Yasin Bhatkal’s arrest sparks off another round of fight between BJP, JD(U)

Patna,(BiharTimes): The arrest of Yasin Bhatkal has sparked off another round of wordy duel between the two former allies––BJP and Janata Dal (United).

While the former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Friday accused the Nitish Kumar government of being soft towards terrorists as well as Maoists active in the state the Janata Dal (United) spokesman, Rajeev Ranjan, went to the extent of calling him as a mad man who should be dumped into the lunatic asylum of Agra to get treated.

Rajiv Ranjan said no sensible leader would utter such absurd thing as Modi is doing these days.

What prompted such a massive reaction from the former friend JD(U) is Modi’s statement that the Janata Dal (United) leaders had earlier called Ishrat Jahan as the beti (daughter) of Bihar, and may now end up calling Yasin Bhatkal as the damad (son-in-law) of Bihar. Yasin is married to a woman who is originally from Bihar.

Modi alleged that notwithstanding ‘Bihar connection’ coming to light in several terror attacks in the country Yasin and Assadullah (who was also arrested) were not interrogated by the Bihar Police.

According to him the state government has failed to bust networks of terror and Maoist outfits in Bihar and book those people harbouring such elements despite the Bihar connection coming to light in terror attacks.

The former deputy chief minister took the Bihar Police to task for being sheepish and added that under political pressure it refused to take credit for the arrest.

The Bihar Police has been known to seek publicity for even minor achievements. How could it refrain from taking credit for arrest of Bhatkal and his associate as it has been a major achievement for the country, he asked.

Modi did not stop there. He went on to claim that the Nitish government had put pressure on the central security agencies to show the arrest from the India-Nepal border in Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh and not Raxaul in East Champaran. However, the Uttar Pradesh government refused to do so. He also said that the Bihar Police was reluctant to seek police remand of the terrorists and did so only after the NIA team arrived in Raxaul.

However, ADG, Special Branch, Rajesh Chandra said, that as there was no case against Bhatkal or his accomplice on Bihar soil and as the NIA already had a look-out notice for him based on a non-bailable warrant issued on July 18, the Bihar Police could not hold him.

In fact earlier arrests from Bihar, according to Bihar Police sources, were also made by state forces from Mumbai, Hyderabad, Karnataka and Chennai in close cooperation with the NIA and the Bihar forces had no part in them. The truth, he said, the Bihar Police got information about those arrest much later.

Regarding the Bodh Gaya explosions, one of the officials said, in view of the international ramifications of the blasts, the case has been transferred to the NIA. Also, interrogators could not find any link between IM and Bodh Gaya blasts after questioning Bhatkal at Motihari.

However, sources both within Bihar Police and Janata Dal (United) were surprised over the way BJP leaders are accusing the state government. After all when they were in power and so many terrorists arrested from Darbhanga, Samastipur, Madhubani etc the Bihar government never took any credit. Where was Sushil Modi then? asked one of them. Besides, it would be better to sermonize the BJP government in Chhattisgarh on how to fight Maoists, he added.