Year after Varanasi blasts, no anti-terror cell in UP

Wednesday marked the first anniversary of the twin blasts at Sankatmochan and Varanasi cantonment railway station.

Wednesday marked the first anniversary of the twin blasts at Sankatmochan and Varanasi cantonment railway station. Yet, the Anti-Terrorists Cell (ATC) that the state DGP had announced a year ago is still to be set up.

Investigation into the Varanasi blasts and Shramjeevi Express found that many young people from the state are being trained for jehad in Pakistan.

In the absence of a specialised anti-terrorist cell, the Special Task Force’s job of tracing the escaped Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants Masood Ahemad and Mohammed Syed. Both terrorists, who are Pakistani nationals, managed to escape from police custody on February 27.

Story continues below this ad

And this, is not an isolated case. On January 18 last year, dreaded LeT terrorist Ali Ahemad alias Abu Zaidi, jumped off the Sealdah-Jammu Tawi Express near Varanasi station. “His escape would not have been possible without support from the local links of LeT,” said a source in the intelligence agency.

Moreover, the December 12, 2006, arrest of Pakistani nationals Abdul Shakur and Adil Anjum came as an eye-opener to the UP police about the links between ISI agents in UP and Gujarat. This year saw the arrest of another ISI agent Javed Akhtar in Varanasi on February 1.

The signs are loud and clear. But they don’t seem to be enough for the UP government to set up an ATC.

EXCLUSIVE: EC brings in feature to check misuse of identity to seek voter list deletions

Political Pulse1 hr ago

The Election Commission has launched a new 'e-sign' feature on its portal and app to prevent fraud. This comes after allegations of misuse of online voter deletion forms in Karnataka. The feature requires voters to verify their identity using their Aadhaar-linked phone numbers, reducing the possibility of fraud.

View all shorts

Live Blog