Church Street blast: Has pressure got the better of the police?

Why has a man who was arrested in May 2014 brought down for a probe into an incident that occurred in December 2015? On Thursday, Feb 26, the Bengaluru police brought down from Patna on a body warrant two persons in connection with the Church Street blasts that claimed the life of one woman on December 28 2014.

Haider Ali alias Black Beauty and Numan Ansari both opertives of the Students Islamic Movement of India who also played a key role in the Patna serial blasts aimed at targeting Narendra Modi are being questioned by the Bengaluru police.

The role of Haider Ali and Ansari was found not only in the Patna serial blasts but also in the blast at Bodhgaya in Bihar. Both were members of the SIMI and have been chargesheeted by the National Investigating Agency.

Police is under immense pressure

It does raise eyebrows that two persons arrested almost an year back were brought down for questioning in connection with the two month old Church Street blasts case. The investigating team however makes it clear that these persons were brought down to obtain some leads.

We are not suggesting that they were involved, but we suspect that they may be aware of a module that carried out the blast on Church Street, an officer informed oneindia.

Spare a thought for the police though. They are under immense pressure as they have not been able to make one single breakthrough till date. To make matters worse the minister of state for home said two days in the Rajya Sabha that there has been no progress made in the case.

The statement in the Rajya Sabha was completely contrary to what the Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru city, M N Reddi had said a week back. Reddi had claimed that they had identified the culprits and in a few days time they would reveal the entire modus operandi.

CCTV footage, mobile tracking led to nothing

Although some officers claim that they have some footage obtained from the blast site, there has been nothing concrete to sugges that they could have got leads from there. The images were hazy and at least twice, the footage has led them on to the wrong person or no person.

In addition to this the police also tracked 1.5 lakh mobile numbers to get leads into the case. However there was no luck on that front too. The total absence of communication proved to a major stumbling block for the police in their investigation.

This prompted the Bengaluru police to go back to the basics. Teams had been formed and posted in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Bihar to get more clues into the case. It is however unclear what these teams were doing, but when asked the police say they are hunting for leads.

What can Haider Ali provide?

The police say that this is not some run of the mill exercise. Haider Ali headed the SIMI in Bihar and was responsible for the Patna and Bodhgaya blasts. He is aware of the network and in today's scenario the SIMI is active and has been aiming at a come back.

We suspect that the explosives that were used in the Church Street and Patna blasts are similar in nature. This has led us to believe that the explosives could have been procured from the same source.

Haider Ali who was the head of the SIMI at the time of his arrest was well aware of all the channels and modules that were supplying the explosives. He will be able to tell us the source and channel through which the explosives landed in Bengaluru too, an officer informed.