Samjhauta Express blasts have footprints of a Hindu extremists

The Telegraph, June 27 , 2010

Hindu outfit link to blasts on Samjhauta
NISHIT DHOLABHAI

New Delhi, June 26: Investigators probing the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts have found footprints of a Hindu extremist group blamed for the Malegaon explosion one-and-a-half years later, as fresh evidence hinted that the detonators used were similar.

The revelation coincided with Union home minister P. Chidambaram’s visit to Pakistan as the neighbours resumed peace talks

A senior official said the fresh evidence had prompted the home ministry to “reorganise” the investigation against Abhinav Bharat even as more leads on the Hindu outfit’s involvement in another blast emerged.

Sources said investigators had found that the triggering mechanism for the May 2007 Mecca mosque blast in Hyderabad was similar to that used to spark the train explosions three months earlier.

Sixty-eight people died in the February 19, 2007, explosions on the train that connects India and Pakistan. Although terror groups in Pakistan were initially suspected, the sources said the needle now pointed to Abhinav Bharat, a group also accused of involvement in the October 2007 blast at Rajasthan’s Ajmer dargah.

The sources said the home ministry would closely monitor the probe against the Hindu outfit to unravel the “complex web”.

The home ministry official said sleuths probing the train attack had found a bag whose cloth cover had been “traced” to Indore in Madhya Pradesh. “While the investigation had stopped there, now we have found that the detonators used in the Malegaon blasts were similar.”

Several of the suspects now in custody for the Malegaon attack — including Pragya Singh Thakur, who was a member of RSS student wing ABVP — are from Indore.

Recently, the CBI had announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for any information leading to the arrest of two absconders — Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra — both residents of Indore.

The RSS is on a “rectification drive” to weed out members linked to organisations like the Abhinav Bharat, though the alleged militant outfit’s website www.abhinavbharat.org claims it is “open only to those who confirm that they ‘shall work towards a peaceful, plural, inclusive and just human society’.”

Officials said North Block, the seat of the home ministry, would “reorganise” the probe into cases against the Hindu group now being investigated by different agencies.

While the Ajmer blast is being probed by the anti-terrorist squad of Rajasthan police along with the CBI, the Hyderabad blast is being investigated by the CBI.

Two persons arrested in connection with the Ajmer blast were recently sent to judicial custody for the Mecca mosque blast in Hyderabad.

Another case against the outfit has been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which was formed after the 26/11 Mumbai attack. The train attack is being probed by Haryana railway police.

Home ministry sources said three “small cases” against the outfit in Madhya Pradesh could be brought under either the NIA or the CBI. The ministry, however, does not want to disturb the Rajasthan ATS investigation, said to be “on track”.

But the sources said the ministry would take a final call in the light of the new evidence.