“It seems that no one was posted at the guarding post, guards were sleeping in the guardroom. There was absolutely no resistance and our Special Operations Group kept on hunting for the injured fidayeen but no one has been found till now,” Lal added, as CM Mayawati looked on.

Refusing to accept the attack as her government’s failure, she claimed the state government had acted in accordance with the intelligence input about the threat perception to the CRPF camp and had also alerted officials of the CRPF camp and “failure, if any, is on their part”.

Asked how did terrorists reach the camp, the Chief Minister said it was the duty of the CRPF, who had already been informed of the threat, “to teach them (terrorists) a lesson”.

But a senior CRPF official said the alert was of a “general nature” which might have been circulated in the aftermath of the November 23 serial blasts in Faizabad, Lucknow and Varanasi courts.

The CM later announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured after giving a clean chit to her own officials. “Had the CRPF been alert the incident would not have taken place,” she said.

Minister of State for Shri Prakash Jaiswal later admitted that “lapses occurred only because precautions were not being taken” and added that “action, steps can only be taken after the initial investigation.”

Meanwhile, the Rampur police detained two men. Ikram and Arif claimed they were only locals who gathered after the news of the attack spread. “Their behaviour was suspect and they seemed to be taking an undue interest in the proceedings,” said a police official.