Ahmedabad, July 27: If yesterday’s blasts were meant to stoke communal violence, the bombers appear to have failed so far.

A pall of fear has descended on Ahmedabad but unlike the aftermath of the 2002 Godhra train fire, when over 1,000 people were killed in and around the city, there has been no backlash.

Some people fled their houses in Naroda — the site of some of the worst violence six years ago — but Muslims by and large feel there will be no repeat of 2002, social worker and minority leader Sharifkhan Pathan said.

The main reason is the pro-active role of the Narendra Modi government and its police, said Pathan, who is not an admirer of the chief minister.

“Modi’s appeal for peace, and his statement assuring people there would be no repeat of 2002, seems to have worked. He made it clear he wanted peace at any cost.”

This may have to do with the chief minister’s attempts at an image makeover over the past few years, from Hindutva icon to development guru, and his keenness to sell Gujarat to investors.

“This clearly shows that there can be no violence if the state doesn’t want any,” said social worker Hanif Lakdawala. Rights activist Mukul Sinha echoed him.

Modi, who called for peace immediately after the blasts last evening, had done nothing of the sort after the Godhra carnage. Instead, he had justified the pogrom that followed as “action and reaction” and as “people’s natural anger”.

The police had then turned a blind eye to mobs targeting Muslims, apparently with instructions from above. But yesterday, within minutes of the blasts, they were out on the streets.

The army conducted a flag march in the eastern, old part of the city, which bore the brunt of the blasts. In 2002, the army was deployed only after four days despite alleged advice from then President K.R. Narayanan to call out the force immediately.

Actor Rahul Bose arrived in Ahmedabad this morning and toured the city along with social activist Teesta Setalvad, talking to ordinary people. He said he had come to express “solidarity”.

Setalvad gave the credit for the calm to the people rather than the govern- ment, saying that after 2002, citizens had learnt not to get provoked.

Another reason could be that, unlike the Godhra train fire when the blame was quickly pinned on local Muslims, the identities of yesterday’s bombers are not known.

“If peace is not disturbed in another 24 hours, we can be confident there will be no trouble. But one cannot rule out anything yet,” a cautious Setalvad said.

Government spokesman and health minister Jaynarayan Vyas cited the “quick response by the government machinery”.

There was no shortage of blood and medicines in the hospitals, he said. Vyas himself quickly reached Civil Hospital, a blast site where 10 people were killed and where dozens of injured had been brought from the earlier blasts.

The state government also quickly announced compensations of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the dead and Rs 50,000 to the injured, and promised to bear all treatment costs.

“Top officials of the Intelligence Bureau, crime branch and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory are probing the blasts. A special co-ordination group has been set up under additional chief secretary Balwant Singh, which will be in touch with central agencies and neighbouring states,” Vyas said.

Mystery call

A few hours after the serial blasts in Ahmedabad, a man from Kukavav taluka in Amreli received two phone calls which police are linking to the explosions, reports PTI.

“Kamlesh Nasit of Salan village received a phone call at 20.06 hours yesterday from a landline number in Ahmedabad that said ‘Ejaz kaam ho gaya hai’ (Ejaz, the work has been done),” Amreli superintendent of police Sandeep Singh said.

Nasit replied in Gujarati and the line was disconnected. He again received a call, this time from a mobile phone at 8.40pm. The caller repeated the same words and disconnected, he added.

Nasit called the police, who then collected the details from him. He received no such calls after that, Singh added.

The Ahmedabad crime branch is likely to probe the mysterious calls.