H'bad police on alert since blast in theatre

Hyderabad, May 13: Hyderabad police are on high alert since the blast in a city theatre last Sunday and have announced an award of Rs one lakh by police to anyone who gives information on the blast.

Though there were reports that Hyderabad police were recently informed by Central Intelligence personnel about possible violence by ISI sponsored modules in the city on the lines of what happened in Mumbai and Delhi, the police were silent about it. It was said city police were also alerted about the possible role of the most wanted terrorists Abu Hamza and Mohammed Shahed.

Four days after the grenade attack inside the Odeon Delux cinema in Chikkadpally in which two persons were injured, Hyderabad Police Commissioner P K Mohanty told the media they could not get major clues from the scene of offence. He said anyone who gave information would be given an identity code comprising five characters, starting with an alphabet followed by four numbers.

Information could be passed through the telephone to two designated officials - Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rajiv Trivedi and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Crime Station) T V Shashidhar Reddy, he added.

Police suspect that ISI-sponsored groups in Hyderabad had changed their terror targets from police stations and places of worship to public places like commercial complexes, malls and theatres. After the LeT-suspected blast at a temple in Dilsuknagar in 2002, in which two persons were killed, police unearthed explosives in 2004 that were reportedly meant to blast a Ganesh Temple in Secunderabad.

At the same time police tightened security near important police stations after a human bomb (Dalin, a Bangladeshi militant) exploded at the Task Force police office at Begumpet, killing a home guard on October 12, 2005. In the recent theatre blast, police strongly suspected that ISI-sponsored groups were behind it.

It is believed that associates of Abu Hamza and Mohammed Shahid masterminded the attack in Odeon and they might have more plans.

UNI