Author:
Publication: Rediff
on Net
Date: July 20, 2000.
The Maharashtra government
said Thursday the militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba was behind recent bomb
blasts in Marathwada and affirmed that it was maintaining a strict vigil
and will deal firmly with any eventuality.
The government is also
co-ordinating with neighbouring Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and a meeting
of director generals of police of the three states was recently held to
chalk out a joint strategy to tackle the situation, Minister of State for
Home Manikrao Thakre told the assembly.
Thakre was replying to
a calling attention notice moved by Shobha Phadanvis (Bharatiya Janata
Party) and others regarding the militant organisation's activities in Dharmabad
and Nanded. The notice sought to know the action taken by the government
in connection with bomb blasts in a room in Dharmabad on November 7, 1998
and in a cinema hall in Nanded last February.
Azam Gauri, self-styled
commander of the Indian Muslim Mohammadi Mujahideen was behind the blasts,
he said, adding that investigations had established Gauri's links with
the Lashkar-E-Toiba. Gauri was killed in an encounter with the Andhra
Pradesh police last April, Thakre said.
Based on a diary found
on Gauri, police raided the premises of the organisation in Nanded and
recovered around Rs 1.5 million, four foreign-made revolvers, two country-made
pistols and a detonator, he added.
Ten persons have been
arrested while Roshan Baig and Abdul Wahi are at large, the minister added.