Terror Trail: What's Next After Hyderabad and Gorakhpur?

By Animesh Roul

Four days after Mecca Mosque blast, terrorists struck Gorakhapur town (bordering Nepal) in Uttar Pradesh (India) on May 22 (Tuesday evening) with triple blasts of low intensities. The bomblets kept in metallic launch boxes and placed in cycle/motor bike, went off within a gap of ten minutes. Unofficial sources say at least ten people sustained injuries. Three blasts took place in the Golghar area of the city (Jalkhal Bhavan, Baldev Plaza and near Shere Punjab and York hotel). The bombs (IEDs) were triggered, possibly by a timer device, placed strategically near power (electric) transformer and near a Petrol filling station to make things worse for blast survivors and first hand responders. It was part of a bigger design for conflagration and simultaneous power black out in the locality. However, certainly a massive destruction and collateral damage to life and property have been averted and it didn’t go according to terrorists' plan. The motive it seems to incite religious violence (instead of mass casualty), in the communally sensitive city where Hindu- Muslim riots have a history and recently, the city witnessed two days of prohibitory rules due to a communal conflagration.

If one looks at the explosive seizures and live bomb disposals by security forces in the last couple of days, elsewhere, it gives a bigger picture of the subversive agenda. Early May 23, morning, Uttar Pradesh Police recovered 10 kg of explosives and 20 litres of ammonium nitrate from the railway station in another communal sensitive Faizabad/ Ayodhya city. On May 20, the Railway Protection Force seized around six hundred grams of highly explosive RDX from a coach of Darbhanga bound passenger train near Samastipur, Bihar. Next day (May 21), at least four bombs were recovered from inside a local passenger train in busy Howrah station in Kolkata (West Bengal). There must be some more escaped vigil eyes and already found their way near the targets.

Not being alarmist, the next possible target could be anywhere, in Mathura, Varanasi and possibly it could be in Delhi. Investigating agencies are still probing who-is-behind-all-these, and security has been beefed up at sensitive places across North India, for now.

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