JOIN USImpending execution of Guru sparked off blast
Guru’s capital punishment was confirmed by the Delhi high court and thereafter the Supreme Court. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked President Pratibha Patil to reject Parliament attack convict Guru's mercy petition filed by his wife. The petition was submitted to the President's Secretariat on July 27, 2011 for a decision. In the normal course, the President accepts the advice tendered by the Home Ministry.
On may 25, this year, a minor blast took place in a car park outside Delhi High Court which had led to no casualty. The high intensity blast on Wednesday at the same court has been clearly interpreted as “a message” from the terror groups to the Judiciary, sources said.
Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah last week unwittingly provoked a “debate” on the capital punishment awarded to the killers of Rajiv Gandhi (with Tamil Nadu assembly passing a resolution for their pardon) and the case relating to Guru.
Abdullah had tweeted and sought to know what would be the response if Jammu and Kashmir assembly chooses to pass a similar resolution.
Terror group HUJI, which has claimed the responsibility for the Delhi blast, has in their e-mail to media groups referred to the capital punishment awarded to Guru and and threatened to make the apex court their next target.
Guru was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on the Parliament and was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2004. The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on October 20, 2006. However, Guru's execution was stayed following a mercy petition filed by his wife. He remains on death row.
Leader of opposition L K Advani had earlier in day saw some possible link to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 terror attack in American cities by terror outfit al-Qaeda. “This is quite farfetched”, said sources in agencies who see Guru’s case being behind the two blasts.
Neither the Centre nor the state government have received advance specific intelligence information before the recent bomb blast cases in the country. Barring the Pune blast of February 13, 2010, which claimed 17 people and injured 60 others in German Bakery, no targeted intelligence input has been forthcoming from the central intelligence agencies.
Even in the case of Pune blast, the State police did not act in time on the information.
Commenting on today’s blast, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said Delhi police was informed about terror threats in July, but the terror strike took place regardless.
Secretary internal security in the MHA, U K Bansal, however, maintained within few hours that the information passed on to the Delhi police was of “general nature”.
The deficit in intelligence collection has grown over the years even as home ministry is doing a reconstruct of plethora of intelligence agencies in the form of National Intelligence Grid.