No breakthrough

Investigation shows the tragedy was waiting to happen. Security checks on the sensitive train and the Delhi railway station were rare and inadequate. Luggage was hardly screened; tickets for the unreserved bogies could be bought even a few hours before the train left8212;often without even proffering the passports. Guests were also allowed to sit in the bogies till the train left. There were no CCTVs at Platform No 18 at the heritage railway station from where the train left. Nor were any sniffer dogs deployed. The perpetrators knew all this, and the fact that tighter checks would begin only at Attari when the train rolled on to Pakistan soil. Police now say the perpetrators even did a recce of the train8212;and the plan to place the bombs from Delhi was a cakewalk. They chose a Sunday night, catching a sleeping security mechanism off-guard.

Four bombs in suitcase, petrol-chemical cocktail

Initial investigation points to four bombs being planted on the train, all believed packed in similar suitcases, each one weighing almost 20 kg. Two exploded, one burst later when the police tried to defuse it, and the fourth was successfully detonated. The bombs, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said,were 8220;unique and never seen in India before8221;.

Fourteen plastic bottles filled with petrol or kerosene, a home-made electric circuit, two metal pipes filled with potassium nitrate with sulphur, carbon and magnesium wires and an Orpat digital timer. All this in a suitcase bearing a mark 8220;Kodak TM8221; and a tailor mark on the suitcase cover saying 8220;Apollo 6008221;. These were what the police found on the bomb they detonated. It was a crude bomb but appeared to be the handiwork of an expert.

IG Rohtak Range Sharad Kumar, heading the Special Investigative Team, says the aim was clear: to ignite a fire from the low-intensity explosion a cloth was put inside the sealed petrol/kerosene bottles to inflame the incendiary. The fire spread rapidly after the blasts. Investigators say if all four bombs had gone off, they might have been deceived into thinking the incident was due to a fire and not a bomb blast, which perhaps was the design of the perpetrators. Top officials say that the resultant debate over arson8212;like Godhra8212;with majority of the passengers Pakistanis would have had tremendous diplomatic impact.

4-5 bombers, possibly local elements

Eyewitness Yousuf Mohammad of Pakistan says he caught a glimpse of two-three people getting down the train as soon as it pulled out of the Old Delhi railway station leaving behind 8220;two suspicious suitcases.8221; Another eyewitness on the bogie in which the bomb went off, Rana Shaukat Ali of Pakistani, who lost his five children in the blasts, told the police that he saw two men, 8220;both speaking Hindi well8221; and carrying suspicious luggage, arguing with ASI Kashmir Singh of the RPF. Ali says they said they wanted to go to Ahmedabad and said they would get off the train when it slowed down.

The probe shows that the two suspects were on the train without valid tickets. At 11:30 pm, Ali saw them getting down from the train and 15 minutes later, a blast rocked the adjoining compartment near Diwana railway station. Another blast went off in the adjoining bogie. 8220;The suspects knew that the train slowed down at a certain point before Panipat,8221; says IG Sharad Kumar.

The leads: telephone calls, suitcase, identikit

Thousands of telephone calls from Old Delhi to Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan are being probed on the presumption that the bombers stayed in the area around the Delhi railway station. Police are hoping for a breakthrough, as in the Delhi serial blasts case where the intercept of a call by Tariq Ahmed Dar to PoK led to his arrest.

n The markings found on the suitcase holding the bomb detonated by the police are being chased8212;especially in Delhi8217;s Walled City8212;to zero in on the supplier. Over a dozen suppliers have been questioned, but there is as yet no breakthrough. The timers used are similar to ones used in the Malegoan, Varanasi and Shramjeevi Express blasts and the police are ascertaining if there are links in these attacks.

Sketches made by the police on the basis of eyewitness statements are the other bleak lead. Two persons in Bikaner, Rajasthan, one in Uttar Pradesh and another in Delhi, have been detained. But investigators say they have a long arduous task ahead: 8220;Both the Haryana and Delhi police need to work in close tandem to crack the case,8221; says IG Kumar. Both India and Pakistan are counting on that.

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