A week after terrorists targeted a CRPF recruitment centre at Rampur, the Uttar Pradesh police, the paramilitary force and the intelligence agencies continue to pass the buck, with the state police convinced that the attack on New Year’s eve was an insider job.On Saturday, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan had to intervene to calm heated tempers at a meeting, also attended by CRPF Director General S I S Ahmed and top officials of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB).The Uttar Pradesh police have already questioned CRPF constable Javed Ahmed, who has drawn suspicion for surviving the attack unscathed even as his colleague who was with him in the guard room was shot no less than 16 times.Ahmed, who belongs to Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri-Poonch area, told the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad that he slept through the attack.The police are screening Ahmed’s mobile records and questioning his local contacts. It has also been found that he was earlier chargesheeted in a “kidnapping for ransom” case in Jammu, though he was exonerated by a court. The investigators are also trying to determine why the CRPF camp’s inner security cordon, which could have provided the terrorists some resistance, was withdrawn by officials just two days before the attack. This was despite the fact that an intelligence alert had been issued warning of the possibility of an attack by Intelligence Bureau (Joint Director Prabakar Alok) to CRPF and BSF Director Generals on November 27. At Saturday’s meeting, the CRPF Director General however indicated that “generic” intelligence was of little help. Showing Narayanan the “alerts” issued, he called for “actionable” intelligence.The “alert” quoted a communication intercept between two “ terrorists”, with one telling the other: “Salimbhai keh rahen hain ki Rampur main BSF ya CRPF centre main bharti chal rahi hai. Waqt acha hai kuch kaam karne ka (Salimbhai says recruitment is on at BSF or CRPF’s recruitment camp in Rampur. The time is ripe to do something).”There was a second alert, on December 28, by Ra&W (Director Deepak Kaul) to Ahmed and BSF Director General G A K Maitra. However, this one talked about a CRPF recruitment centre in Rampur in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir. “Two jehadis have already been prepared for the job,” says the alert.Defending the withdrawal of the inner security cordon, the CRPF Director General told the NSA meeting that this was done after the first alert, when recruitment had been completed at the Rampur centre. He also insisted that despite the fact that the second alert referred to Uri in J-K, security had been tightened.Ahmed also noted that beyond a point nothing could be done as a regular thoroughfare bisected the Rampur recruitment centre. Despite repeated pleas to the Uttar Pradesh Government, he said, this had not been closed for public. The CRPF did close the thoroughfare for a week after the first alert, but had to open it due to public protests and local political pressure.While the Uttar Pradesh police is still scouring for clues, the CRPF has ordered a court of inquiry under DIG (Allahabad) to look into administrative lapses if any during the attack.
