Terrorist attacks by Mujahideen in Gujarat, India
The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings were a series of 21 bomb blasts that hit Ahmedabad, India, on 26 July 2008, within a span of 70 minutes. Fifty-six people were killed and over 200 people were injured. Ahmedabad is the cultural and commercial heart of Gujarat state and a large part of western India. The blasts were considered to be of low intensity and were similar to the Bangalore blasts, Karnataka which occurred the day before. This bombings were done by Pakistani Islamic Terrorist group Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami.
Several TV channels had received an e-mail from a terror outfit called Indian Mujahideen claiming responsibility for the terror attacks; Islamic militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, however, has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Gujarat police arrested the suspected mastermind, Mufti Abu Bashir, along with nine others, in connection to the bombings.
In a verdict given by Ahmedabad special court in February 2022, of the 77 accused, 28 were acquitted for lack of evidence, 11 were sentenced to life imprisonment and 38 were sentenced to death.
Bombings.
The bombs were planted in Tiffin carriers on bicycles, a pattern similar to the 13 May 2008 Jaipur bombings. Many of the blasts targeted the city bus service of AMTS (Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service), ripping apart portions of the vehicles. Two blasts took place inside the premises of two hospitals, about 40 minutes after the initial series of blasts. One of the blasts in the hospitals occurred when injured victims of the initial series of blasts were being admitted there. Another bomb was found and defused on the following day in the Hatkeshwar area. Two live bombs were also retrieved from Maninagar, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's constituency.
Gujarat police recovered and defused two more bombs in Surat, another major city in Gujarat, a day after the Ahmedabad blasts. Two cars filled with materials required to make explosives, including detonators, were also found, one of them parked on a roadside near a hospital, and the other in the outskirts of Surat.
Warning of attacks through e-mail.
Several news agencies reported receiving a 14-page e-mail five minutes before the explosions with the subject line: "Await 5 minutes for the revenge of Gujarat", apparently referring to the 2002 Gujarat violence which took place after the Godhra train burning incident. The e-mail was sent by the Islamic extremist group known as Indian Mujahideen on 26 July at around 6:41pm IST.
The contents of the e-mail warned of attacks in 5 minutes: "In the name of Allah the Indian Mujahideen strike again! Do whatever you can, within 5 minutes from now, feel the terror of Death!"
The e-mail also contained threats against Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, and his deputy, R.R. Patil, with the claim, "We wonder at your memory. Have you forgotten the evening of 11 July 2006 so quickly and so easily?"
Furthermore, the threats went on to warn Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries to "think-twice" before "usurping and building a citadel on a land in Mumbai that belongs to the Waqf board...lest it turns into horrifying memories for you which you will never ever forget".
The e-mail also reportedly threatened several Bollywood actors, asking them to stop acting.
Police reported that they questioned U.S. national Ken Haywood from whose IP address the threatening email was sent. Haywood's residence in the Sanpada area of Navi Mumbai was raided by ATS officials on 27 July after the IP address from which a threatening email was sent minutes before the Ahmedabad serial blasts was found to be his.
Casualties.
56 people were killed by the bombing and over 200 people were injured.
Initially, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sanctioned an ex gratia payment of ₹ 100,000 (US$2,300) to the next of kin of the dead. However, upon visiting Ahmedabad, he raised the ex gratia figure to ₹ 350,000 (US$8,050). In addition, he also announced a compensation of ₹ 50,000 (US$1,200) for those injured in the blasts.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi announced a compensation of Rs 500,000 (US$11,500) to each victim of the bomb blasts.
Investigations.
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami has claimed the responsibility of the blasts. The email mentioned that "the innocent Muslims arrested in the (Mumbai), bomb blast case are being tried for years and years."
Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said the Centre dispatched one team of bomb experts and decided to convene a meeting of top officials of state governments to discuss the situation arising out of the recent explosions.
According to the "Times of India" the intelligence community believes that both blasts of Bangalore and Ahmedabad were executed by a network of Wahabi fundamentalists masquerading as Indian Mujahideen.
Legal case.
Controversy arose in the court case of the 26 accused as the state was alleged to have suppressed the legal rights of the accused. On 23 October lawyers of the accused walked out in protest against the stand taken by the Metropolitan Magistrate. The lawyers wanted to meet the accused alone, however, they had moved an application stating that police did not allow them to meet their clients alone and that the Court should direct the police not to remain present while they were talking to the accused. The Metropolitan Magistrate countered that it was not possible as police had to be with the accused. He is said to have hinted at collusion between the lawyers and the accused, causing a walk out by the accused's lawyers. The next day, in two different cases, the designated Metropolitan Court remanded all the 26 accused to police custody until 31 October.
As per the legal rules police have to file a chargesheet in any case before 90 days of the first arrest of the case. However, on 11 November, about three and half months after blasts and the late July arrest, the Gujarat police filed a chargesheet, pertaining to the city civil hospital blast and L G hospital blast case, in a court naming 26 people, all with alleged linked to SIMI, as accuseds in the case. A 2,000-page chargesheet was filed in the court of the Metropolitan Magistrate, G M Patel. The accused included SIMI activists Mufti Abu Basher, Safdar Nagori and Sajid Mansuri. The chargesheet also listed the names of 50 absconders, and that police had so far examined 511 potential witnesses.
Similarities.
