Switch used to trigger Delhi blast found, no breakthrough yet

As investigators struggled to find conclusive leads, Union Home Secretary R K Singh said security agencies were attending to all the four emails purportedly sent by terror outfits HuJI and IM claiming responsibility for the Wednesday blast in which 13 people were killed and 88 injured.

"We are not dismissing any email. We are investigating each and every email we have got," he told reporters. Singh however indicated there was a possibility that this could be a prank being played by someone.

Sources said that a switch used in the bomb was found by investigators. But, they said the timer device, if at all used, is yet to be recovered. Asked about reports that timer used to trigger the blast had been found, Singh said it was not correct.

Sources said probe agencies were now looking into the possibility of whether Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives carried out the attack with the help of some other terror outfit.

They said the anti-terror squads of various states were working on the case but none of them have got any substantive leads. J and K police tonight detained two more persons--both of them surrendered militants--for questioning in connection with purported e-mail claim of Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI) claiming responsibility for the blast.

Irshad Ahmed and Farooq Ahmed were picked up from Kishtwar town and were taken for questioning, officials said. The number of people detained in Kishtwar so far has gone up to nine persons.

Police also seized the computers of the duo from their houses for scanning in connection with e-mail. The questioning of the seven men earlier detained in Kishtwar continued for another day. They included the owner of the cybercafe to which the HuJI email claiming responsibility for the blast was traced.

The detained included a youth Sohaib whose parents claimed that their son is innocent and "not involved at all" in the blast. He has been detained for purportedly sending the HuJI email.

The investigators were also not ruling out the possibility of IM cadres being helped by some other group on the basis of a comparative analysis of July 13 Mumbai triple explosions and the High Court blast since materials and components found in the bombs were similar.

They also suspected that some of the 11 fugitive IM operatives who were allegedly involved in 2008 Delhi serial blasts, may have played a part in the High Court attack. Four men--two each in Alwar in Rajasthan and Mumbai--were detained by police since they resembled the sketches of possible suspects released by the Delhi Police but they were freed after questioning and getting their identities verified. The two men detained in Alwar hailed from Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources said an analysis showed that in Mumbai blasts, ammonium nitrate was mixed with fuel oil and detonator had traces of PETN while the bomb used to trigger the explosion outside Delhi High Court had PETN as its major component with few traces of ammonium nitrate.

Investigators said PETN is used mostly by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir and IM had earlier used ammonium nitrate for making bombs. "So now we are looking into the possibility of whether Indian Mujahideen is being helped by some other group," a top police official said.

Another source maintained that unlike this time, in earlier cases there were ample evidence available for the anti-terror squads to make out which IM modules were involved.