Six people were killed and 83 were injured in a series of blasts that targeted Narendra Modi’s rally in Patna last month.
The Indian Mujahideen planned to follow up their terror attack in Patna last month with explosions at Nalanda University, 100 kms away and strikes in Chhattisgarh, which votes this month for its next government, say investigators.
The National Investigation Agency says that it has pieced together the plans of the Mujahideen based on documents that it recovered from a small hotel it raided earlier this week in the hope of finding one of the main planners of the Patna attack. The papers that were found in a room that was allegedly used by the suspect, who remains untraced, proved that some of the men who planted the seven bombs that exploded in Patna were also behind serial blasts in the pilgrimage town of Bodh Gaya in July.
(Same Mujahideen men handled Patna and Bodh Gaya blasts: investigators)The six men accused of the Patna blasts are all allegedly members of the Mujahideen; the group has not claimed responsibility for the terror attack.
The fact that nobody was arrested for the strike in Bodh Gaya allegedly emboldened the Mujahideen to plan its Patna mission in which six people were killed and 83 injured just before a rally was held by the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi.
When the Bodh Gaya explosions took place, the Bihar Police see-sawed between blaming the Mujahideen and Naxals.
The BJP is looking for a third term in power in Chhattisgarh. Officers from the National Investigation Agency say that the Mujahideen felt that if it conducted strikes in Chhattisgarh, Naxals would be the first suspect because the state is a stronghold for them.