Patna: Facing severe criticism for its failure to prevent the serial bomb blast in Patna during the Bharatiya Janata Party's Hunkar rally, Bihar Police on Monday denied receiving any specific intelligence alert by central agencies about terror strikes.
Investigators are probing a possible link to the Bodh Gaya blasts in July 7 as the modus operandi is similar. The death toll in the blasts has climbed to six as the second suspect who was injured while planting the bombs has died.
"There was no specific intelligence input about terror threat to BJP's Hunkar Rally yesterday and Narendra Modi in particular during his Bihar visit," Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Headquarters, Ravindra Kumar said.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also denied allegation that his government failed to act on intelligence input abut a possible terror strike aimed at BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi during his Bihar visit. "It (intelligence input) deserves no further clarification," Kumar said.
He refused to comment on questions on the role of Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives or its modules in carrying out serial blasts at the rally venue at Gandhi Maidan and surrounding areas to coincide with Hunkar Rally.
Investigation is on and the details cannot be disclosed right now, the ADG said, adding the state police and NIA were jointly carrying out the probe, which is "on the right track".
Meanwhile, politics continued over the blasts as BJP leader Arun Jaitley claimed the Bihar DGP had received an intelligence alert on October 23 about a possible attack in Patna and wanted the state government as well as the Centre to clarify on the issue.
He alleged that people were being allowed to enter Gandhi Maidan on Sunday without any frisking. "The Bihar Police didn't certify advanced security liasoning for Modi," he added.
Keeping up his attack on the BJP, Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh said that the party will benefit from the blasts. He said, "One political party, which stands to benefit from the blasts, is BJP." He denied the charges that he tried to politicise the blasts with his tweets like, "Another blast in Patna. Perfect setting for Modi's launch in Bihar."
He said, "I strongly condemn the blasts. I did not politicise it. It is unfortunate that I have been misunderstood every time. I don't regret my tweets on Patna blasts." He also held Nitish responsible for the blasts.
The death toll rose to six after an injured person died at the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) late on Sunday night. Currently, 37 injured persons, many of them in critical condition, are being treated in the hospital.
Investigators say that the strike was carried out by terrorists allegedly based in Jharkhand.
Jharkhand ADG (law & order) SN Pradhan said the probe so far showed that Imtiaz Ansari, one of the two arrested terrorists, allegedly had contacts with Tahseen Akhtar, an alleged close aide of arrested top IM operative Yasin Bhatkal. The other terrorist was identified as Tausim.
Pradhan said that the raids at Dhruwa in Ranchi on Sunday night revealed that Imtiaz, his nephew Taufiq, Tariq Ansari and Noman Ansari had gone to Patna on Saturday and two others had joined them on the way.
The four had, however, told people of their locality that they were going to Kolkata but left for Patna on Saturday.
Tariq died while allegedly handling explosives on Sunday and Noman and Taufiaq were absconding, while Imtiaz was arrested after the blasts in Patna, police said. The homegrown IM has links with Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT).
A search operation by NIA and Patna Police is also underway in Gandhi Maidan, the area which witnessed six of the seven serial bomb blasts on Sunday that also left 83 people injured, to locate explosives, if any, a senior police officer said.
(With additional information from PTI)
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