Rather than segregate politics, religion and terror, the present ruling dispensation and the opposition are using the frequent bombings to throw mud at each other. Two days after the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts in 2006 at the Union cabinet meeting, two senior ministers in front of the prime minister pointed fingers at assorted groups for the carnage despite National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan stating that Pakistan-based jihadis were behind the local train bombings. Cut to the July 31, 2008 cabinet meeting after the July 26 Ahmedabad blasts. After Shivraj Patil meandered on internal security from the Gorkhaland agitation, Amarnath crisis, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat bombings before the cabinet, again a senior minister argued that the Centre should take over the Ahmedabad and Surat cases as one could not trust Narendra Modi. At both meetings the prime minister chose to refrain from divisive issues.

Interestingly, the Ahmedabad blasts could not have been solved by the Gujarat police if the Intelligence Bureau under the home ministry did not locate Abu Bashir in Saraimeer in Azamgarh and help in the arrest of top SIMI leaders like Safdar Nagori and Sajjid Mansuri.

Just like the BJP on the nuclear deal, rather than take credit for putting the Ahmedabad and Jaipur blasts culprits behind bars, the Congress and some of the UPA ministers are out to discredit the Gujarat SIMI catches for mere political gains.

In the span of just three years, Delhi has been hit twice by terrorists, with attacks in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Bangalore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Surat in the meanwhile, all booming markets and urban centres. But neither the politicians nor the security agencies seem to realise the dangers of indigenous terror. By hitting at the regional economic hubs of the country, the terrorists are out to target the secular fabric of the country — and this includes fanatic Hindus who died making bombs in Kanpur last month and the VHP leader Pravin Togadia, who goads Hindus to master IED technology. The SIMI leader and Ahmedabad blast accused, Sajjid Mansuri, revealed the rabidity and commitment of the terrorists out to target India during interrogation by the Gujarat police.

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