M A I N   N E W S

RDX used in Mumbai blasts, say experts
Our Correspondent

Mumbai, August 27
Investigators have found that high grade explosive — RDX — was used in Monday’s twin blasts here that killed 52 persons and injured nearly 200, the police said.

Though the city had experienced several blasts since December last, only low-grade explosives like ammonium nitrate and gelignite sticks were used.

The use of RDX in Monday’s blasts is a throwback to the serial blasts of March 12, 1993, when the same type of explosives were used to set off 13 explosions that killed more than 250 persons, the police said.

A report issued by the Director of State Forensic Laboratory, Dr Rukmini Krishnamurthy, indicated that the CNG cylinder in the boot of the two taxis that were used in the blasts added to the impact.

The police has arrested eight persons from Mumbai, Pune and other parts of the state. However, the cops are still on the lookout for a group of four persons, including a woman and a child, who had hired the cab in which the bomb went off.

While one bomb went off at the historic Gateway of India in downtown Mumbai, another went off at the crowded Zaveri Bazaar a few km away.

Meanwhile, firing a salvo at Maharashtra Home Ministry headed by his bete noire Chhagan Bhujbal, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray said today that the “corrupt and rotten department” was not in a position to stop the series of bomb blasts in the city and suggested sending trained militant groups to Pakistan to counter threats from ISI operatives.