Naidu’s attackers took time, not chances

While he managed to walk out of the aircraft, he is still not in a position to talk to anyone, including his senior ministers and officials. However, a senior doctor attending on him said there was no need for him to be taken to a hospital. ‘‘We have studied his CT scan, MRI and other reports. There is a minor fracture in his shoulder and he is yet to come out of the shock,’’ he said.

TDP MLA R. Rajshekhar Reddy, who was seriously injured in the blast and had slipped into coma, was today taken to Chennai by road and admitted to Apollo Hospital. Another ruling party legislator, Ch Krishnamurthy, and car driver Raju are also undergoing treatment. Krishnamurthy has a blood clot in his brain but doctors say he is stable. Charges of laxity in security and intelligence continue to float around the state capital.

The government today ordered a comprehensive probe by security expert and retired IPS official S. Subramaniam. The eight unexploded mines on the Tirumala road were discovered by bomb-disposal teams this morning. These were placed one after the other, over 150 feet, almost equal to the length of the CM’s convoy.

All the mines were connected to a single wire and triggered with camera flash. Seven weighed about 15 kg each, Additional Director General of Police (CID) Mahendra L. Kumawat said. The eighth was about 30 kg. All were metal-sheet boxes loaded with gelatin and iron balls chopped off from dumb-bells used for physical exercises.

The growth of grass and small plants over the mines provides a rough hint of when the explosives were buried.

‘‘The Naxalites may have come in the guise of contract workers of the forest wing of the TTD, which took up massive plantation programme on the Tirumala Hills. None would have suspected them even if they were digging up the portion all along the road,’’ Kumawat said.

The mines may have been triggered from a spot about 20 metres from the road, with an escape route connecting to the Tirupati-Chittoor bypass road. Police believe one person may have set off the trigger while two could have been waiting on a motorcycle on the by-pass road.

But the authorities are yet to solve the mystery of the chopping down of shrubs and bushes to a height of 2 feet in an area of about 200 sq yards at the site. The Naxalites apparently wanted to ensure a clear view of the target, they say. While no formal arrests have been made, at least six ‘‘civil rights activists’’ were picked up for questioning by police from Tirupati. Three of them belong to the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee.

Shaken up by the assassination attempt, the state government is considering the Centre’s offer to provide National Security Guards (NSG) cover to Naidu. ‘‘We want to totally revamp the security system. We are prepared to hand over this task to a specialised and independent agency or individuals,’’ Home Minister T. Devender Goud told reporters here.

Minister of State for Home Swami Chinmayanand, who was asked to go to Hyderabad by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, offered NSG security for the CM as well as any other assistance the state may want in dealing with the PWG in terms of weapons and funds.

Naidu had been offered NSG cover a few months earlier too, Chinmayanand said, following intelligence reports that he topped the Naxalite hit list, but the CM had declined saying it would restrict his movement. Naidu was satisfied with the Z-category security provided by the Greyhound commando unit of the state police, specially trained to fight Left-wing extremism.

In the meantime, a four-member team from the NSG Bomb Data Centre is reaching the blast site to study the nature of the explosives used.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and German president Rau were among those who enquired about Naidu’s condition today. Governor S.S. Barnala was among the first to call on the CM.

While many, including ministers and legislators, descended to Jubilee Hills, doctors sent them away.