Threat calls to blow up Varanasi Hindu temples

Varanasi : The district police were on their toes after receiving two consecutive threatening calls to blow up temples in the city. The first call came to police control room from Unnao on Friday evening threatening that the famous Sankat Mochan temple dedicated to Shri Hanuman would be blown up. On Saturday, similar call was received with a threat to blow up Vishwanath temple on the campus of Banaras Hindu University by charging grenades.

The Lanka station officer Sanjeev Mishra, who is investigating the matter, said that calls have been traced, and appropriate action would be taken in this regard.

According to reports, after receiving the call, the control room informed Lanka police station to take precautionary steps. In search operation police found nothing in the Sankat Mochan temple that had already witnessed a terror blast on March 7, 2006.

During surveillance it was traced that the first call of Friday had come from Unnao from one Iqbal. It was detected finally that the phone number was actually owned by Javed, resident of Bangar Mau area of Unnao district. When police contacted him, he said that he had gone to mosque to offer Namaj leaving his phone outside and someone would have made the call. Mishra said that matter was intimated to Unnao police.

However, the Head priest of Sankat Mochan Temple, Shri. Vishwambharnath Mishra denied any trouble in the age old Hindu temple due to any threat call in recent.

Regarding the second call on Saturday, it is told that the concerned number has also been traced and it was came from Daffi area behind Banaras Hindu University. Appropriate measures are being taken. He, however, refused to divulge more details. The BHU spokesperson Rajesh Singh, when contacted, said that the university administration has no information about any threatening call.

Agility of the police personnel was seen high in the searching operations both in Sankat Mochan and BHU to avert any untoward circumstances of blasts Varanasi is the parliamentary constituency of PM Modi incidentally.

Source : Hindu Existence