I News India - Empowering Ideas!

In wake of the recent terror blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad in India, Delhi Police have alerted operators of guesthouses, cyber cafes, telephone booths and taxi services to keep a register on their customers as a security measure ahead of Independence Day.

Installation of CCTVs is asked in cyber cafes, hotels and guesthouses while telephone booth operators will maintain a register to record the entry of every customer.

Owners of guesthouses and hotels were also asked not to allow their guests to use hotel address for getting a mobile connection, said a senior police officer.

Police have asked the operators to keep a watch on every customer and report about any suspicious people. Police instructed them not to allow the service to any one without proper identification.

The city police are also installing 34 CCTVs in crowded areas from August 10 to 15; the official said adding that high security personnel are deployed on the borders and in the city.

“The deployment of paramilitary personnel has already started. Personnel from BSF, CRPF and RAF will be on streets,” the official said telling about their preliminary preparation for security on the Independence Day.

Tags: Ahmedabad bomb blast, alert, Bangalore serial blast, Bomb, bomb blast, Delhi Police, independence day, Security, Terror

After recovery of 18 bombs and confiscated 2 explosives laden cars from Surat in the last two days, the scenario continued on the third day with discovery of 2 more bombs found in the Heera Bazaar and another on a treetop in the Kapodara area of Surat. Bombs were later defused successfully by the bomb disposal squad.

19th live bomb was found on the busy Varacha Road in the morning followed by next in the Prestige market shortly after Chief Minister Narendra Modi visited the diamond city.

After visiting the places from where live bombs were recovered, Modi said that terrorists were waging a proxy war against India and stressed on the need to unite as a country to fight the menace of terror.

Modi said,” the country needed to fight the “proxy war” being waged by terrorists.”

He announced a reward of Rs 51 lakh for information leading to the terrorists involved in the Ahmedabad serial blasts and the planting of bombs in Surat. He said with terrorists targeting cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mumbai and Hyderabad, it seemed that their intention was to cripple financial activities in the country.

Modi also announced rewards of Rs 21,000 each for those who gave information about live bombs and cars laden with explosives found from Surat and Ahmedabad on Sunday. Police said it was similar to the 18 found yesterday from in and around Varacha, where several diamond processing units are located.

The bombs planted in Surat had integrated circuits (IC), Deputy Director of Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL), Surat, S M Darji said. It was the first time when ICs are used in bombs.

25 teams of ATS have started their investigations into the Ahmedabad blasts. The Mumbai crime branch has also assured its assistance to the ATS teams investigating the blasts case.

Meanwhile, Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami (HuJI) has also claimed responsibility for the Ahmedabad blasts. Gujarati TV channel TV9 on Wednesday received a letter from HuJI in which they claimed responsibility for the blasts.

Earlier, it was reported that the Indian Mujahideen had also written e-mails to several media houses claiming responsibility of the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

In the wake of rise in toll of recovery of bombs, strict security measures are being taken in the city.

Tags: ahmedabad blast, ahmedabad serial blast, bangalore blast, Bangalore serial blast, Bomb, bomb blast, diamond city, HuJI, Surat, Terror

A threat by e-mail is received to blow up the landmark buildings including West Bengal assembly and Calcutta High Court, in Kolkata tonight. The bomb disposal squad and the security has been alert after receiving this information and intensive search operations are going to locate any possible explosives in the area.

The e-mail has been received by a TV channel. City police urges people not to panic as they were looking into such threats of explosions at various vital installations in the city.

We have certain information that that there are explosives in some of the vital installations in the city and we are putting in all our efforts to find out the truth involved in the information. So far, no explosive has been found”, Additional Commissioner of Police Subrata Narayan Sarkar told reporters.

Police said, ”We are trying to trace the sender of the e-mail by locating the remote server in the TV channel.”

Special police arrangements have been made at the High Court and the gate of the Assembly. All the senior officers are on the road and ther is tight security near the surrounding areas also.

A few words of the e-mail told by the police reads: “Some of the important areas of the city like Park Street, Salt Lake and Nicco Park and some landmark buildings like the High Court and the state assembly would be blown up by 10.30 pm tonight.”

Till now there is no such news. Sarkar said “the city police force have been put on alert and we have asked the bomb squad to check whether there is any explosive”.

Tags: Bomb, bomb blast, Calcutta High Court, Kolkata, Security, Terror, threat, west bangal, West Bengal assembly

It seems Surat, the Diamond city came under terror radar. So far 18 bombs have been recovered from various areas in the Diamond city and all of them have been safely defused. Police said that bombs are recovered one after another in a short span of time from different parts of the Varaccha area housing most of Surat’s diamond processing units.

Most of the explosive devices were found from residential localities and the diamond workshop areas generating a wave of panic in the city. Police Commissioner R M S Brar on Tuesday urged the people not to visit the crowded places and to be more vigilant in the surrounding areas.

Three bombs were recovered in the morning followed by fifteen similar incidents in next a few hours. The first bomb was found near the Ladeshwar Police Chowky in the Varaccha area of the city. Another live bomb was recovered from a market in Santosh Nagar. The other explosives were reportedly recovered from the Mini Diamond market in Varaccha area of the city.

