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Crucial Clues
The Rajasthan police seems to have found crucial clues pertaining to the blasts. One of them is a person, who is injured and his statements are alarming. Sources said he claimed that his name was Vijay and came into contact with a woman called Meena. He claimed That the woman asked him to be the carrier of bombs and he would be paid a sum of Rs 1 lakh. Today he has claimed to investigators that he came with Meena to Jaipur on board a train from Mumbai. The police is questioning him further to establish his identity, the identity of the woman and others in the group. On this basis the police hopes to crack the case. |
Jaipur, May 14
A day after the serial blasts, an uneasy clam prevailed in the Pink City today. Hindus and Muslims living in common neighbourhoods in the walled-city cremated their dead overwhelmed by grief that the last night blasts brought. A report from New Delhi says Prime Minister Manmohan has sanctioned an exgratia of Rs 1 lacs for the next of kin of those killed.
The police today picked up 13 persons, including a woman, in connection with the blasts. It also questioned a person who was injured in the blasts. A heavy police bandobast dotted the city while the Rajasthan Police this evening released the sketch of the person, who is suspected to have carried out the blasts. While commercial establishments across the state observed a bandh in protest against the blasts, traffic on the usually busy Delhi-Jaipur National Highway No. 8 was thin.
Experts from various security agencies today reached Jaipur. They studied the pattern of the blasts, the details of phone calls preceding the blasts that left 65 persons dead and 150 injured.
A view of Jaipaur's landmark Hawa Mahal during the curfew in the old city on Wednesday. — AFP |
Forensic experts have so far established the use of yellow coloured plastic material in the blasts that were packed with iron pellets and ball bearings, which acted as projectiles and shrapnels. The timer was a
cheap alarm clock and was wrapped in commonly available adhesive tape. The yellow plastic could be RDX or even common ammonia nitrate mixed with some other thing, said intelligence sources.
The needle of suspicion is pointing toward Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI), said police officials here, while adding that all cycles that were used to plant the bombs were new. This indicated that these people could be outsiders. Police sources here also refuted that they had received any specific tip-off from the central agencies. The secret information was that one of the main temples could be targeted. This was not the case here, said a senior police officer.
Meanwhile, the blasts resulted in deaths in families of both Hindus and Muslims that had common business interests in the Johri Bazar, Sanganeri gate, Tripolia bazaar, Choti Chaupal area.
Curfew was lifted in the walled-city area at 6 pm today. Hindu and Muslim families, who had been living in neighbourhoods for centuries, were overwhelmed by the grief of others. The fire department pressed its tenders into action and washed the area around the Hanuman temple to remove blood stains. The silence was eerie and replete with tension. The police, a large number in plain clothes, kept vigil to avoid any Gujarat-like riot situation or retaliatory action.
Talking to The Tribune, Mohammad Qaifi, a resident of Chandpole in the curfew-bound area, said, “It is the work of outsiders. We have been living peacefully and doing business with the Hindus”. He had attended the burial of the four dead persons.
