We didn't react to terror warning, says top cop

NAGPUR: In a candid confession, Rajasthan DGP Amarjot Singh Gill on Sunday admitted that police did receive copies of the March 2008 issue of a Nagpur weekly – Iman ki Awaaz – which reported that the walled city areas in Jaipur were infested with Wahabi groups and have become a hub of terrorist activities.
Reacting to a TOI report on Sunday on the Nagpur weekly’s disclosures that went unheeded, Gill said, "We could not understand the gravity of the developments in the city and took them more as an outcome of differences between two sects of the community."
He said it is an open secret that Barelvis and Deobandis, the two sects among the Muslims, are at daggers drawn in the city.
The Barelvis allege that a mosque was being used for terrorist activities and that over two lakh people congregated there for a religious function in February. Police also knew about a dispute between the two sects over the possession of the mosque. "We didn’t take cognizance of this dispute because such conflicts of interests between different sects of the community are commonplace in the entire country," he said.
The Nagpur daily report came after that. "We gathered the report was sent to the weekly by a Barelvi follower," Gill said, explaining why the police doubted its veracity. Also, there was no concrete evidence to suggest there were terrorists in the mosque. "There was nothing to substantiate the news report."
Iman Ki Awaaz is published from Mominpura in the heart of Nagpur. Its March 28 edition warned about the presence of Wahabi group, which believes in violence, might have something to do with a major operation in the Walled City in days to come. Its editor, Mohammed Hameed, on Saturday told TOI that copies of the weekly were circulated to all the important persons of Jaipur, including the CM, DGP and city police chief.
Although the DGP played down the report, police sources said the state intelligence had also warned about possible disturbances in the locality months ago. This prompted the government to order installation of CCTVs in the Walled City areas.
Officials, however, took little interest in the project and, as a result, it got delayed. "The delay has cost us dearly," an officer said.
Meanwhile, activists of Nagpur-based moderate group, Indian Muslim Association Noori (IMAN), were quizzed for about two hours by police top brass here at Tehsil police station on Sunday.
The activists claimed that copies of their Iman Ki Awaz had warned about growing terrorism in Rajasthan and was circulated to all police stations in Nagpur, including the office of the commissioner of police, but authorities chose to ignore them.
'Iman' activists had earlier claimed the weekly mentioning threat to Jaipur from Wahabi Muslims was sent to various authorities in Jaipur as well, including Jaipur’s commissioner of police, Rajasthan CGP and the CM.
"The city police commissioner (Satyapal Singh) denied getting any copy of the edition, we are sure we had given it to him and all police stations. It’s not our fault if he (Singh) did not get to see it," said Engineer Mohammed Hameed of 'Iman', which champions anti-terror ideology.
"I told the police commissioner that the intelligence wing of the city police lacks efficiency as sleuths engaged in the work to collect information from Muslim groups aren’t sincere," Hameed alleged.
"Either the police departments are being misled or useful information is being blocked by unscrupulous personnel in the intelligence wing," he claimed.
When contacted, Singh said, "In all the editorial contents of the four editions of 'Iman Ki Awaz' published in the last six months, the Wahabis have been allegedly associated with terrorism.
" The edition said that Rajasthan was reeling under terrorist threat but such generalisation is true for states like UP, Delhi, MP, Maharashtra and Karnataka which have been identified as terror-prone, Singh said and added that there was no specific mention about the serial blasts — just an indication of threat perception.
‘Iman’ activists claimed on Sunday that more regions in different parts of the country including Maharashtra, Delhi and MP face terror threats. They also claimed that members of terror modules like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, who attacked Parliament in December 2001, find refuge in Delhi’s prominent religious institutions.
"Apart from Delhi, JeM is fast spreading its activities in Dhulia and Nandurbar districts of Maharashtra," said Hameed said. Hameed also claimed that there is information about growing activities of the banned outfit of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in Vidarbha including Pusad (Yavatmal district), Badnera (Amravati), Balapur (Akola) and Wardha. Similarly, terror networks are active in Seoni, Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal and Jabalpore in MP, Hameed claims.