Police has found striking similarities between the improvised explosive devices used in the Jaipur serial blasts and the ones used in the twin blasts on August 25, 2007, in Hyderabad.
Intelligence agencies said this indicated that terrorists who triggered the Jaipur and Hyderabad blasts learned their deadly tricks in the same camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Bangladesh and from the same trainers.
Sources in the intelligence department told this correspondent that contrary to initial reports, RDX was not used in the Jaipur blasts.
Forensic tests revealed that only ammonium nitrate gel (also known as Neogel) was used in them. The same material was used for the twin blasts in the city.
Neogel is freely available in local markets.
“About 1.5 kg of Neogel with metal ball bearings was put in boat-shaped wooden cases in Jaipur and Hyderabad,” said the source. “In both cases, timers were used.
The similarities in the signatures of the bombs are shocking.” On August 25, 2007, two IEDs exploded at Lumbini Park Laserium and Gokul Chat Bhandar in the city while one unexploded bomb was recovered from Malakpet and defused.
The Special Investigation Team and Counter Intelligence teams of the Hyderabad police reached Jaipur on Thursday to investigate the links between the two incidents.
While two bombs were used in Hyderabad, eight bombs were used at six places in Jaipur while one bomb was defused.
“Our information is that the terror couriers behind both blasts got trained in the same camps in PoK and Bangladesh and this explains the similarities in the operations,” said the source.
Bangladesh-based HarkatUl-Jehad-e-Islami (HuJI) is suspected to be behind both the blasts. “There are similarities in the bombs used in Jaipur and Hyderabad blasts,” said the city police commissioner, Mr B. Prasada Rao. “There are also slight differences.” He added that city and Jaipur police were sharing information on the blasts.
The special secretary (internal security) in the union ministry of home affairs, Mr M.L. Kumawat, an AP cadre IPS officer, is coordinating the probe into the Jaipur-Hyderabad blasts link from the Centre.