Jaipur, May 15
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and union home minister Shivraj Patil today met the survivors of the blast in Jaipur and visited the sites where the serial blast had killed more than 65 people on Tuesday. Sonia even visited the Hanuman Mandir that was targeted and spoke to the temple authorities.

The duo were accompanied by a posse of policemen led by the DGP A.S. Gill. Columns of the rapid action force were also deployed. It seemed more like a “flag march” conducted by security forces in curfew bound areas of the walled-city.

Patil said “India would continue to fight terror at all costs and thwart the designs of terrorists to disturb peace and communal harmony in the country. The nefarious designs of terrorists will be thwarted boldly and their attempts will be foiled,”.

Assuring Centre’s full support to Rajasthan in the wake of the bombings Patil said, “The Centre would give all possible assistance and help to the state to meet any exigency on the terror front”.

Patil, who also went to Tuesday’s blast sites in the old city with Gandhi, said, “Whatever action is required, the Centre would do it immediately to enable the state government to face any such challenge”.

Sonia Gandhi and Patil spent about 30 minutes in the trauma and other wards of the hospital amid tight security arrangements. Rajasthan health minister Narpat Singh Rajvi briefed them at the hospital.

New Delhi, May 15
The obscure Indian Mujahideen’s proclaimed responsibility for the recent Jaipur serial blasts, has not taken the needle of suspicion away from HuJI (Harkat-ul-Jehad-Al-Islami), a banned Bangladeshi outfit.

Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) today said investigating agencies were trying to establish the veracity of the e-mailed video clips of a cycle strapped with a bag. The sender of the mail claimed that the bag held the bomb used in the Jaipur serial blasts.

The clip was sent by e-mail on Wednesday evening to a section of the media by the Indian Mujahideen. Intelligence agencies, trained to scratch the surface and go beyond the obvious, have a hunch that HuJI may have masterminded the explosions. They said that they never heard of the Indian Mujahideen that had no independent identity.

It comprises activists of HuJI and youth activists of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), another banned outfit. They point out that the e-mail may be “a diversionary tactic to keep investigating agencies groping in the dark.”

SIMI is a fundamentalist organisation having roots in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Believed to be involved in terrorism, SIMI advocates the liberation of India. The Ministry of Home Affairs banned SIMI in February 2006 for the third time.

While some intelligence agencies insist on labelling the blasts as an offshoot of “hinterland violence”, other security agencies say it is too premature to point an accusing finger at the usual suspects-HuJI or the Pakistan sponsored Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) or Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM).

Concerned that the blasts may lead to communal flare-up, the Central Reserve Police Force has deployed four companies of the Rapid Action Force in Jaipur.

Mahendra Kumawat, special secretary (internal security), MHA, who returned from Jaipur today, said officers from the Hyderabad and Maharashtra police as well as those from the Special Task Force (STF), Uttar Pradesh, were working in tandem to share information. “We are working as a team. These officers have experience of investigating similar blasts.

It has now been established that a mixture of RDX and ammonium nitrate caused the explosions. This had also been used in previous blasts. The officers are in Jaipur and are putting their heads together to study the pattern in these blasts.”

Kumawat said RAF’s continued deployment in Jaipur would be decided on the need assessment of the state police.

New Delhi, May 15
With the BJP intensifying its campaign against the UPA government for being soft on terror, the Congress today struck back, saying the Centre had warned Rajasthan about the possibility of a terror strike in Jaipur, but the state government failed to take any preemptive steps.

Taking a dig at Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said today if the perception in Rajasthan - “8 pm, no CM” - was anything to go by, it spoke volumes about the state of governance in her regime.

Tewari said he had credible information that the Centre had drawn the attention of the Rajasthan government after the Ajmer blast to the pattern of terror strikes. Shifting the blame to the state government for the blasts, Tewari said, the Centre had given Rajasthan authorities specific information over six weeks ago about the possibility of a strike in Jaipur, but it clearly failed to act on these intelligence inputs.

The BJP has mounted an offensive against the UPA government after the Jaipur bomb blasts and has blamed the Centre for not displaying the necessary political will in tackling terrorism. The BJP has renewed its demand for the re-enactment of POTA and is also planning a series of protest demonstrations to highlight that UPA government is soft on terror.

Flaying the BJP for politicising a human tragedy, Tewari said it was nothing but a diversionary tactic to divert attention from the failures of its state government. He said if the BJP was really serious about combating terrorism, it would not have opposed the Centre’s proposal for the constitution of a federal agency for investigation of all terrorist activities when the issue was raised at the meeting of the Inter-State Council.

Tewari said BJP Chief Ministers had also shot down the UPA government’s suggestion for setting up a national centre of counter terrorism which, he said, would have gone a long way in dealing with terrorism.

The Congress had not taken kindly to Vasundhra Raje’s objections to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s visit to Jaipur today and wondered why she failed to raise similar objections when senior BJP leader L.K.Advani visited the state capital yesterday.

“The BJP would be better served if it ensured proper law and order in the state and provided effective governance rather than trying to score brownie points and blaming the Centre for everything,” Tewari added.

New Delhi, May 15
The serial blasts in Jaipur came up for discussion at the meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan and Cabinet secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar giving a detailed presentation.

Narayanan and Chandrasekhar briefed the Cabinet on the blasts, which claimed 64 lives. Finance minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting that the Cabinet was informed about the progress made in the investigations.

Asked to comment on Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s statement that her state would not allow communal harmony to be jeopardised, Chidambaram said the Centre and the state government share equal responsibility in maintaining law and order.