NEW DELHI - More arrests are expected in the coming weeks as the frightening dimensions of a Hindu terror plot start to unravel, with investigators indicating that it had the makings of a larger conspiracy and planning of reprisal killings of Muslims for serial bombings in a number of Indian cities.Ten people, including a self-proclaimed Hindu seer and a serving lieutenant colonel, have so far been arrested for the September 29 bombing in a Muslim-dominated neighbourhood in the small Maharashtra town of Malegaon that killed five people. Investigators are now examining if a Hindu terror conspiracy was involved in several other blasts -- like the one of the Samjhauta Express train in 2007 -- that have till date remained unsolved.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad's (ATS) arrest of Mahant Amritanand Dev alias Dayanand Pandey, the self-styled pontiff from Kanpur, which investigators say is a "prize catch", has already admitted that it was under his instructions that Lt. Colonel Shrikant Purohit procured RDX from an army depot that was used in the Malegaon blast. "Pandey was present in all the pre-blast meetings in Bhopal, Jabalpur and Faridabad, monitored operations meticulously and was also responsible for arranging the finances that came in through illegal channels," an ATS source told IANS.