Jaipur, UP court blasts: Same hand?

Though the police have named four persons in the chargesheet, it is still clueless about the identity of the persons whose sketches it had issued after speaking to the shop owners from whom the cycles used in the court blasts were bought. Like the Jaipur blasts, the terrorists had used ammonium nitrate, ammonium nitrite, RDX and ball bearings for the serial blasts in UP. At both places, the bombs were kept on bycycles and e-mails were sent owning up for the blasts.

“While in the Jaipur blasts, the terrorists used neogel 90, in the UP blasts, they had used supergel 90. Both are similar substances,” said an officer of the UP Police.

He added, “Both incidents show the presence of a common hand or a common mind. The only difference was that while in Jaipur, the blasts were well planned, the blasts in UP were executed in haste.”

As for the four accused named in the chargesheet, allegations have surfaced that two among them — Muhammad Tariq Kashmi and Khalid Mujaheed — have been framed. The state government has set up a judicial inquiry to look into the allegations. The two other accused are Sajjad-ur-Rehman and Tariq Kashmiri. “Though trial has already begun in the Faizabad court, this is a no-evidence case. The UP Police have said that all the four played a role in the blasts. But the fact remains that none of them was seen at the spot of the incidents,” said Mohammad Shoaib, the lawyer of Tariq and Khalid.

Sources in the state Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) said the investigators are yet to file a chargesheet in connection with the Varanasi court blast. “ATS is still to identify the accused in Varanasi,” a source said.

The investigators have also not been able to trace the sender of the e-mail that had landed in the offices of TV channels at the time of the serial blasts. “In fact, the Delhi Police team that raided the cyber café concerned had removed all the computers. Thus, it was not possible for us to detect the computer that was used by the terrorists to send the e-mail,” said a source in the UP Police.