Centre points at "neighbouring" country for Jaipur blasts

Wed, May 14 08:24 PM

Jaipur/New Delhi, May 14 (PTI) Government today blamed an unnamed neighbouring country for the terror attack in Jaipur, strengthening suspicion that Bangladesh-based militant outfit HuJI may be behind the serial blasts that left at least 63 killed. After visiting the site of explosions in the Pink city, Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said in Delhi the blasts in the walled city smacked of a "deep-rooted and very well-planned conspiracy" by a "neighbouring country" but did not name any.

Eight people were picked up for questioning by the Rajasthan police which released a sketch of a suspect behind one of the eight blasts that rocked crowded areas in Jaipur, IG Jaipur Pankaj Singh said. A man injured in the blasts and a rickshaw puller were among them.

The blasts were the handiwork of an organised "international terrorist gang" to create communal tension, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje told reporters in Jaipur. The death toll rose to 63 but is likely to go up, an official said, as a shell-shocked city struggled to come to terms with the unprecedented terror strike.

Nearly 130 injured persons were undergoing treatment in several hospitals. Jaiswa said the blasts were carried out with the help of high intensity explosives like RDX and that Ammonium Nitrate may also have been used.

Most of the bombs kept in bags were strapped onto cycles and were exploded by timer devices. Police said that the modus operandi of the terrorists was similar to the one in last year's blasts in court premises in Uttar Pradesh in which Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami(HUJI) was involved.

PTI.

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