Author: Jehangir Ali and Rashant Pandey
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: September 28, 2008
The Delhi police has detained nine people,
including five suspected Bangladeshi nationals, for questioning in connection
with the Mehrauli blast. The five men were picked up from the Indira Gandhi
International Airport by the special staff of south district police, barely
a few hours after the blast.
Police sources said two others, whose call
records were put under the scanner by the police, were apprehended from the
outskirts of Sarita Vihar in south Delhi. "The calls made by these people
were suspicious," a police source said. Two more were picked up from
Mehrauli area.
While the low intensity blast at a market
in Mehrauli is being seen as retaliation from terrorists following police
action in the wake of September 13 serial blasts, such blasts have been occurring
in the south Delhi area over a period of time. The police had also arrested
some alleged illegal Bangladeshi migrants in this connection.
One such blast had occurred near IIT Gate
on February 11, 2004, in which two persons were injured. The explosive device
was a crude bomb manufactured using ammonium nitrate, potassium chlorate and
sulphur.
That bomb too was "dropped" on the
road by the suspects who managed to escape. It had exploded after a DTC bus
reported ran over it.
Two similar blasts were reported at Lado Sarai
and Malviya Nagar in January this year. In these instances, the device contained
one-and-a-half inch nails and ammonium nitrate and sulphur was used.
The police had earlier arrested some alleged
illegal Bangladeshi migrants but the trail did not go far.
However, according to a police officer who
has been with the south Delhi police for a long time, the explosion at the
Mehrauli market bore uncanny similarities to the device which had rocked the
capital in the year 1996-1997.
A bomb with similar configuration had exploded
near a nightclub in south Delhi on June 27, 1998. The police had found that
ammonium nitrate, potassium chlorate and sulphuric acid was used in the bomb.
