Police have ‘leads’ on blasts

Indian detectives “have good leads” on the three blasts which rocked the country’s financial hub Mumbai, a top official said yesterday, as the death toll from the co-ordinated explosions rose to 19. Two men who were seriously injured in Wednesday’s rush-hour bombings died in hospital, a home ministry statement said. Twenty people remained in a serious condition in hospital as a result of the blasts in which a total of over 130 were hurt, the ministry said.  The rise in the death toll came as Mumbai residents held candle-lit vigils to mourn the victims of the blasts, the deadliest attacks in the city since the 2008 siege by Islamist militants in which 166 people died. There have been no claims of responsibility for the latest attacks in Mumbai, located in the western state of Maharashtra, but police say their investigation is making headway. “I can very confidently say that we have got good leads,” Rakesh Maria, head of the Maharashtra state anti-terrorism squad, said at a news conference in the city. “We have a reasonable assumption as to what happened at the three locations.” Investigators have been scrambling for a breakthrough in the case, amid fears torrential downpours that have hit Mumbai since the explosions may have washed away vital clues. Police have been questioning two suspected members of the Indian Mujahideen, a domestic Islamist group with links to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant outfit blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Home Secretary R K Singh told reporters in New Delhi that “people are being questioned based on our previous databases and previous known linkages” to help find those responsible for the blasts. Teams of detectives were also scouring hours of grainy security camera footage taken from the bomb sites in south and south central Mumbai to try to assemble a full picture of what happened. “We are taking the help of technical experts to improve the quality of the (grainy) image and I think in 24 to 48 hours we should able to get a better image,” Maharashtra state’s anti-terrorism squad chief told reporters. He said that authorities also expected to produce a sketch of a suspect soon. Police examination of debris has already indicated that the bombs, hidden in the crowded streets, used ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser ingredient commonly used in improvised explosive devices. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Kolkata that militants were mistaken if they thought that they would be able to destabilise India through “terrorist acts”. “If the terrorists feel that they will be able to destabilise India, then they are utterly mistaken and we will be able to overcome the challenge,” he told reporters, according to the Press Trust of India. “Incidents of such a nature will only strengthen our resolve to fight terrorism,” he said. Maria said yesterday that checking each and every frame of a large volume of CCTV footage was a tedious job. There are many people in each frame and police are taking the help of locals to identify them, in a bid to isolate those who cannot be identified.Maria said that the role or involvement of the underworld in the explosions, which left 19 dead and over 100 injured Wednesday evening, was being examined.He denied involvement of a suicide bomber in the explosions which were the first terrorist attack in the financial hub of the country after 26/11.He said police teams were rushed to Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan for investigations, which have now assumed pan-India proportions.He refused to comment on the terror group or organisation which could have carried out the blasts.“Only after our investigations are completed and we have the accused in hand, I will be in a position to say anything. We are examining all angles, all possibilities,” Maria said.Pursuing investigations into the Mumbai serial blasts, a Mumbai Police team arrived in Ahmedabad yesterday to question an Indian Mujahideen operative, arrested recently, officials said.Danish Riaz was arrested from Vadodara railway station last month in connection with the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts.A resident of Ranchi, Riaz alias Safi is a key accused in the 2008 blasts. Employed with a software company, he is suspected to be an active member of the Indian Mujahideen and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).Riaz, who was reportedly involved in planning and carrying out the blasts, had confessed that he had provided shelter to other accused Abdul Subhan alias Tauqir, Mujib Sheikh and Mohammad Ismail alias Abdul Razzak.Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) is also sharing information about two more IM cadres, Abu Faisal and Mujib Sheikh, who were arrested by the Madhya Pradesh ATS and are believed to have played a crucial role in the Ahmedabad serial blasts.Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party Saturday took the Congress-led central government to task for its “weak-kneed approach” in dealing with terror.Speaking at a function at Sardar Patel University in Anand district, Modi said that had Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first home minister of independent India, been alive today innocent people would not have lost their lives and terrorists would have been hanged by now.“People of this country want the terrorists to be handled with a strong hand. Human rights can not be brought into play for demons like terrorists as they are not fit to be called humans,” he said.“The central government is quite enthusiastic in bringing in a law for communal violence but has no time to root out terrorism,” he said.“Countries across the world, including America, have enacted tough laws giving a strong fight to terrorism, but India is being repeatedly bombed. This is the time when people of India should take upon the challenge of uprooting terrorism,” said Modi.