August 24, 2008: Two active members of the Bajrang Dal,
Rajeev Mishra and Bhupindra Singh, died reportedly making explosives at a house
owned by Mishra’s father (which also functioned as a hostel) in the Rajeev Nagar,
Kalyanpur area of Kanpur. The Kanpur police seized a large quantity of
explosives from the blast site, including one kg of potassium nitrate, three kg
of lead oxide, 500 gm red lead, 11 countrymade grenades, several bomb pins and
seven timers – all meant for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) similar
to those used in various terror strikes across the nation. In addition, there
were hand grenades, over two kg of pellets, several batteries and about 50
metres of electric wire. The countrymade hand grenades, which the police say
were hollow, were similar in shape and size to those used by the defence forces.
Reports after the incident strongly indicated that the two
Bajrang Dal activists killed while engaged in the manufacture of bombs were
preparing for a serial bombing in minority-dominated Firozabad and Aligarh.
Kanpur zone IGP (inspector general of police) SN Singh told journalists that
investigations by the Uttar Pradesh STF (Special Task Force) had revealed "plans
for a massive explosion".
A handmade layout of Firozabad, found along with explosives
during searches of Singh’s Lajpat Nagar studio, suggest that they had surveyed
the glass city several times. The wrinkled and largely soiled sketch contained
indicators of exit and entry points into the city and five markings, including
one that marked the location of the railway station. It is likely that they were
planning to detonate the timed grenades during the month of Ramadan.
The house in which the operatives were reportedly making bombs
functioned as a private hostel for students. The room in which the explosion
took place was used by Mishra, who worked in Lucknow and visited Kanpur every
Sunday. The hostel manager, Raj Kishore Srivastava, told the police that Singh
and Mishra had met during Bajrang Dal meetings and had become friends.
Incidentally, Singh had five cases registered against him in the
1992 post-Babri Masjid riots in Kanpur, including one of arrest with a petrol
bomb, whereas Mishra had no known criminal record.
National dailies carried reports in their UP editions which
quoted several sources in the intelligence and security establishment as saying
that they observed a distinctive pattern in the bomb blasts at the historic
mosques – the Jama Masjid in Delhi and the Ajmer Sharif dargah. Although a few
reports on the Kanpur explosions did appear in local editions of The Indian
Express, Hindustan Times and The Times of India, the
stories did not make it to the Delhi and Mumbai editions.
What is also of concern is that these explosive substances, like
potassium or ammonium nitrate and lead oxide, mixed to create a deadly explosive
for manufacturing bombs, are common to several extremist outfits, be it the
Bajrang Dal and the VHP or the Indian Mujahideen and SIMI. The large quantity of
explosives recovered from this hostel in Kanpur could have caused as much
destruction as the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad did.
Questions have been raised about the fact that the police got a
student of the hostel, Pradeep Soni, to file an FIR instead of filing one
themselves. Soni, who had informed the police about the explosions when the
blasts took place, is now apprehensive about being dragged into the case.
However, IGP Singh downplayed this aspect.
More explosives found
Two days later, on August 26, similar seizures were made a
stone’s throw away from the Kanpur house where explosives were recovered on
August 24. Two empty shells and explosives were found in a jute bag in a drain
in the Shastri Nagar area under the Kalyanpur police station after some people
noticed it and alerted the police. IGP SN Singh told the media that the shells
could carry one kg of explosives. The powder that was also recovered has been
sent for forensic tests. The UP police also stated that narco analysis tests
would be conducted on the wider network of Bajrang Dal activists.
Meanwhile, politics came into play within days of the Kanpur
incident with the minister of state for home, Sriprakash Jaiswal (who fights his
elections from Kanpur) demanding a CBI probe into the incident! Jaiswal however
was reluctant to even suggest the obvious Bajrang Dal link to the blasts,
stating instead that an international outfit may be involved. He was similarly
defensive about supporting any demand for a ban on the Bajrang Dal.
The UP chief minister, Mayawati, has rejected the union
government’s proposal for a CBI inquiry into the Kanpur blasts, stating that she
was agreeable to the CBI being brought in only if the centre was prepared to
hand over investigations of all recent blasts in UP to the agency. These
include the Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi civil courts blasts, the Gorakhpur
blast and the terrorist attack on the CRPF camp in Rampur along with the recent
Kanpur incident.
"Why has the centre never offered to set up a CBI inquiry into
any of these cases even after we requested that the CBI be brought in?" Mayawati
asked. "The Congress knows that if the UP police continues to probe the Kanpur
blast case the entire truth will be out in the open and those who are trying to
spread terror in UP will be exposed. It is clear that the UPA government is
sympathetic towards the BJP and its affiliated organisations and wants to help
them," she explained. "They (the centre) even defied an Allahabad High Court
order that had ordered a CBI probe into the police recruitment scam," the chief
minister said. Why then is the centre so keen to take over the Kanpur
investigation?
To repeat a Nanded-like cover-up?