'In India until the police, the courts, bureaucrats, politicians and media do not unite with a single-minded resolve to fight terrorism, there is no hope to succeed against terrorists who have a sizable presence in India," a serving intelligence officer told rediff.com soon after multiple blasts rocked three Uttar Pradesh cities.
"The message of these low-intensity blasts is, 'we are present right here. We have enough strength to carry on the blasts'. These blasts are carried out to create scare and frighten people," he said.
"In India, synchronisation of serial bomb blasts in different cities requires extraordinary advanced planning. Friday's blasts have shown that the hidden enemy of the nation does have the system in place to carry out deadly blasts that can kill innocents in few seconds," said the serving intelligence officer who has served abroad too.
Terrorism expert B Raman told rediff.com: "I believe these blasts have the stamp of jihadi terrorism. Like the 1993 blasts in Mumbai it has been carried out on Friday immediately after prayers. The serial blasts have been carried out in different cities unlike the 1993, 2006 Mumbai blasts, or the 1998 Coimbatore blasts, where synchronisation was necessary in a single city. These blasts have been carried out just a few days before the 15th anniversary of the Babri Masjid [demolition]."
"In India, the Students Islamic Movement of India has been involved in carrying out synchronised serial blasts in different places. In 1993, on the first anniversary of the Babri Masjid [demolition], SIMI had carried out serial blasts on trains in different places. Similar synchronisation of blasts has been carried out in 400 places in Bangladesh by the Jamiat-Ul-Muhajidin.
The presence of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence in Uttar Pradesh has always been known. So terrorism experts or the intelligence community are not really surprised by the blasts.
Former chief of the Intelligence Bureau Ajit Doval said the blasts in Uttar Pradesh were very well coordinated and planned.
"I understand cycles were used to keep the explosive devices. It is interesting that the perpetrators of the crime have deliberately chosen courts as their targets as some of their colleagues had been arrested by the state police and they had made some startling confession," he said.
