Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has said that a detailed investigation is being carried out into the string of bombings that rocked Bodh Gaya Mahabodhi temple in Bihar. Shinde was on the tour of Mahabodhi temple with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Shinde said that the probe has been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Talking to the media persons, Shinde said, "We will investigate this incident from all angles possible. We don't want to arrest anyone in a hurry and want to go into details and arrest the main people responsible."
It is noted that the Bodh Gaya temple is a Unesco World Heritage site. It is where the Buddha, who was born in neighbouring Nepal, attained enlightenment around 2,550 years ago.
Condemning the terrorist attack on the temple, Shide said "The Bihar government wrote to the central government Tuesday that investigation should be handled by the NIA. We have accepted it and since Tuesday night, NIA has been investigating the case."
"We have put in a big team of NIA and NSG (National Security Guards) which specialises in investigating terrorism incidents," he added.
Commenting on the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's demand to deploy Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the temple, Shinde said that the home ministry will discuss it.
"We will take any decision in this matter after discussion," he said.
Shinde said that till date the CISF has not been deployed at any religious place in the country, and added that a similar demand for CISF deployment was made for the Shirdi Sai temple in Maharashtra.
Shinde further said, "Delhi Police had given information in October. Police DIG (deputy inspector general of police) had taken a security review on July 3 and spoken to the local security force here.
On reports of delay in sending NIA team to Bodh Gaya, Shinde said, "We sent the teams by air but due to thunderstorms and bad weather in between, the flight had to turn back and they reached the site at 4 p.m.”
(With inputs from IANS)
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