By IANS
Lucknow/New Delhi : Just a month after coordinated terror strikes in three Uttar Pradesh towns, terrorists struck again in the state, killing seven paramilitary force personnel and a civilian in a pre-dawn “fidayeen” attack at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) base camp in Rampur town on the New Year’s Day Tuesday.
Four masked suspected Islamist terrorists armed with AK-47 rifles sneaked into the CRPF Group Centre, located off the Grand Trunk Road on the outskirts of Rampur, about 300 km from Lucknow, around 3 a.m. They first gunned down the sentry before barging into the nearest tent, and opened fire on the sleeping men, said Inspector General of Police Gurbachan Lal.
A police constable and a Home Guard were injured in the exchange of fire that followed after the CRPF personnel resorted to retaliatory fire. A passing rickshaw puller was killed by a stray bullet.
Chief Minister Mayawati personally visited the spot of the attack and was monitoring the situation in the wake of the terror strike.
Addressing newspersons, the chief minister said an alert has been sounded across the state following the incident, but she pointedly blamed the central force for its “laxity”.
Central intelligence agencies in New Delhi said the CRPF had been warned of a possible attack on its Rampur camp.
The sources told IANS that the warning was provided to the chiefs of the Uttar Pradesh Police in Lucknow and of the CRPF in New Delhi last month following the serial bombings in district courts in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad that left at least 13 dead and over 80 injured.
Mayawati told the media in Lucknow: “We have sounded a statewide alert in the wake of the ‘fidayeen’ attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur that left eight dead and two injured.”
While seeking the central government’s assistance to deal with such acts of terrorism, the chief minister was quick to train her guns on the government for the unabated incidents of terror in the state.
Referring to Tuesday’s attack, Mayawati said: “I am shocked that the CRPF failed to do anything to either prevent the attack or contain it. After all, they are a powerful and well-equipped force.” She went on to add, “I can surely see some laxity on their part.”
She pointed out, “In any case, the terrorist menace in the state is nothing new and has been there for years. With fully exposed and highly porous borders, what it requires is sustained joint effort by both the state and central governments to crush it.”
Besides sending a team of senior police officials along with Special Task Force (STF) sleuths to the attack scene, the chief minister also announced an ex gratia relief of Rs. 100,000 to the families of each of those killed.
One of the terrorists could have been injured in the retaliatory fire, said Inspector General of Police Gurbachan Lal. He had been probably shot in the leg because he was seen limping away, said Lal.
The injured were taken to Moradabad town for treatment. Their condition was reported to be stable.
Uttar Pradesh principal home secretary J.N. Chamber described the incident as a “serious warning”.
He said: “This is the first time in this state that a terrorist gang has dared to storm a police camp in this manner.”
Till late Tuesday, the state police were not able to identify the terrorist outfit behind the attack.
“Our men are on the job. We will track down the culprits who are obviously associated with some Islamic militant group,” Chamber told IANS.
Meanwhile, A.P. Meshwari, Inspector General (Operations) of the CRPF, told newspersons in New Delhi that an alert has been sounded at all CRPF bases across the country following Tuesday’s attack.
Meshwari also denied reports that the CRPF did not pay “due attention” to an intelligence alert on a possible terror attack.
“It’s is not that we are not on alert. It is due to our alertness that the terrorists could not penetrate the second line of defence and enter the Group Centre in Rampur,” he said.