Second Saturday Shock

8220;The rider slowed down his bike and the pillion rider dropped a black polythene bag on the road. A young boy, out with his family in the market, noticed the bag and picked it up, calling out 8220;Uncle, your bag8221; to the bikers. Suddenly, he saw smoke coming out of the bag and with a scream, he dropped it. Barely two seconds later, the bomb exploded,8221; an eyewitness, L.D. Hans, who runs a hardware store in the area said.

The nine-year-old boy, Santosh Kumar, was declared dead on arrival at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. A 60-year-old unidentified man died late in the evening.

Police officers said that the bikers sped towards Gurgaon. Later, a Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle matching the description was found abandoned in Palam Vihar. Police officers were not willing to confirm if it was the same vehicle.

The explosions were not triggered off by timer devices and no circuitry has yet been recovered from the blast site. Instead, chemicals like sulphur, potassium8212;and possibly ammonium nitrate8212;were used along with nails.

With the explosive device and modus operandi different from those used in serial blasts, police and intelligence officials are not terming it a terror attack. Sarai market is not a popular shopping area unlike serial blast targets.

The Delhi police is rounding up people with crime records from neighbouring areas. South Delhi has witnessed eight mysterious explosions in the last three years. Police officers say those low-grade devices, too, used similar chemicals. Those blasts did not happen in crowded places and did not cause much damage.

Preliminary investigations suggested the bomb was a low- or medium-intensity device. Top intelligence officials said the possibility of a chemical delay initiator to trigger the bomb was being examined. The initiator which starts the chemical reaction cannot easily be detected since it gets destroyed in the explosion.

Why police are not calling it a terror strike

8226; Explosions not triggered off by timer devices, no circuitry recovered

8226; Composition of explosives8212;chemicals like sulphur and potassium8212;doesn8217;t have fingerprints of known terror groups

8226; Bombs had been planted in most earlier terror attacks. Modus operandi different.

8226; South Delhi has a history of unsolved blasts8212; as many as eight in three years8212;but not with casualties