MHA regrets inability to stop Assam blasts

With the Assam blasts threatening to tarnish the Governments track record on terror post-Mumbai,the Home Ministry.....

With the Assam blasts threatening to tarnish the Governments track record on terror post-Mumbai,the Home Ministry almost issued an apology to the nation on Tuesday,regretting that security forces were unable to pre-empt and prevent the bomb blasts despite having intelligence inputs about possible attacks.

In a statement,the ministry said the Government had specific information and intelligence that ULFA,which has once again been blamed for the attacks,would make attempts to cause explosions in Assam.

The period between March 16 so-called Army Day and April 7 so-called Raising Day has always been a vulnerable period in Assam for many years. Information was available about names of ULFA commanders/cadres who will attempt to explode IEDs, the statement said. The security forces,and especially the Assam Police,were on high alert and tried their best to secure the most vulnerable locations. It is unfortunate and deeply regretted that the adversary has been able to strike this time.

Addressing reporters at the Congress headquarters later,Home Minister P Chidambaram said the Assam Police had been fighting ULFA quite effectively for the last few months,and Mondays incidents should not be construed as the polices weakness or ineffectiveness.

Chidambaram said the security forces had succeeded in arresting 42 ULFA cadres and was able to neutralise another 15,including notorious ones like Tapan Roy,Anupan Gogoi,Paranjal Deka,Bhaskar Hazarika and Kushal Das.

In fact,neutralising Hazarika is one of the main reasons why ULFA has stepped up its violent activities, he added.

Assam has been the only state where militants have been able to carry out bomb blasts after the terrorist strikes in Mumbai put the entire country on a high alert. Mondays blasts were the third since January 1 this year,all of them coinciding with impending visits by political leaders.

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Two blasts took place on January 1 even as Chidambaram was on his way to Assam to take stock of the security situation. Last week,bombs went off while Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was touring the state for campaigning. Mondays blasts came just a day ahead of PM Manmohan Singhs election rally in the state.

In a related development,three top bureaucrats of the country,Union Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar,Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh,arrived in the Northeast on Tuesday to make an overall assessment of security arrangements for the Lok Sabha elections in the region.

The three will reach the Assam capital on Wednesday afternoon,following which they are slated to review the security scenario in the state with top state government officers. Army officers responsible for operations against militant groups under the Unified Command Structure will also attend the meeting. Official sources said the three secretaries would meet the state and Army officers at the BSF headquarters at Patgaon on the outskirts of the Assam capital. State Chief Secretary P C Sarma,Home Commissioner Rajiv Bora and Assam DGP G M Srivastava are also attending the meet.