faced renewed flak from the opposition for its failure to avert the dastardly act.
Shiv Sena leader Ram Kadam and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde, who form the combined opposition in the state, blamed the Congress party-led government for its failure to check the attack despite receiving inputs from intelligence agencies warning about subversive acts.
They held the Congress Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and the Nationalist Congress Party leader and Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil responsible for the collapse of the law and order situation in the state. The terror on Friday in Malegaon killed 40 people and left 290 other injured.
Kadam said that his party will launch an agitation if the culprits behind the blasts were not arrested soon and warned that his party will also disrupt the proceedings of the house if a government hospital was not constructed in Malegaon without delay. Earlier, Kadam had visited the Farhan Hospital in Malegaon and announced that the Sena would provide financial assistance to the injured.
Munde, meanwhile, demanded a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge of the high court and added that the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) and not the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) should investigate the serial blasts.
The city was calm yesterday as people returned to the streets, and businesses opened again as fears of riots receded. Several residents yesterday went to hospitals to donate blood for the injured.
Police officials said they were investigating possible links to the train bombings in Bombay in July and whether locally-bought bicycles were used in the bombings on Friday.
“These are two sketches we have put together on the basis of eyewitnesses,” Inspector General of Police P.K. Jain said. No arrests have been made. The sketches of the two young-looking men showed one with thick straight hair while the other had thick eyebrows, a gaunt face and a receding hairline.
Evidence from three blast sites in Malegaon has been sent for forensic testing, officials said. “What type of explosives were used will be known in two days and then we may be in a position to say if these blasts were linked with those in Bombay,” Patil said.
“Right now, we are awaiting the report from forensic experts on the nature of the blasts. We are also trying to find out if any outsiders were spotted in the town,” Malegaon’s police chief Rajvardhan said.
ATS officials camping in Malegaon said that the crude bombs were packed in tiffin boxes and were planted on bicycles. The chief of the ATS K.P. Raghuvanshi revealed that there were four blasts and not three as reported.
In another twist in the investigations the police are probing about a strong possibility of Bajrang Dal activists, on the basis that two members of this Hindu militant organization were dead in Nanded while manufacturing crude bombs in April. Hospitals in Malegaon, meanwhile, are facing acute shortage of medicines and many hospitals say that they were getting no help from the state government to cope with the situation.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who faced a hostile crowd on Saturday, was unable to provide answers to the probing crowd. Sonia has taken this issue “very seriously’ and has asked her Political Adviser Ahmed Patel to “independently” brief her on this issue.
Deshmukh, on hearing this, has asked his ministers to ensure that that the foundation stone for the hospital was laid within a month.
A Congress source said several leaders wanted to remove Deshmukh after the 11/7 blasts. But a major factor that had worked in the chief minister’s favor was that there was no communal riots following the blasts. Patil too survived for similar reasons though there were talks of “intelligence and administrative failure”.
