World | India
Powerful terror group behind blasts, says police
The head of the anti-terrorist squad investigating Mumbai's train bombings said on Wednesday a "powerful organisation" was behind the blasts.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 14:17 July 12, 2006
Mumbai: The head of the anti-terrorist squad investigating Mumbai's train bombings said on Wednesday a "powerful organisation" was behind the blasts.
"It was a well-coordinated and well-planned operation and it seems some big power is behind all this," the police anti-terrorism squad chief K.P. Raghuvanshi told Headlines Today television channel.
The anti-terrorism force has taken over the investigation, but has not arrested anyone, a senior officer said.
The wrecked carriages were taken to a railway shed where bomb squad officers continued to search them for clues.
"It seems pencil timers, which are actually mercury fulminators, were used," a top official from Maharashtra state's home department said.
Home Minister R.R. Patil told Gulf News "at this point of time we do not wish to reveal anything on the investigation which began immediately after the incident."
But he admitted there was an intelligence failure which was earlier denied by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
The police have so far not confirmed the use of the powerful RDX in the bombs.
Some time before the blasts, the Anti-Terrorist Squad had arrested people with terrorist links and seized an incredible amount of weapons and ammunition. The arrested men were part of Lashkar-e-Taiba modules.
Director-General of Police for Maharashtra P.S. Pasricha said that though police had received information for the past few months, "it is not always possible to reach before the terrorists strike. Otherwise, no terror incident would have occurred in the US or other countries."
He said an alert has been sounded across the state and railway stations are being monitored.
Meanwhile, Mumbai's minority Muslims are to set up a blood donation "camp" in a show of unity with Hindu victims of the city's train blasts that left 200 people dead, community leaders said.
Muslims have queued to give blood at hospitals and were among the first to help the wounded after the train attacks, officials said.
"We're talking to the hospitals and we're asking if ... we can have a blood donation camp in the community," said Dr Anwar Amir, the secretary of the Mumbai Aman committee.
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