Though entire Uttar Pradesh once again went on high alert after serial blast in Pune last evening, the sleuths of the elite Anti-Terrorists Squad (ATS) of the state are yet to gear up to look into a series of local explosions which particularly occurred at Sheetla Ghat in Varanasi in which they so far failed to make any breakthrough. What is more surprising in that on the one hand the members of specialised force formed to counter terror attack failed to make any vital lead to nail down the anti-national elements involved in recent cases but on the other hand a move was also made by them on directions of higher-ups to withdraw charges against some militants who were held earlier in terror cases in the name of harassing members of a particular community in the state. It was now about two years for the sleuths of the ATS probing explosion at Sheetla Ghat on December 7, 2010 but so far their entire efforts proved futile to make any breakthrough. The ray of hope for the probing team arises during a recent blast in a car outside Delhi High Court in which the militants used similar modus operandi as used in Varanasi. Some suspects were also rounded up by Delhi crime branch but at the last both the agencies draw a blank and cases remained unsolved. In Varanasi, a bomb also exploded at Dashwamedh Ghat on March 5, 2005 which was first terror attack in the state in which seven people were killed. Few days later on March 29, 2005 another similar bomb was planted but both that cases were dumped by the local agencies and even when the forensic experts confirmed it be to a terror attack, no further probe was made in the case to brought the culprits to book. Later both the blasts turned up to be a ‘test blast’ by the militants who used the similar modus operandi and exploded a pressure cooker bomb in Shramjeevi Express near Jaunpur Railway Station claiming 17 lives in the same year on July 27. Again of April 14, 2009, alertness of lady passenger averted a major tragedy in Nizamudin (Delhi) bound Sampark Kranti Express, after she spotted a live bomb planted just near the toilet of sleeper class coach in Mahoba. In this case also the explosive was kept inside a pressure cooker but the senior officers pushed the matter under the carpet claiming that it was just a mischief. UNI
