By Dheeraj Paul, Agence India Press,
Mumbai: The Malegaon blast shook the power loom town in Maharashtra today exactly one year back leaving seven people dead could have perhaps been avoided had the police acted on a complaint by one of the victims.
On September 29 last year, 50-year old Ansari, who runs a transport shop in Malegaon’s crowded market, had noticed an unattended scooter which was parked in front of his shop. The blast was allegedly planned and executed by self styled Hindu radical group Abhinav Bharat.
At first sight, the two wheeler looked like an innocuous scooter routinely parked by a shopper, Ansari recalled.
“I first saw it at seven in the evening. When even after one hour no takers came, I felt suspicious about it. It was just 10 feet from my shop which made me even more worried,” Ansari said over phone from Malegaon, 280 KM from here.
Ansari asked his assistants to look for the owners of the scooter but to no avail. Later, he decided to inform the police about the same.
He said “We keep hearing that whenever unattended things are spotted, we should inform the Police. I decided to inform the officials at the nearby police post which was quite close. I approached them at 8.20 PM but no one came,”.
The result an hour after he drew the attention of the policemen, a powerful blast occurred in the vehicle injuring him and many others who came in the direction of the flying shrapnel’s.