M A I N   N E W S

Church blasts: Advani agrees to probe

NEW DELHI, June 9 (UNI) — Home Minister L.K. Advani today agreed to depute central intelligence agencies to make a through probe into the recent bomb blasts at various churches in the country.

Minister of State for Urban Development Bandaru Dattatraya met Mr Advani here this evening and submitted a memorandum requesting the Home Ministry to send its intelligence agencies to places where such blasts took place and not to leave the investigations to state governments since the hand of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was suspected.

The memorandum referred to yesterday’s blasts at two churches in Andhra Pradesh and said it was the sixth instance in a series of attacks on Christians and Hindus, it noted.

Mr Dattatraya felt that the blasts were aimed at driving a wedge between the two communities. This is also aimed at maligning the NDA government at the Centre in which the Bharatiya Janata Party was a major partner. Unless immediate steps are taken to expose the elements behind these attacks, the trouble makers will continue in their efforts till Hindus and Christians are completely polarised and start suspecting each other, the memorandum said.

Mr Dattatraya told UNI that he had also spoken over phone to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in this connection this morning.

He said deputing central intelligence agencies would ensure communal amity and act as a confidence building measure. The Andhra Pradesh Government, he said, was aware of the ISI problem and was making every effort to contain it.

Since these incidents taking place across the country were on the same pattern, it was felt that a concerted effort was needed by the intelligence agencies to thoroughly investigate into these incidents to expose the deep-rooted conspiracy, he said.

PTI: The Centre today sought detailed reports from the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa on yesterday’s bomb explosions in churches in these states even as Christian leaders condemned the blasts and alleged that “anti-Christian hate atmosphere has been created” with the silent approval of the government.

As probe continued into the incidents by respective state governments, there was a move by the police of the three states to launch a coordinated investigation.

The Union Home Ministry has sought reports from the Home Secretaries of the three states immediately and is closely monitoring the developments.

UNI: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) today said the ISI was behind the recent attacks on churches in the country and criticised the Centre for not doing enough to stem its (ISI) increasing activities. “I feel that proper control (on ISI activities) which is needed is lacking... the bureaucracy is also not under control,” VHP senior vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore said.

PU Controller of Exams held
From Our Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, June 9 — In yet another turn to the paper leakage episode concerning the question papers of the B.Sc (III) honours class of the Department of Mathematics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, the Controller of Examination, Mr Sodhi Ram, was remanded to the custody of the CBI for two days till June 11 by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sant Prakash. He was earlier arrested this evening.

The CBI will investigate the possibility of Mr Ram's involvement in the case. The CBI maintained that the accused was allegedly actively operating a gang of persons.

The arrest of Mr Ram is followed by the arrest of Anurag Gupta, Dhan Singh and Sukhwinder Singh by the CBI for their alleged role in the leakage of question papers, who had also been sent to the CBI custody till June 11, yesterday. Anurag Gupta and Sukwinder Singh are students of the department while Dhan Singh is a clerk employed in the secrecy branch of the university. They allegedly sold the photocopies of the number theory, topology and PD papers to students in May, 1998.