Lucknow, Nov. 26: The fifteen people who died in Friday’s blasts may have been alive today had Uttar Pradesh police not ignored an Intelligence Bureau warning five months back.

A senior officer probing the explosions that ripped through court complexes in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad said the IB had told state police in June that militants could target the judiciary.

The IB also said the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami and another outfit, the Mujahideen Islam al-Hind, could trigger coordinated explosions using not-so-sophisticated technology, the officer added. But state intelligence personnel ignored the warning.

A senior police officer, however, said the “information was very vague”.

“It is now easy to say after the blasts that the IB had informed us about possible terror threats, but such inputs come almost every day. The inputs have to be specific,” the officer said.

Investigators probing the blasts said two militant organisations could have “coordinated” the strike. “We are not ruling out the involvement of the Mujahideen Islam al-Hind,” said an officer.

He said the Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami had taken a fancy to the other outfit — part of the terror map since the Babri mosque’s demolition in 1992 — as all its members were from Uttar Pradesh and familiar with the local lingo and the terrain.

The initial probe also suggests that the people who bought the bicycles used in the blasts spoke the local language with an Awadhi accent.

The police have raided a travel agency in Lucknow run by the brother of Mohd Tuffail, the head of the Mujahideen Islam al-Hind. Tuffail’s brother went into hiding two days before the blasts.

Chief minister Mayavati today announced an anti-terrorist squad that would deal “exclusively” with militants. The squad will have its own intelligence wing that will work in coordination with intelligence units of other states and the Union government.

“The recent attacks on court premises have forced the state government to set up a unit that will exclusively deal with terrorist activities. This unit will have modern gadgets that will help set up its own intelligence network in the state,” the BSP leader said.

She also sanctioned Rs 6.75 crore for buying sophisticated equipment and suggested that trial of arrested militants be carried out in jails as taking them to courts could create a law-and-order problem.

“I have written a letter to the chief justice of Allahabad High Court regarding this. If he agrees, we can have trial of terrorists inside jail through video-conferencing,” she said.

Courts remained closed across the state in protest against the blasts. “We are observing anti-terrorism day today,” said Amrendra Nath Singh, the president of the state bar council, which called the strike.

Criminal lawyer I.B. Singh said the blasts would not make lawyers change their decision not to defend terrorists. “The decision is final,” he said.