Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday accused Pakistan of providing "motivation and sustenance" to Indian Mujahideen (IM), a terror outfit that he claimed was behind three of the four major bomb attacks, including the one at a BJP rally addressed by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Patna recently.
Inaugurating a three-day conference of State Police Directors General and Inspectors General here, Shinde said the IM was also involved in the Hyderabad and the Bodhgaya blasts earlier this year, while the Bangalore blasts were the handiwork of another terror outfit Al-Ummah, which has a larger presence in Tamil Nadu.
"Indian Mujahiddeen, which draws its motivation and sustenance from inimical forces operating from across the western border, has been responsible for three out of four major terrorist attacks in our hinterland this year," Shinde said, without directly naming Pakistan, but the reference was more than apparent.
He, however, called Al-Ummah, which was also responsible for the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts in 1998, as "some misguided fundamentalist youth and remnants" of the outfit. He claimed that the police had "successfully worked out" all these cases.
But, Shinde lauded the arrest of alleged IM mastermind Yasin Bhatkal and Abdul Karim, also known as Tunda, who was also behind a number of bomb blasts in the country.
"These arrests constitute a major breakthrough in our fight against terrorism and demonstrate the resolve of the government to bring to justice all those who commit crimes of terrorism in our country," he noted.
"It is important that the leads emanating from the investigation are vigorously pursued to apprehend all those associated with this network," he said.
In this regard, Shinde announced that the scope of the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC), an intelligence outfit for coordination between central and state agencies, would now be extended to more than 450 districts across the country.
"I believe there is a dire need for upward flow of intelligence into MAC for dissemination to stakeholders, which can be achieved by upgrading the capability of special branches of state police. This is only possible if states upgrade their special branches for which the central government is prepared to extend all possible help," he offered.
Drawing the attention to "attempts being made to vitiate communal harmony, especially in Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh," the Home Minister said while this had been a rising trend this year, the most disturbing clashes took place in Muzaffarnagar and its adjoining areas in western Uttar Pradesh.
"In most of these states, the triggering factors for communal incidents were trivial in nature and could have been nipped in the bud by effective, prompt and unbiased administrative action," he said, asking the district administrations to put in place an early warning system for immediate detection of communal issues.
"For this, local administrations should maintain constant engagement with all communities, particularly in disturbance prone areas," he said. The conference will debate the issue to evolve a counter strategy to communal violence.
Lamenting the "misuse of social media," Shinde said the government favoured freedom of expression, but "mischievous use of this medium to foment trouble needs to be checked."
Recalling the last year's exodus of people from the North East in the wake of the Assam communal clashes as an example, the minister said the Muzaffarnagar riots too were fanned by similar misuse of social media.
On the misuse of cyber space, he said, there were attempts being made to revive militancy in certain states by unleashing distorted narrative about emotive events and issues on the internet to mislead and misguide the youth.
"One such sinister attempt was nipped in the bud by an alert Punjab police. It had come to notice recently that in Punjab, some self-radicalised groups had made attempt sto vitiate the atmosphere by targeting some important leaders. We need to locally monitor such situations arising out of the pernicious propaganda circulating on certain websites," he added.
Also read: