‘Cycle & bombs’: PM Modi targets Samajwadi Party on terror, says it withdrew cases against accused

Referring to the Ahmedabad blasts, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi said: “Maine uss rakt se geeli hui uss mitti ko utha karke main sankalp liya tha ki meri sarkar inn atankwadiyon ko pataal se bhi khoj karke saja degi… aapne dekha hai abhi do din pehle he Ahmedabad bomb dhamake ke doshiyon ko saja mili hai. Jo hum Bharatiyon ko tabah karna chahte thhe unhein adalat ne saja sunai hai. Anek atankwadiyon ko faansi ki saja mili hai (“I had taken a pledge with that bloodsoaked soil that my government will find these terrorists even in hell and punish them. You would have seen two days ago that punishment was announced by the court to those guilty in the Ahmedbad bomb blasts who wanted to destroy us Indians. The death sentence has been announced for several terrorists).”

Modi said that he was speaking about the issue especially because “certain political parties” have been “merciful” towards terrorists and adopted a “soft” approach to terrorism “for the sake of vote banks”. He described this approach as a “threat to the nation” and said every citizen must realise that.

Referring again to the perpetrators of the Ahmedabad blasts, Modi said: “Lekin inhone kya kiya… Yahan Samajwadi Party ka joh chunav symbol hai na, unka chunav ka nishan hai na, toh shuru mein jo bomb dhamake hue woh saare ke saare unhone bomb cycle par rakhe hue thhe. Cycle par bomb rakhe hue thhe… aur jahan log sabzi wagairah kharidne ke liye aate hain, wahan cycle park karke chale gaye thhe, aur ek samay chaaron taraf yeh cyclon par rakhe hue bomb dhamake phute (What did they do? The Samajwadi Party’s election symbol here, it is their election symbol. In the blasts that occurred first, bombs were planted on bicycles and these bicycles were parked at places where people come to buy vegetables, etc. These bombs planted on bicycles bombs went off simultaneously).”

“Main hairan hun yeh cycle ko unhone kyun pasand kiya (I am surprised why they preferred the bicycle),” Modi said.

On July 26, 2008, 22 blasts took place within 70 minutes at various locations in Ahmedabad, with explosives placed in buses and cars, and on parked bicycles.

On Sunday, Modi went on to refer to the blasts at the Sankatmochan temple and the Varanasi Cantonment railway station in 2006, when the SP was in power. He said that when the SP came to power again in 2013, its government took the decision to withdraw the case against the accused Shamim Ahmed.

“Is it acceptable to you? Was the decision to withdraw the case against the accused in the Kashi blasts appropriate?” Modi said. He then asked the crowd: “Yeh logon ko aap kabhi bhi mauka denge to yeh apni wardaten karenge ki nahin karenge (If you will give them opportunity, will they create similar incidents or not?”)

Modi also accused the SP government in 2013 of deciding to withdraw cases against Tariq Qasmi, who was accused in a terror attack in Gorakhpur in 2007. He pointed out that the court did not accept the decision and later sentenced the accused to 20 years in jail.

Modi also said the SP government in 2013 had withdrawn cases against the accused in the blasts that occurred on court premises in Lucknow and Ayodhya in 2007. “But the court in that matter did not allow the conspiracy of the Samajwadi government and pronounced life term imprisonment for the terrorist,” he said.

Asserting that the SP government had issued orders for the withdrawal of cases against terror accused in 14 cases, he said: “Is it okay to show mercy to terrorists? Are these games of protecting terrorists okay?”

“Aur aaj lipapoti karne nikle ho. Yeh log visphot kar rahe thhe, dhamake kar rahe thhe, aur Samajwadi Party sarkar in atankwadiyon par mukadma tak nahin chalne de rahi thi. Atankwadiyon ko case wapsi ka return gift diya ja raha tha (And you [SP] have come out to cover it all up. They were doing blasts and the Samajwadi Party government was not even allowing trials to be conducted against those terrorists. The terrorists were being given return gifts in the form of case withdrawal),” he said.

Modi also targeted the Congress and alleged that the party addressed Osama Bin Laden as “Osama ji”, and that it cried over the killing of terrorists in the Batla House encounter, and insulted Indian Army and the police.

In 2013, following up on its poll promise that it would withdraw terror cases against innocent Muslim youths, the SP government ordered the withdrawal of charges against 19 people, citing insufficient evidence in courts.

The Allahabad High Court stayed the government’s move while hearing a PIL filed by advocate Ranjana Agnihotri, along with five others. Agnihotri’s lawyer, Hari Shankar Jain, said: “The (then) state government filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court against the stay, and it is still pending.”

Among the 19 were alleged HuJI operatives Shamim Ahmed and Tariq Qasmi.

Ahmed was booked for allegedly planting a bomb in Varanasi in 2016 — the bomb did not explode. He was named in the chargesheet along with a cleric, Waliullah, and three students in Deoband from Bangaldesh.

Waliullah’s lawyer Aarif Ali said: “The trial of Waliullah has reached the final stage (in a local court) as arguments have been completed. The three other accused and Shamim were never caught. Waliullah is currently lodged at Dasna jail (Ghaziabad).”

Qasmi, a Unani practitioner from Azamgarh, was arrested in Barabanki after police claimed to have recovered explosives from his possession in December 2007. He was subsequently booked in three other cases related to blasts that occurred earlier that year in the Lucknow and Faizabad courts, and in Gorakhpur — five people were killed.

The SP government filed withdrawal applications in two cases linked to the blasts. But the courts rejected the government’s plea. “Tariq has been convicted to life imprisonment in all the four cases. An appeal in all four cases have been filed in Allahabad High Court and are pending,” said his lawyer Mohammad Shoaib. Qasmi, who is married and has four children, is lodged in Barabanki jail.