Three bombs were deactivated in the Mini Diamond Market area, three in Labeshwar, Santoshinagar and Matavadi localities and three under the Varacha-Kapodra flyover. A bomb was found handing from a tree in Matavadi while in Labeshwar it was left in an abandoned bag.

Gujarat police detained three men for questioning in connection with the serial blasts. Abdul Qadir, Hasil Mohammad and Hussain Ibrahim were detained near Limbi on Rajkot-Ahmedabad highway in Surendranagar district while they were leaving Ahmedabad soon after the Ahmedabad serial blasts that took 49 lives and left over 145 injured.

It was suspected that they are linked with outlawed SIMI and ‘Indian Mujahideen’. Interrogation is still going regarding this issue. Police said they were questioning SIMI activist Abdul Halim, who was arrested on Sunday but declined to give any details on what he has revealed so far.

Contents of the defused bombs have been sent to the forensic science laboratory for analysis and high alert had been sounded in Surat.

Tags: ahmedabad serial blast, Bomb, bomb blast, live bomb, Surat, Terror

Three more live bombs are detected in Surat on Tuesday morning from the busy Varachha Road and Santoshi Nagar area. The bomb disposal squad has successfully defused two bombs. Earlier, One bomb was diffused in the city yesterday and two explosives-laden cars were also recovered on Sunday to add the panic.

According to the recent information, a sketch was issued by police in connection with the blast. Police is trying hard to find the person. Till now, police is failed to get any major information.

On Tuesday morning, first bomb was found at Varachha Road, near the Ladeshwar police station while two others were recovered from a market in Santosh Nagar. Surat police officials rushed to the site soon after receiving the information. Reportedly a detonator was planted in the area, which could have gone off causing minor damage to the surroundings.

Two of the bombs were defused while attempts are underway to defuse the third recovered in Santoshi Nagar.

Meanwhile, the police have given a clean chit to the American national who was suspected to be involved in Ahmedabad blasts. He is living in a flat in Navi Mumbai with his family as a tenant. His e-mail id was used to send the threat mail to television news channels minutes before the Ahmedabad serial blasts on Saturday. The clean chit was given after the police verified the American’s claims that his e-mail id and IP address had been hacked to send the threat mail.

3 Kashmiris have been picked up by police from a guest house in Mumbai’s Bhindi Bazaar to interrogate regarding the blasts.

The police will also interrogate an RTO officer in connection with the detention of three persons yesterday, who were traveling from Surendranagar to Surat in a car. The police had recovered Rs 85,000 in cash and British currency worth Rs 2 lakhs hidden beneath the seat of their car.

Enquiry and interrogation is going in connection with the blasts happened in recent days. Ahmedabad serial blast killed 49 people and left many injured while Bangalore serial blast killed two. All the blasts are of low intensity. India is under stress because of these blasts.

Tags: ahmedabad serial blast, Bangalore serial blast, Bomb, bomb blast, Surat

After 48 hours of serial bomb blast in Ahmedabad, police late on Sunday made an arrest of an activist of the banned outfit, SIMI. Identified as Abdul Halim, the militant was arrested in Dani Limda, Ahmedabad after police traced a phone call and focused on eyewitness accounts. He has been interrogated in connection with the incident.

A live bomb in the city was being defused on Sunday and another three found in Surat city also.

The arrested man is wanted in connection with 2002 post-Godhra riots also. Regarding his arrested in connection with the 17 low intensity blasts happened in Ahmedabad on Saturday evening that claimed 49 lives, Ahmedabad Joint Commissioner of Police Ashish Bhatia told “His arrest could well be the first one in the series of more arrest likely to happen in connection with the serial blast. Of the 30 people who have been rounded up, the police is now concentrating on a couple of cycle shop owners and cycle distributors.”

“There were reports that he was hiding in Delhi and we had intimidated Delhi Police as well. After receiving some specific inputs about his whereabouts, the crime branch arrested him during a combing operation,” he added.

A high alert has been declared at several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi visited Ahmedabad on Monday. They are likely to meet the injured people in hospitals undergoing treatment.

On Saturday evening, 16 coordinated serial blasts rocked the city killing 49 people and injuring more than 150, a day after eight explosions rippled the IT city, Bangalore which killed one woman and injured many.

Tags: Ahmedabad, ahmedabad serial blast, bomb blast, SIMI, SIMI activist, Terror

After Bangalore serial blast, eight low-intensity bomb blasts rocked Ahmedabad city on Saturday evening. The blasts happened in Maninagar, Bapunagar, Hatkeshwar, Sarnagpur Bridge, Amraiwadi, Govindwadi, Sarangpur, Chakla area and Jawahar Chowk. All the blast took place within half an hour starting from 6:30 pm.

The first two blast happened at Maninagar. The first one took place in the Assembly constituency of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi followed by a second blast inside the LJ Hospital premises. It was reported that the bomb in Maninagar was planted in a bicycle in the assembly constituency while the blast inside the hospital took place below a red-coloured car. 20 people have been taken injured to the civil hospital in Maninagar. A black coloured Hero Honda Splendor motorcycle has been found abandoned near the blast site in Maninagar.

