Against The Stereotype
- The Sept 29 Malegaon blast killed 6, injured 90
- Tipoff led Maharashtra ATS to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, two ex-servicemen, others
- MoD has permitted the investigation of a Lt Col of the AEC
- ATS is probing if RDX used in the blast came from army depot
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Hindu bombs to counter Islamic terrorism? The idea did apparently hold some appeal for a group of young activists led by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. She and her associates are now in the custody of Maharashtra's anti-terrorism squad (ATS) for allegedly planting an RDX-laden bomb on a motorcycle parked outside the sealed SIMI office in Malegaon, northern Maharashtra, on September 29. The blast, a day before Id, killed six people and injured 90.
A month on, the investigations are heading in a direction hitherto untaken. They point to those with associations, past or present, with the Sangh parivar, and of those with links to the Indian army. Last week, the ATS wrote to the Union defence ministry for permission to interrogate a lieutenant colonel of the Army Education Corps (AEC), who it says has links in the buzzing Hindu hardline circuits of Madhya Pradesh. Permission has since been granted. On a tipoff, a 15-member ATS team had left for Indore within days of the Malegaon blast; it had questioned as many as 60 people before zeroing in on seven, five of whom were brought to Nashik-Malegaon for investigation.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur being brought to court in Nashik
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