Azamgarh emerges as nursery of terror activities

New Delhi, Sept 22 : While the Delhi police claims to have decoded the terror links that shook the national capital on September 13 a small town of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh is coming into limelight for all the wrong reasons.

Once known for Hindu-Muslim synergy and high intellect, the region is now being tagged as the new breeding ground for the militants. The intelligence authorities believe that the region has proved to be a fertile ground for many militant outfits.

The police said that 13 school friends hailing from Azamgarh planned and executed the recent serial blasts in Delhi.

Azamgarh is a poor town in Uttar Pradesh. The poverty stricken, unemployed, and illiterate young men are often forced to leave their hometown and hunt for jobs elsewhere. Most of the Muslim families have their kin working either in gulf countries or in bigger cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

It is believed that lack of proper educational institutions and presence of militant outfits provides a perfect setting for misleading people of the town.

"The main reason is lack of education and the motivators that these people get easily, who mislead them to do the wrong. They have been used. Guardians even don't know where their kids are," said Subhash Singh, a journalist.

The land that produced people like renowned poets like Kaifi Azmi and scholars like Rahul Sankrityayana has got into dirty world of terror after Abu Salem became a big player in the underworld. The youth of the town seem to senselessly ape his misdeeds.

The residents of Azamgarh are ashamed that 13 schoolboys of their district carried out the inhumane act of planting the bombs.

"After knowing this, whole lawyers association is very upset that Rahul Sankrityayana's pious land where many scholars were born, today the citizens are in the grip of terrorism. I want to spread this message across through you people that we can fight back terrorism only if we stand united as terrorists have no caste or religion," said KPS Asthana, President, Bar Council, Azamgarh.

The police officials believe that stringent punishment might be of some help in curbing growing militant activities in the region.

"Police's main purpose is that someone who is found a culprit he should be punished so that people know that they cannot escape easily after committing a crime. Later on they can be shown the right track and inspired to do some good work," said Vijay Kumar, DIG, Azamgarh.

While two militants were killed and one arrested during a fierce encounter that took place on September 19, three more arrests were made on September 21.

ANI