Two other blast took place in Bapunagar at about 6:40 pm, one outside the railway station while other inside a bus. The bombs were reportedly hidden in tiffin boxes. Ahmedabad railway station has been sealed. One more blast happened in Diamond market.

Bapu Nagar and Diamond Market are in the Old City area which is very congested particularly on Saturday evening. According to CNN-IBN’s reports, the blasts were aimed at creating panic and not really at causing heavy causalities.

A seventh explosion took place in Sakrej. An initial report says that the bomb was targetted in CNG bus. In another market near Sabarmati River, eyewitness accounts suggest that two men were seen throwing a bag near the shops. Soon after this, there was an explosion.

Immediately, police have rushed to the sites. All the injured are being rushed to nearby hospitals. All mobile networks have been jammed. An emergency meeting is going on at Modi’s residence and the Chief Minister is likely to visit the blast areas soon.

President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts and appealed for calm.

Union Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said, “The blasts seem to be along the lines of yesterdays Bangalore blasts. It is a conspiracy to unsettle the country. All metros are on a high alert.”

Delhi, Mumbai, and other metros are on the high alert. It was feared that the ancient Meenakshi Temple may be on target. Hence Tamil Nadu has also been put on high alert. However, as a precautionary measure, security has been beefed up at all major temples.

According to the reports of IBN CNN, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had received an e-mail from a little known terror group called Indian Mujaheedin about a possible attack. Other details are yet to come.

Tags: Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad bomb blast, bomb blast, Serial blast, Terror Attack

A day after a bomb blast near Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad’s Lal Masjid killed 20 people, one more deadly serial bomb blast in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi killed 5 persons and left more than 50 others injured on Monday.

The six “low-intensity” explosions occurred in Banaras Chowk, Orangi town, Shahrah-e-Noor, Paharganj, Qasba mor and Mangho pir areas, police said.

“There were a series of blasts in Karachi which were of low intensity and have not caused any damage to property,” Karachi police Chief Waseem Ahmed said.

Reportedly, at least nine people were injured in Banaras Chowk while five people were wounded in a blast in a minibus in Shahrah-e-Noor area.

Ahmed claimed that the blasts were apparently carried out to create an atmosphere of fear and tension only.

Hours after Islamabad explosion, Islamic hardliners took out a rally demanding President Pervez Musharraf’s public hanging.

The police were on high alert and have taken all measures the secure the life and property of people. Injured were already rushed to hospitals. People are scared of the successive incidents of bombing.

Tags: bomb blast, Karachi, Musharraf, Pakistan

In a suicide car bomb blast near the Indian embassy in central Kabul on Monday morning, killed 4 Indians among 41 people.

The explosion took place near a row of metal turnstiles outside the Embassy, where dozens of Afghan men line up every morning to apply for visas. The suicide bomber exploded two embassy vehicles as they were entering the premises, sources said, and the intensity of the blast blowing off the gates of the embassy. Some buildings inside were also damaged in the blast.

Several nearby shops were damaged or destroyed in the blast, and smoldering ruins covered the street. Afghan police have secured the site of the blast.

Till the latest reports, the death toll from the attack has reached 41. A senior police official said. ”We have 41 people martyred,” said the official, who declined to be named.

“India and Afghanistan have a deep relationship between each other. Such attacks of the enemy will not harm our relations,” Spanta told the embassy staff, according to Baheen.

The Indian ambassador and his deputy were not inside the Embassy at the time of the blast, Baheen said.

“We are in touch with the Ambassador who is supervising arrangements for medical assistance,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna said in a statement.

“The Government of India strongly condemns this cowardly terrorist attack on its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan,” he added.

In the wake of the suicide attack, a high-level meeting was called in New Delhi by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the situation soon after the attack.

About 3,000 Indians are working on various reconstruction and developmental projects in Afghanistan and they have often been subjected to attacks by Taliban since launching an insurgency following the ouster of the Taliban at the end of the 2001.

Earlier, 12 people were killed and 42 wounded in a suicide bomber near the gates of the interior ministry in September 2006. Additional guards and barriers were posted on the tree-lined street after that blast.

Tags: Afghan, bomb blast, Central Kabul, Indian Embassy, Kabul

It was reported that at least 10 people were injured in a powerful blast on Friday in the eastern Assam town of Nagaon.

Most of the injured were evening shoppers or vendors. Official sources said that two of victims are critically injures and their condition is told serious.

A police spokesman said the blast took place near a railway station in Nagaon, 130 km from the state’s main city of Guwahati.

“The area was teeming with people close to a market near the railway station when the explosion took place,” the official said.

The police have blamed the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) for the blast. Two units of the ULFA have declared unilateral ceasefire, which has been welcomed by the government.

The exact reason behind the explosion is not clear yet. “We are yet to ascertain the nature of the explosion,” official added.

Tags: Assam, bomb blast, Crime, Injury, Terrorist