Five gaping holes in Modi’s security for Patna rally

published on October 28, 2013

With the blame game being played over Sunday’s serial blasts at Modi’s rally, Deccan Herald tried to find out where the police erred and how Narendra Modi’s security was put at risk, despite a specific alert issued by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which said that the BJP prime-ministerial nominee could be a target of Indian Mujahideen (IM).

On October 25, Left parties had organised a rally at the same venue. Holes in bamboo, that were formed during barricading, had been left uncovered paving the way for IM sleeper cells to place bombs in them in the early hours of Sunday. The bomb placements went undetected due to the thin presence of security personnel during that period, proving to be the first security lapse.

Secondly, wires of the main CCTV cameras installed at the meeting venue were found to have been snapped, making it difficult to identify the culprits.

Thirdly, the nearly 2,000 police personnel who were deployed in and around the Gandhi Maidan focussed on crowd management, as also the 200 private security guards stationed by the BJP. None of the security personnel stayed vigilant on the possibility of a bomb threat.

Another major lapse in Modi’s security, who enjoys the status of having Z-plus security, was that no bullet-proof SUV was made available to him from the Bihar government, despite the threat perception and a specific alert issued by the IB on October 23. (This is in sharp contrast to Nitish Kumar’s claim on Sunday that “there was no specific intelligence input”).

The last, was not installing metal detectors at the entrance gate through which the public used to enter the venue.

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