“[I]n the last six years, not a single incident of blast has taken place,” Union minister Prakash Javadekar said on 7 March.
The claim is false.
More than 1,000 explosion incidents were reported in many parts of the country over the last six years, a FactChecker analysis of data recorded by the South Asia Terrorism Portal revealed.
“What we had experienced for 10-25 years (before (the) Modi government came to power)? We saw bomb blasts taking place in Pune, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, Delhi and Mumbai. Every eight to ten days, blasts used to happen and people used to get killed,” Javadekar was quoted as saying in a Press Trust of India report published in The Hindu.
“But in the last six years, not a single incident of blast has taken place. This has not happened just like that but due to some strong measures undertaken by the PM to ensure the safety and security in the country.”Union Minister Prakash Javadekar
Over 1,000 Explosion Incidents Reported Since Jan 2014
As many as 1,071 explosion incidents have been reported between January 2014, and 8 March 2020, in India, according to data from South Asia Terrorism Portal, a website that records and maintains database on terrorism and low intensity warfare in South Asia.
Three security force personnel and 15 people were injured in a grenade attack at Hari Singh High Street market in Jammu and Kashmir on 4 November 2019. Earlier, on 12 October 2019, terrorists had hurled a grenade in which five civilians were injured.
Other Bombing Incidents Reported in the Country
As many as 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldiers lost their lives in a terror attack caused by a blast in Pulwama on 14 February 2019. “A bus in which 42 CRPF personnel were travelling, was extensively damaged in a blast which was followed by firing on the vehicles,” news agency ANI reported on 14 February 2019.
On 7 March 2017, a blast took place on the Bhopal Ujjain passenger train in Madhya Pradesh, in which 11 passengers were injured, government told the Lok Sabha in a reply on 29 March 2017.
A low intensity blast was reported in a district court premises Chittor on 7 April 2016, and an improvised explosive device exploded on 12 September 2016, government informed the Lok Sabha on 22 November 2016.
A bomb blast was reported on 23 January 2015, in the premises of Civil Court Bhojpur (Ara) in Bihar, government reply to Lok Sabha on 17 March 2015, said.
Two persons including the woman who was carrying the bomb were killed and 18 people were injured, the reply said. The blast was made in an attempt to facilitate two prisoners to escape from prison.
An explosion took place on 2 October, 2014, in a two-story building in West Bengal’s Burdwan, in which two people were killed and one was injured, government informed Lok Sabha in November 2014. It was found that these individuals and those present in the house were believed to be members of Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and were engaged in preparation of bombs and ammunition/arms.
A low intensity blast occurred in Bengaluru’s Church Street on 28 December, 2014, in which one person was killed and three injured, the government said in a reply to the Lok Sabha on 5 May, 2015.
In India, 406 blast incidents (337 improvised explosive devices and 69 explosive ordnance) took place in 2016, a government reply to Lok Sabha on 11 April, 2017, said.
The National Security Guard’s National Bomb Data Centre (NBDC) “data includes all major as well as minor IED blast incidents in the country, including those which are accidental in nature”, the reply said.
Likewise, in 2015, there were 268 IED blasts, and 190 IED blasts in 2014, The Economic Times reported on 12 July 2018, citing data from NBDC’s journal Bombshell.
(This was first published on FactChecker and has been republished with permission.)
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