Blasts at ‘Hunkar Rally’ Attack on Democracy: Manmohan Samal

Bhubaneswar: The serial bomb blast on the Hunkar Rally is a blow to the democratic system of the country. It was the biggest ever rally at the Gandhi Maidan. However, there were severe, intentional, loopholes in the security system, alleged former minister Manmohan Samal at a press conference at the State party office here on Tuesday.

The Bihar Government, JD(U) didn’t provide the level of security needed to handle such a huge rally. There was lack of security outside the Maidan. These blasts and attacks are condemnable. However, due to God grace the casualty is minimal.

“We express our condolences to the families of those innocents who have lost their lives or have been injured in these blasts. Even if an alert was sounded by the Intelligence Bureau on October 1 and October 23, 2013, but the Chief Minister of Bihar and the police officials refuted any intelligence alert.”

“Notably, some Gujarat police officials intimated the BJP leaders that there was inadequate security measure along with Advance Security Liaison (ASL) which is necessary when a Chief Minister of another state is visiting. Large numbers of people were arriving by trains to witness the rally. A blast at the Patna railway station was aimed to spread panic in the whole city and was an alleged attempt to stop the rally. It is a matter of grave concern for our democratic process.”

“Even frisking of participants who came to attend the rally at various entry points had not been considerably undertaken. The blasts inside the Maidan clearly indicate that such large-scale infiltration of explosives was possible due to negligence of required preparations.”

“This attack coming in this backdrop clearly establishes the extent of radicalization which took place in the state. The blasts were intended to intimidate BJP which has always shown strong determination in fighting such anti-Indian and anti-social tendencies. Even if many police officials advised to cancel the rally, the rally was organized to give a strong message to the anti-social elements that BJP would never bow to them.”

“We demand the incident to be seriously reviewed ensuring no such incident in future. The party demands that there should be a high-level inquiry which should strictly look into the lapses and strong action should be taken against the conspirators,” said Samal.