Thaindian News

Hyderabad, May 18 (IANS) The fourth anniversary of the bomb blast at the historic Mecca Masjid here passed off peacefully amid tight security.

The afternoon prayers at the 17th century mosque passed off peacefully as police made elaborate security arrangements in the old city and other communally sensitive areas.

Rapid Action Force and other central paramilitary forces along with the city police and Andhra Pradesh Special Police were deployed to maintain law and order.

Police have also banned meetings and rallies across the city for six days.

Nine persons were killed and 58 others injured in the blast at the historic mosque May 18, 2007. Five persons were killed in the subsequent police firing on protestors near the mosque.

Police had initially blamed Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami and other terror groups operating from Pakistan and Bangladesh and arrested scores of local youth for their suspected involvement.

Subsequent probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) revealed the involvement of Hindu terror outfits.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which recently took up the investigations, Monday filed supplementary chargesheet against Swami Aseemanand for his alleged role in the conspiracy behind the blast.

Nabakumar Sarkar, also known as Swami Aseemanand, who is also an accused in the Samhjauta Express bomb blast case, was arrested from Haridwar Nov 19, 2010.

The NIA has also named Indresh Kumar, an associate of Aseemanand, in the charge-sheet. He is absconding.

Earlier, the CBI had filed charge sheet against accused Devender Gupta and Lokesh Sharma. Both are in judicial custody.

The Hyderabad police in July last year arrested terror suspect Viquaruddin and five others, who allegedly floated a terror outfit Tehreek Galba-e-Islam (TGI) in 2007 to avenge the police firing following the bomb blast at Mecca Masjid.

The accused allegedly shot dead a police constable in the old city of Hyderabad May 13, 2010, five days before the third anniversary.

In a similar attack on the second anniversary of the blast, they had shot dead a home guard and injured a policeman.

United Muslim Forum (UMF), an apex body of Muslim organisations, has urged the government to speed up the investigations into the blast.

It also demanded that the report of the Bhaskar Rao commission, which probed the police firing following the bomb blast, be made public.

The commission submitted its report to the government last year.