Similarities between the Bangalore and Ahmedabad bombings were investigated, where the former suffered from eight blasts and the latter 21. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Prakash Jaiswal told reporters in Kanpur that the similarities between this and the Bangalore blasts was that both "blasts were of low intensity" and were planted in crowded areas. Furthermore, both states – Karnataka and Gujarat – have BJP led governments.
Further threats.
The threat of terror continued even after Ahmedabad blasts. The Gujarat police discovered an active bomb which was set to detonate at 12:00am IST in Hatkeshwar, Maninagar. A bomb squad was quick to respond and successfully managed to defuse the bomb in front of a large crowd, which rose to jubilation and applause upon bomb's defusion.
Kerala.
A phone call from Pakistan to a Karnataka journalist claimed there would be more blasts in Kerala on Sunday. Kerala police chief Raman Srivastava said: "I have been informed by the DGP of Karnataka about the terror threat to Kerala. We spoke to the journalist concerned, who said he had received two calls today – one at 1 pm and another at 3:30 pm."
Surat.
On the following Monday, just days after the Ahmedabad blasts, another bomb was found in Varachha area of Surat. The bomb was placed near an electricity transmitter and contained a packet 700–800 grams of ammonium nitrate, a packet of shrapnel, two detonators, one battery, and a circuit. This was found after the two car bombs that were discovered immediately after Ahmedabad attacks.
On Tuesday, 29 July, eighteen bombs were found in Surat, and were subsequently defused. They were found mainly in the diamond-processing and residential areas of Surat, within a span of just four hours. According to the Times of India, a top government official believed that the planting of so many "unexploded" bombs was probably a means to divert attention of the police from the ongoing blast probe. After Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi visited the city another bomb was found and defused by a bomb disposal squad. All in all, 23 bombs were found in three days in Surat.
Forensic investigations revealed that the bombs had not exploded because the circuits had been wrongly assembled. The police were not sure whether that was on purpose or a way to estimate the reaction time of the bomb squad, for planning future attacks.
Rajasthan.
Three bombs were detected on the road in Pali district, near Marwar Junction in Rajasthan. The bombs, put in half-litre oil containers, were planted on the Marwar-Ranawas Road at gap of one km and were spotted by onlookers. The box carried a bundle of fuse wire, 30–40 marbles, 8 iron plates, and detonator. There was no timer nor any electronic device attached to the explosives. The bombs were defused by the bomb squad.
Tamil Nadu.
In Tamil Nadu, Sheikh Abdul Ghaffoor, 39, was arrested with an alleged plan of carrying out bombings on Independence Day, 15 August 2008. The plot included bombing the state capital Chennai along with three other cities in Tamil Nadu and at least six trains. Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai is believed to be on top of the list for such terror attack. The man was detained with a large cache of explosives and two timer devices. Apparently, it is believed that the plot was revealed by an arrested leader, P Ali Abdullah, of a banned organisation, who has been serving sentences in an Indian jail since 2003. Chennai city police later on 1 August 2008 announced that the arrests were not linked with either the Ahmedabad or Bangalore blasts.
Kolkata.
An E-Mail was sent to Kolkata on 29 July 2008 to bomb 8 different locations in Kolkata. Subsequently, high alert was placed in Kolkata but the e-mail turned out to be a hoax.
New Delhi.
Another email was sent to the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on 30 July 2008 to bomb several locations in Delhi. The mail was forwarded to the Delhi Police from the embassy and the city was placed under a Red Alert. The email threatened to bomb Sarojini Nagar, which had been a target in the October 2005 bombings. Further to these threats Japan closed its embassy in New Delhi on 31 July 2008 and also issue warning to its citizens living in India to avoid crowded places like markets and train stations. Nevertheless, the initial examination of a youth arrested for sending emails to the Japanese embassy indicated that he might suffer from some mental problems. Delhi police revealed that the youth who sent the email was frustrated of a failed visa application to the embassy and the email threat was a hoax.
Criticism.
In criticizing the central government Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management said "India's police to population ratio is one of the lowest in the world, barring the poorer African countries. There is a high deficit of personnel in intelligence gathering. The IB has barely 3,500 field officers. We need to address these shortcomings."
P R Chari, a research professor at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, said "the blasts were a demonstration of their (terrorists) capabilities and a terse reminder of the state's helplessness."
BJP president Rajnath Singh also blamed the UPA government for its "soft approach" to terrorism that has allowed terrorists to grow bolder. He also took the government to task for repealing POTA and for "sleeping over the anti-terror laws like GUJCOCA (an anti-terror law adopted by the Gujarat Assembly)". Gujarat Congress chief Siddharth Patel said: "'The Gujarat government has failed miserably on the law and order front." Adding that the terror attack pointed to the "total failure' of the state's intelligence machinery."
Sushma Swaraj, a senior leader of the BJP, at a press conference in Delhi, claimed the ruling UPA government had a conspiratorial hand in the blasts to divert attention from the allegations of bribery as well as to gain Muslim votes. The "Times of India" called her comments "scandalous" and "outrageous remarks". The Congress party's spokesman, Shakeel Ahmed said that Sushma Swaraj should be "tried for treason" and her comments have "given a clean chit to terrorists and anti-national, disruptive forces both within and outside India". Later on 31 July 2008, BJP's spokesperson, Prakash Javdekar, clarified that the allegation of conspiracy made by Sushma