Replying to a short duration discussion in Rajya Sabha on the growing incidents of terror attacks in the country, with special reference to July 13 Mumbai terror attacks, the Home Minister revealed that the home grown terror groups were inspired by outside but are totally Indian.
For the first time the government has pointed towards the involvement of a homegrown terror group for the three explosions in Mumbai.
The Home Minister also said all over the world right wing fascist forces were on the rise and India is no exception to it.
“While no conclusion has been reached, all indications point to Indian module,” Chidambaram said about the Mumbai blasts, adding that perhaps it could be the same module that carried out a blast in the German Bakery in Pune last year.
Mr. Chidambaram said that these modules do not belong to one religion. “All indications in the July 13th serial bomb blasts in Mumbai show involvement of some Indian module but there was no conclusion yet” he said.
The Home Minister said that the government was putting in place an architecture that will involve strengthening intelligence gathering, sharing and other counter terrorism steps.
He said National Intelligence Grid, NATGRID, conceived after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, will be a reality in 18 months. It will be subsumed in the National Counter Terrorism Centre, NCTC, once it comes into force.
The Home Minister said that the formation of National Intelligence Agency (NIA) on 1st of January 2009 has been of immense success in filing charge sheets against the terror accused.
The Home Minister admitted that the blast in Pune in February last year and the recent serial explosions in Mumbai were a blot and said all efforts are being made to prevent such recurrences in the future.
He said that India has the most troubled and vulnerable neighbourhood in the world. The epicenter of terrorism has shifted to the Pakistan- Afghanistan area. “Unless and until these threats are removed, the country will have to live in the shadow of terrorism” he said.
The debate on terrorism in the backdrop of recent serial blasts in Mumbai, which remained inconclusive Wednesday, resumed on Thursday with members of Opposition as also UPA ally NCP accusing the government of being soft towards terrorism.
Senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi charged the government with promoting ‘terrorist-friendly policies. Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said that a strong political will and resolve was needed to fight terrorism and in this context, cited the example of US which was never attacked after 9/11. Mr. Jaitley said that the determination to fight terror must be extended to India’s foreign policy makers.
He alleged that vote bank policies were weakening the fight against terrorism and questioned repeal of strong laws like POTA. The discussion was initiated by Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi on Wednesday.