National

Terror attacks, a reflection of intelligence failure: Gowda

Bangalore: The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, has said the terror attacks in Assam on Thursday are a reflection of the sorry state of affairs of the police intelligence set-up and law and order machinery which failed to prevent the repeated onslaughts of anti-national forces.

He said the blasts were yet another manifestation of the deep roots terrorist organisations in the country had made over the years.

However “this is not the time to indulge in any blame game. The need of the hour is for all political parties to sit together and discuss ways and means to combat the scourge of terrorism through better coordination and intelligence sharing among the Centre and the States, without violating the basic fundamental rights of citizens, without targeting any minority group and by winning over misled youth, who may have gone astray due to any genuine or perceived grievances.”

Mr. Gowda said the Assam government should provide all possible help to the victims, including rehabilitation of affected families. Steps should be taken to ensure that such attacks did not recur and the culprits were brought to book at the earliest.

Mr. Gowda said the arrest of suspects in the Malegaon blasts had shown that terrorism was not confined to the followers of any one particular religion, as was sought to be made out by some fascist and communal political parties and leaders. The skeletons that emerged from their cupboards proved otherwise.

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