Threat to blow up ATS Chief

Close on the heels of growing murky politics over Malegaon bomb blast accused comes yet another bomb shell. And this time an anonymous caller, using a PCO to contact Pune police, threatened to blow up the residence of Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Chief Hemant Karkare. In the call, according to Rajendra Sonavane, Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP), Pune, the unknown caller has warned to blow up Karkare’s house "within a couple of days".

Sonavane said that the caller who spoke a few lines in Marathi on November 24 evening cut the line after giving the threat. The call was later traced to a Public booth in Sahkar Nagar area of the city, he added. Asked whether it was being seen as a 'hoax', the JCP said police were taking all such threats seriously in the present scenario and the Mumbai ATS had been informed duly about the threat call.

Since the BJP and its allies have taken aggressive attack on ATS for alleged torture of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and other accused of Malegaon bomb blast, Hemant Karkare is under huge pressure to come clean on the issue. He has been accused of highhandedness with the accused, a fact often followed during investigation and not new for which the BJP has been making so much cry.

By supporting the accused of terror, the trend that the BJP has initiated, in fact, is a new development in India’s fight against terror, which the party has been denying, denouncing and opposing vehemently. But with the alleged involvement of Hindu individuals and groups, the party has changed the stance: from denial to attack the party has been very vocal about the investigation, or the involvement of Hindu individuals and groups. Since the BJP has openly criticised ATS, any threat to ATS chief at this stage will further aggravate the situation.

However, the police need to thoroughly investigate the threat call to ascertain the authenticity of the caller whether it is a hoax call or someone is truly behind this. If the call is a genuine threat, it must be dealt with firmly. Else, more politics will follow whereby the BJP will accuse the Congress party for engineering the threat call, while the Congress will put blame on the BJP, and in between the people will be misled.