- Anil Narendra
11/7, 26/11, 13/7, 7/9 and God knows how many more terror attacks we shall have to face. Is the count going to stop somewhere or not? Leave aside the country; Delhi itself has been witness to the human miseries as a result of 15 bomb blasts during the period, Jan 9th 1997 to May 25th 2011. The Delhi High Court blast was 16th in the series. Why were the last two blasts targeted at the High Court? This too is an important question. There appears to be a number of reasons behind this. Besides getting publicity for their deeds, the terrorists are also trying to put across a message to the judges and advocates. No doubt their aim is to cause maximum damage, but they have selected the High Court as a target as a number of appeals including that of Batla House have been rejected by the Court. The Delhi High Court had rejected all Batla House appeals in 2009. The hearing for 1993 Mumbai blast case was also due on Wednesday, the day of blast. We can definitely see a pattern in these attacks, if we consider terror attacks in Court premises. Within a span of fifteen minutes between 13.15 to 13.30 hrs, there were cycle bomb blasts on 23 November 2007 in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi, which claimed 15 lives and more than 80 persons were wounded. Then there were blasts in Hubli District Court on 10th May, 2008, where a case against SIMI activists was due for hearing two days later. Another bomb blast near the CJM Court in Guwahati occurred on 30th October 2008. There were six blasts on that day in Guwahati. One of the blasts was triggered in the Court complex.
One terrorist with an explosive belt entered the advocate chambers in Aara District and as he sat down, blasted himself. An advocate was killed and six other persons were wounded in this incident. There was another bomb blast on 25 May 2011 in the Delhi High Court complex and now it was on Wednesday. By blasting bombs in a Court complex, the terrorists also want to make some judges their prey, who might be passing nearby. They had been trying to kill two birds with one stone.
When we talk of judges, it may be recalled that judges have given a clear message to the terrorists that they are not afraid of them. The High Court announced that it will start functioning in the afternoon at 14-00hrs on the same day. Courts were not closed. The judges boldly responded and told the terrorists in no uncertain terms that they are not going to cow down by their threats and the court proceedings would not be stopped. After the bomb blast on Wednesday, the Delhiwallas showed exemplary enthusiasm. The High Court judges also joined hands and advocates and court staff rendered help to the wounded. A judge from Tees Hazari Court, Shri Ajay Pandey along with two or three other judges reached the blood donation centre and voluntary donated blood.
They were driven by the urge that there should be no deficiency in treatment of wounded and there should be no shortage of blood, which may result in death to the wounded. It may be mentioned that ShriPandey was the judge, who had gone to Ramlila Ground to lend support to the Jan Lokpal Bill movement of Anna Hazare. After donating blood, he said that he had come there as a humanitarian gesture and a person must always listen to the voice of his conscience and decide in the larger interest of humanity.
The victims of these bomb blasts are always the poor and common man. There only fault is that they are present at the wrong place and at the wrong time. When the blast occurred on Wednesday at Delhi High Court, people were standing in a queue to get their visitor passes. An eye witness advocate told that the place where the blast occurred is the busiest area of the Court. This is the time, when hundreds of people come here to get their visitor passes to enter the Court premises. Rahul Gupta of Rohini was in a hurry to enter the Court premises; as such he came to the front in the queue. His pass was
almost ready and as he pushed his hand in the window to take it, there was a powerful blast. He staggered and fell down. When he tried to look behind towards his friends in the queue, he could see nothing.
Black smoke had engulfed him. For a minute, he was unable to understand anything. When the smoke thinned, he could see blood splattered all around. Someone's head had been severed from his body.
Another's severed arm was lying. Some persons had lost their legs. There was another unfortunate person from Geeta Colony, Inder Singh. Death has given him a call. He had received a court notice on a case that has been closed nine years back. He along with his son had come to the High Court for the hearing of the case. Inder Singh stood at the senior citizen counter for getting his visitor pass, and his son Harjeet went to another counter where crowd was relatively thinner.
Then the blast occurred. Inder Singh died at the spot, whereas Harjeet, standing at another counter, got minor injuries. Brijesh and his wife Nalini had come to the High Court from Vasant Vihar in connection with a case. His wife went a few steps ahead of him, when there was the massive blast and Nalini lost her life. Brijesh fainted.
