The Hindu News Update Service

Lucknow (PTI): The serial blasts on Friday in the civil court premises of three Uttar Pradesh cities in which 14 people died come close on the heels of the roughing up of the three JeM militants, who had planned to kidnap Rahul Gandhi, in the session court premises here last Saturday.

Intelligence agencies here are investigating if the courts had been targeted in retaliation to the lawyers' assault on the JeM militants, police sources said. The JeM terrorists were roughed up by the agitated lawyers who almost succeeded in snatching them from the security personnel accompanying them in the court. Shouting slogans that the militants be hanged, the lawyers surrounded them and the police and PAC personnel had a tough time in taking them to safety.

Five militants, who were arrested in connection with the July 2005 attack on the Ram Janambhoomi complex at Ayodhya, had also failed to secure a lawyer as the Faizabad Bar Association had barred the lawyers to represent them. Unavailability of a legal representative resulted in repeated adjournments of the matter and things had come to such a pass that the authorities had approached the district and high court to shift the trial to some other place.

All aspects of the blasts are being investigated, including this angle, said a top police official on being asked whether courts might have been targeted as retaliation. Former president of Avadh Bar Association, Ashok Nigam, said the serial blasts were aimed at undermining the faith of the people in the judiciary.

Local lawyers said the JeM militants would not be allowed to enter the court here. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bal Mukund, had to go to the district jail to hear the remand application of the police early this week.