CYCLE OF DEATH

THE BOMB
According to security experts who analysed a defused bomb recovered from Chandpole, it was a meticulously designed IED, fabricated for maximum impact. Preliminary forensic investigations have revealed that the explosive device contained a mixture of RDX, ammonium nitrate, metal pieces and ball bearings. Experts have concluded that each bomb had an average of 7.5 kg of explosive and shrapnel packed into it. The inner layer of the device was the explosive material, which was tightly bound in cloth and crepe bandage. Each layer was filled with metal pieces and ball bearings to maim and injure as many people as possible. A watch was used as a timer device to set off the explosions. The clock used as timer was cushioned with a pair of underwears. The bomb that was defused by the police was found in a khaki-coloured haversack.
The bombs proved lethal because they were directional chargers. This means that the explosive power was channeled into one direction to cause maximum damage there. Similar bombs were also used by extremists in last year’s Hyderabad blast at Gokul Chat Bhandar, an attack that the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI) has been accused of engineering.

BOMBS ON BICYCLES
Instead of being put at ground level, the explosives were strapped to the handlebars of the bicycles. The cycles recovered from the blast site have a mangled front end proving that the bombs were placed on the handlebars.
It was the height at which they were placed that caused maximum injuries—the shrapnel wrapped in the bombs had a wider range and hit the waist and the upper parts of the victims’ bodies. In all, 10 bicycles of different brands—Avon, Ranger and Apollo-—were used in the attack. They were bought from the city just days before the attack.

CAUGHT OFF GUARD
Before May 13, Jaipur had never been a terror target. Even the state DGP A.S. Gill accepts that the Central intelligence agencies had never given the state’s security set-up any specific inputs on an impending terror strike. “Though we had been receiving some general inputs from the Intelligence Bureau regarding threats to the state, there hadn’t been any specific input on an attack,” Gill added.
The police in the state is ill equipped to deal with such cases as it didn’t even have a dedicated anti-terror unit to deal with cases of this kind. This had forced the state police to rely on the expertise of other agencies like the IB and NSG and seek the cooperation of other states like Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, where such threats have been dealt with more frequently.
In fact, while terrorism has become a focus of policing across the globe, in Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje took more than 48 hours after the attack to announce the formation of its first anti-terror unit. A special team, under an IGP, has also been constituted to probe the serial blasts.

THE SUSPECTS
With over 35 Bangladeshis being picked up for interrogation, the needle of suspicion clearly points at HuJI. According to senior investigating officers, the modus operandi of the attack was not very different from the sort the Bangladesh-based outfit uses. “The questioning of several Bangladeshi nationals is currently on and we hope to make a breakthrough in the case soon,” said official sources.
The police, however, are investigating other leads as well, with at least six teams of officers dispatched to various parts of the country to seek the help of police there in investigating the matter.
Though the involvement of fundamentalist students’ organisation SIMI in the attacks is also suspected, there is no evidence so far to link the group with the attack, sources added.

TOURISTS NOT TARGETS
Though Jaipur, part of the Golden Triangle of the Delhi-Jaipur-Agra tourist circuit, is frequented by lakhs of overseas and domestic tourists, no foreigner suffered any injuries on May 13. All the 63 people killed were locals and even among the 130 injured, there were very few outsiders. The reason: all the bombs had been planted at places frequented by locals. According to the Rajasthan DGP, the sites for the blasts were chosen meticulously. “All bombs were been placed near temples or markets which are frequented by the local people. It being a Tuesday, when people visit temples, the blasts had a devastating impact,” he added. “The blasts aimed at fomenting communal tension in the city, that’s why temples were targeted on a Tuesday,”he added.

PROBE STATUS
Though FIRs have been registered against unidentified accused at three police stations—Manak Pura, Kotwali and Sanjay Circle—the police are yet to make any headway in the investigations. “Our investigations are heading in a positive direction and we hope to make a breakthrough in the case soon,” says IGP (Jaipur) Pankaj Kumar Singh.
Teams of Rajasthan police have been dispatched to Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in search of clues but there’s been no breakthrough.

