Author: Nishit Dholabhai
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: May 15, 2008
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080515/jsp/frontpage/story_9273528.jsp
Bicycles are now the chosen vehicles of terror,
the blasts in Jaipur yesterday affirm.
Suspected Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami militants
put bombs in small bags that were slung from eight new branded bicycles parked
inconspicuously at six crowded sites.
Ammonium nitrate or a similar low-intensity
explosive easily available in the market went into the bombs that killed at
least 63 people and injured 216, sources said.
An unexploded bomb defused by experts revealed
that explosive material, like kneaded dough, was pasted on to a 15-inch-long
wooden frame with ball-bearings stuck to it. It was packed with padded polythene
that was wrapped by the adhesive tapes that doctors use.
Sources prima facie ruled out "substantial
use" of RDX because damage to vehicles in the vicinity of the blasts
was not much. "It was like a claymore mine that is used by Naxalites,"
a source said.
This basic unit was connected to a detonator
through wires. Called a "number 33", the electrical detonator does
not need more than 1.5 volts or a pencil cell to trigger.
Wristwatches were used as timers, instead
of cellphones that have been used in the past.
"The bomb was shaped in a way that would
inflict maximum damage on human life," an expert said here.
The bombs were planted on bicycles such as
the sporty Ranger, most of which had been bought from one shop in the city
a day or two earlier.
Police late this evening released the sketch
of a man suspected to have bought the cycles, after questioning the shop owner.
Bicycles have been used in serial blasts in
Faizabad and Lucknow courts by the Bangladesh-based Huji and in Assam by the
United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa).
Analysis by bomb experts revealed that the
explosives were not packed into the handles.
A month ago, Assam police had arrested a man
in Rangia town, 60km from Guwahati, with a bicycle that had the explosives
- a combination of TNT and PETN - packed into the handle.
However, sling bags like those used in Jaipur
were used in the Uttar Pradesh explosions.
"We have some slender leads and hope
to develop them," chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia said today.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejected the
BJP's demand for bringing back the anti-terror law Pota. The attacks on Parliament
and Akshardham temple had taken place while Pota was in force, he pointed
out.
"There is no dearth of laws in the country
to deal with terrorism," he added.
Parked beside pillars or roadside signboards,
the cycles in Jaipur could not have been more inconspicuous.
"A cycle was usually kept by this pole.
Today it was a new one, but I could not have imagined this," Sahud Akhtar,
whose 12-year-old son Shaique Akhtar sustained neck and head injuries near
Hawa Mahal, said after the blasts.
All the neighbourhoods ripped by the blasts
have a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims.
At Kotwali police station where 15-year old
Deepak, son of policeman Surender Saini, was killed, pellets had drilled holes
into a thick iron pipe at least 10 metres away from the blast site.
Thick iron sheets were pierced by pellets
at almost all the locations.
At Chandpol, a transmission box was pock-marked
by speeding pellets. At Sanganeri Gate, the temple wall bore hits from the
ball-bearings several metres away from the explosion. In both areas, the bicycles
had been parked close to the gates of Hanuman temples. Tuesday being the principal
day of worship, the shrines were crowded.
