Home ministry caught napping?

Minutes after bomb blasts rocked the twin cities, union home minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde made a shocking revelation putting the entire nation to shame.

When asked to make an official statement on the terror strike, shines sad that they did have information about the blasts two days ago! Now, the obvious instant reaction to his statement would be then why wasn't the info shared or investigated upon? As a senior state politician rightly told a tv news channel, how could Shinde make such irresponsible comment in such a grave situation.

What irked most people was that the union minister said he had specific information. If so be the truth, then why weren't any precautionary measures taken.

One should not forget that although police claim they were a low intensity blasts, that doesn't make them any less important for the areas targeted were crowded which meant maximum damage. Also, the blasts were timed at such a peak hour (7 pm) when scores of people rush home after a day's work.

Interestingly, dilsukhnagar is close to old city of hyderabad which is a sensitive area and which also happens to be a site where blasts took place earlier (mecca masjid in charminar and gokul chat in koti). The two areas are also major shopping destination for tourists and localites.

This time too, the terrorists targeted theatres(venkatadri and konark) and dilsukhnagar bus stop which is a major junction for localites. The bottom line is precious lives were lost.

A little prior infornation could have minimized the damage. Not sounding a red alert clearly reflects carelessness and the home minister and intelligence better be prepared to field some serious questions.

Reshmi@sakshipost