RAF stages flag march in Malegaon

Malegaon, Sep 12 (UNI) Rapid Action Force today staged a flag march in this blast-hit town to instill confidence among the residents, ahead of a threat of agitation by a local Muslim leader.

The threat to launch agitation was made at a condolence meeting held at Bada Kabrastan, site of three of the four blasts which claimed 31 lives in this predominantly Muslim town on Friday.

The meeting, oranised by former Janata Dal (S) MLA Nihal Ahmed last night, threatened to launch agitation to protest police failure in catching perpetrators of the crime.

Though there was no consensus on the date of the agitation, September 25 was ruled out as the holy month of Ramzan could commence that day.

Police have questioned more than 40 people and released sketches of three suspects but no arrest has been made so far.

Police have sent teams of investigators outside Maharashtra to solve the case after having identified contents of the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used in the crime. Though the contents - a mixture of RDX, ammonium nitrate and fuel oil - have turned out to be the same as were found in the serial train blasts in Mumbai, yet investigators have not been able to conclusively establish linkage between the two crimes.

Besides one company of RAF, which staged the flag march, four companies of State Reserve Police and two of CRPF are deployed in the senstive town which has seen communcal violence in the past.

UNI AKS SA YA RAI2106