When he came around, he realized that his family was ruined. A woman had entered Gate No 5 without getting a visitor pass. She was stopped by the security personnel and was asked to get a pass for entry into the Court premises. When she went towards the counter, there was the blast and she died. An eye witness narrated blood chilling incident.
He told that a body had flown high and got entangled on an iron rod at a nearby construction site. Someone had lost his leg, another, his arm. A person had lost both of his legs and was dragging himself to a safer place to save his life. A woman had lost half of her body. An advocate, Sugreev Dubey told that the case of his client Gurmail Singh was listed for Wednesday. He had advised him not to come to Court, as there would be no progress in the case on that day, but his client did not took his advice seriously and came to the Court. Standing on the counter, there was a blast and Gurmail got serious injuries on his hands and legs. Even three advocates, who had come to help their clients were also got wounded in the blast. There are numerous such pathetic incidents.
almost ready and as he pushed his hand in the window to take it, there was a powerful blast. He staggered and fell down. When he tried to look behind towards his friends in the queue, he could see nothing.
Black smoke had engulfed him. For a minute, he was unable to understand anything. When the smoke thinned, he could see blood splattered all around. Someone's head had been severed from his body.
Another's severed arm was lying. Some persons had lost their legs. There was another unfortunate person from Geeta Colony, Inder Singh. Death has given him a call. He had received a court notice on a case that has been closed nine years back. He along with his son had come to the High Court for the hearing of the case. Inder Singh stood at the senior citizen counter for getting his visitor pass, and his son Harjeet went to another counter where crowd was relatively thinner.
Then the blast occurred. Inder Singh died at the spot, whereas Harjeet, standing at another counter, got minor injuries. Brijesh and his wife Nalini had come to the High Court from Vasant Vihar in connection with a case. His wife went a few steps ahead of him, when there was the massive blast and Nalini lost her life. Brijesh fainted.
When he came around, he realized that his family was ruined. A woman had entered Gate No 5 without getting a visitor pass. She was stopped by the security personnel and was asked to get a pass for entry into the Court premises. When she went towards the counter, there was the blast and she died. An eye witness narrated blood chilling incident.
He told that a body had flown high and got entangled on an iron rod at a nearby construction site. Someone had lost his leg, another, his arm. A person had lost both of his legs and was dragging himself to a safer place to save his life. A woman had lost half of her body. An advocate, Sugreev Dubey told that the case of his client Gurmail Singh was listed for Wednesday. He had advised him not to come to Court, as there would be no progress in the case on that day, but his client did not took his advice seriously and came to the Court. Standing on the counter, there was a blast and Gurmail got serious injuries on his hands and legs. Even three advocates, who had come to help their clients were also got wounded in the blast. There are numerous such pathetic incidents.
Who is responsible for these frequent miseries? Public want answer, only speeches won't do. We need accountability. Which officers are responsible for failing to stop these terror strikes? Who amongst them proved ineffective? Who did such mistake or allowed it to happen? We will have to ask these questions. We shall have to make a clear and simple list, which shall explain that despite involvement of such big names, such influential designations and such a clear mandate, why there was such a big criminal negligence, resulting in such pathetic deaths. Trials for such offenders must be held within 24 hours. There should be Special Courts to hear such cases. No sections with ifs and buts, hearing within a specified time-frame must be ensured. Specified time for appeals, arguments, pointed and tricky questions of advocates should be allowed. Whether it was his or her duty or not? Carried out his/her duty with 100 percent honesty or not? All this can be proved in a day. If found guilty of not performing duty, send him or her to jail. If they have shown dutifulness, then only they may be sent to fight terrorism against. Who are ready to make sacrifices, should only be sent to the war against terror. There is no place for officers seeking career in this war against terrorism. The Opposition demands for resignations only, it is not bold enough to ask for their termination. Appeasement will not be tolerated any more. People want accountability and each officer, who has failed in his/her duties, will have to be answerable to the public. For how long we will tolerate this appeasement?
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