Blasts may have been a `dry run’ for ultras

Of late, ISI has launched operations from this communally-sensitive town and other extremist outfits including the Student Islamic movement of India (SIMI).

As per intelligence sources, SIMI activists have undergone training in Kanpur and owe allegiance to the Taliban militia. “SIMI activities are under our scrutiny and cannot be taken for granted,” said A.K. Mitra, IG (Kanpur zone).

“We do not rule out the possibility of another strike by extremists following the August 14 blasts,” said Mohammed Sulaiman, a resident of Chamanganj and state chief of the Indian National League.

The police have launched a massive house-to-house search operation at suspected places and the recovery was startling. During its four-day operation, the police have recovered 263 crude bombs and arrested 67 persosns. Even licensed arms dealers were found violating their quota of stocking explosives.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg, say sources, because bombmanufacturing is like a cottage industry in this industrial metropoliswhere riots are common and use of bombs is frequent.

The Kanpur police have recovered over 1,000 crude bombs and arrestedover 300 persons for manufacturing bombs or being in possession ofexplosives during last three years. But these recoveries are notan outcome of any strategy to flush out illgally stockpiled arms andammunition but a chanced ones.

“Bombs cost less and hence criminals use it blatantly. The Aryanagar blasts were sophisticated ones but crude bombs can be found aplenty here. The police have conducted several raids to recover such ammunition,” claimed the DIG. A senior police official requesting anonymity said that the police had to stop raids at several places owing to political pressure.

The police have its own version but the fact is that blatant use of crude bombs were first used in Kanpur during 1988 riots and thereafter they wereused freely by rioteers.