As investigators scurry for leads into the terror strikes in Pune through CCTV footages to no avail, the Union home ministry has instructed the Delhi police to undertake a comprehensive review of CCTV network in the national capital to ensure all critical areas are covered and existing cameras are in working condition.
The need for the government to plug any gaps gains urgency as only last year it was found there were no CCTV cameras installed at the Delhi high court gate where a terror attack took place on September 7, exactly five months after a failed terror bombing at the same venue. Notably, probe by the National Investigation Agency and state police into the recent Pune terror bombings is now looking at any “similarities’’ between the failed terror bombing at the Delhi high court on May 25 last year and the four explosions in Pune this week.
Incidentally, the May 25 Delhi high court blast remains unsolved even after two years. “It is too early to draw any conclusions, but we are exaimining all leads in this direction,” an official said.
There is apprehension in the security establishment that the IM may have developed new modules with new leaders adopting a fresh strategy to keep the police off-track. “The IM may have re-grouped into a new avatar which is executing the fresh terror bombings,” an official remarked.
The MHA, which prepared a dossier of 19 absconding IM operatives in 2010, concedes most of the fugitives named in its dossier are still on the run and largely hiding in Pakistan and other neighbouring countries. IM operatives Abdus Subhan Usman Qureshi, Abu Faizal and Mohsin Choudhary from Mahara-shtra, who figure in the government dossier, are still on the run.