A RECOVERING CITY
After curfew was relaxed, shops in Johari bazaar, Manak Chowk, Chandpol, Badi Chaupar, Chhoti Chaupar, Tripolia Bazaar—the areas hit by the blasts—have opened again. “Though the bomb blast took place right across my shop, I have decided to reopen my shop. We should not be cowed down by such attacks,” said Jair Ram Agrawal, a shopowner in the Bapu Bazaar area.
The Sawai Man Singh Hospital, where most of the victims were admitted, is also getting back to normal. Most of the injured victims have been discharged.
Mohammad Yusuf, a member of the Shanti Samiti (a committee of local residents establish to maintain communal peace in the city), says, “We should not allow such elements to create a rift between the communities. And people should resume their normal lives if they want to defeat such motives.”

COLD TRAIL
Investigations into previous terror attacks have led nowhere

MUMBAI
7/11 serial blasts
July 11, 2006
On July 11, 2006, seven coordinated explosions in first class train compartments at seven stations on Mumbai’s western railway line left 187 dead and 817 injured. The state Government handed over the investigations to the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS), which registered seven separate FIRs. The ATS arrested 13 people (alleged LeT operatives and SIMI members), and filed a chargesheet against them on November 30, 2006. Fifteen people, including LeT chief Azam Cheema and 10 other Pakistani nationals, were declared as absconders in the case. The accused were booked under MCOCA, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act, the Railway Act, the Indian Passports Act, and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
On February 29 this year, the Supreme Court stayed the trial in the case, after an accused challenged the application of MCOCA in the case.

Malegaon
September 8, 2006
On the Muslim holy festival of Shab-e-Baraat, four bomb blasts shook the textile town of Malegaon at Hamidiya Masjid, Bara Kabrastan and Mushawra Chowk. The explosions were triggered by bombs planted on parked bicycles. The terror strike claimed 31 lives and left 312 injured.
The case was investigated by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS), which filed a chargesheet in the case on December 21, 2006. On the same day, under pressure from Muslim groups and political parties, the state government handed over investigations in the case to the CBI.
According to the ATS chargesheet, the nine accused, who are allegedly active SIMI members had hatched and executed the conspiracy with the help of two Pakistanis to ‘trigger communal riots’. Two of the accused in the Malegaon case, Mohammadi Ali Shaikh and Asif Khan alias Junaid, are also accused in the 7/11 serial blasts. The CBI is currently investigating the case. One of the nine accused, Abrar Ahmed Ghulam Ahmed, has become an approver in the case. On February 29 this year, the Supreme Court stayed proceedings in the case.

HYDERABAD
Mecca Masjid blasts
May 18, 2007
Initial investigation into the blast at Mecca Masjid that killed 14 people on May 18, 2007, pointed to the terror networks of the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI) and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) with links in Pakistan and Bangladesh. A year later, the CBI-led probe assisted by a local police special investigation team (SIT) has not made much headway.
Though the police arrested 26 people for abetting the perpetrators of the attack, the probe couldn’t yield much. “These people were only involved in arranging fake identification papers or passports and did not know for whom or for what purpose they were meant. The trail went cold from there,” says Police Commissioner B. Prasada Rao.

UTTAR PRADESH
serial blasts in Lucknow, Faizabad

and Varanasi courts
November 23, 2007
The state is still to identify the masterminds of the November 23 serial blasts in courts across Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi. 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.
As for the four accused named in the chargesheet, allegations have surfaced that two among them—Muhammad Tariq Kashmiri 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 incident sites,” said Mohammad Shoaib, lawyer of Kashmiri and Mujaheed.
Sources in the state Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) said the investigators are yet to file a chargesheet in connection with the Varanasi court blast. “The ATS is still to identify the accused in Varanasi,” he added.
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 serial blasts.