Bengaluru: Sunday’s terror attack on Church Street just outside Coconut Grove, a popular restaurant, is a huge intelligence failure, executed as it was in the middle of constant alerts from the Central and state intelligence agencies.

The perpetrators managed to execute their plan. It killed an innocent woman Bhavani Balan, a mother of two, who had come to the city to spend Christmas holidays with her children and relatives.

The bomb tore into Bhavani, who was rushed to Mallya Hospital with shrapnel lodged inside the parietal area of the skull, which had been shattered.

She died within no time despite best attempts to revive her. The other victim, Sandeep, had shrapnel wrapped in a fabric embedded inside a 6cm hole in his left knee joint, which had to be surgically extracted.

“Sunday’s terror attack was not a low intensity blast. It was meant to kill. The nature of injuries is very serious. The fact that it occurred in the midst of intelligence alerts points to a massive intelligence failure.

There are constant alerts on the fugitive terror suspects – Faisal’s gang of five, former members of banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the kingpin of proscribed outfit Al Umma Abu Baqr Siddique, who is behind the April 2013 Malleswaram blasts.

They have sympathisers everywhere but there is neither any data on them nor is there any actionable intelligence on their activities. In August, three terror suspects of Al Umma – Abdul Shameem, Sadiq and Shahid Ali Nawaz – were arrested from the house of their sympathiser Sameeullah in Viveknagar in Bengaluru,” said the officer.

Faisal’s gang comprising Aizazuddin alias Aizaz Mohammed Azizuddin, Zakir Hussain alias Sadiq Badrul Hussain, Mehboob alias Guddu Ismail Khan, Aslam Ayub Khan and Amzad Ramzan Khan may be taking shelter with some sleeper module in some part of the country, including Karnataka, after escaping from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh in September.

They escaped from the Khandwa prison in Madhya Pradesh in October 2013 with their mentor Abu Faisal alias Doctor, who was later arrested.

“The fugitives are behind the May 1 blast in Bengaluru-Guwahati Express in Chennai, which killed a young techie – P. Swathi and the Rs 46 lakh bank heist in Karimnagar in Telangana.

They must have used this money to set up a frontal organisation or even a small business to hoodwink the police,” the officer added.