Sandesh Prabhudesai
14 July 2000
It appears on a face value that Goa is cool and calm after the sole bomb blast that occurred in a Vasco church on 8 June along with three more in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, shaking up the whole country.
But it has been a very hard exercise for the Goa police since then, with sleepless nights and moving around all over the state, in search of a smallest clue possible with a great hope that it may take them close to the enemy.
In spite of having nothing concrete in their hands even after nearly 40 days, they still appear certain about making a major breakthrough very shortly as the incident of a blast in a speeding car in Bangalore has helped them a big deal.
They, however, are very much secretive about the whole probe.
"We have to be secretive in the interest of the national security as we are dealing with the enemies of the country", says Karnal Singh, the Goa DIG, who is heading the probe here with the help of the whole team of the local CID crime branch.
While sometimes he is personally on a visit to many places like the port town of Vasco or South Goa district town of Margao or closeted himself with the whole lot of junior officers in his chamber till late night, engrossed into discussions.
"Sometimes even in-camera confabulations bear fruits instead of simply running behind the clues without a firm direction", he says. The crime branch personnel, till date, have interrogated over 100 people, suspected to be having connection with the accused.
Besides finding a link by shortlisting PCO numbers in Vasco and Wadei in Karnataka, where the bomb blasts took place simultaneously, the police have also scrutinised all the names registered in the 'madrasa' as well as by exploiting all the known links they have unearthed.
With a Goa-registered Maruti van involved in the blast in Bangalore on Sunday, the investigating team initially looked quite enthusiastic till they found that it was sold to Ibrahim, the only surviving accused in the car, in a usual manner how the brokers sell it to any buyer.
"But the Bangalore link has definitely helped us, providing us with some definite clues", says Singh, who still appears firm that there cannot be any other agency than the ISI behind it, though Ibrahim belonged to the Siddiqui sect or had some connections with the naxalite group like the PWG in the past.
But the police is still not ready to believe that the whole sect or religious organisation of fanatics is solely involved in it. They still insist on the ISI theory, claiming that such activities cannot take place without the provocation of some outside forces like the ISI, in a well-co-ordinated manner.
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