A week gone by, no headway in Jama Masjid attack probe

Delhi Police has questioned around 50 people in connection with the strikes last Sunday but "no concrete" headway has been made in the probe while several teams are in Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai to find some links in the case, a senior police official said.

On September 19, motorbike-borne men fired on a Taiwanese media crew outside Jama Masjid while a car caught fire after a "crudely-circuited and poorly assembled" device went off withing two hours after the first incident. Police initially attributed it to "disgruntled youths and local criminal gangs" ruling out involvement of any organised terror outfit.

The assertion came despite outlawed Indian Mujahideen claiming responsibility for the strikes and warning of more attacks ahead of Commonwealth Games in an e-mail sent to several media organisations.

However, the next day Delhi Police took a U-turn saying they cannot rule out a terror angle and Delhi Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal exclaimed "who said that" when asked about the investigators' stand the previous day. On Sunday police had maintained that there were no traces of any explosives in the device which they recovered from the car when already a case under Explosives Act was registered.

However, later it came to light that ammonium nitrate was used in the device which had two timers that had two times -- 11:30 am and 12 noon -- set for explosion. No RDX or detonators were recovered, police said.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram last week said, "we have leads but we have to zero in on the particular person who sent it. (There is) nothing in the e-mail itself which directly links it the shooting (near Jama Masjid)."

The only headway it could make was tracking the IM e-mail to Borivalli in Mumbai suburbs. The e-mail was sent using a Tata mobile and that it had a SIM purchased by an unidentified youth in the name of a woman.

Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad prepared a sketch and even went to two addresses provided by central intelligence agencies as the youth had purchased two SIM cards. Investigators suspect that a laptop might have been used to attach a PDF file in the e-mail sent by Indian Mujahideen claiming responsibility for the attack and it was located to a server in Norway. The SIM card was put in a GPS activated mobile phone.

They are also rummaging through unedited TV tapes looking for clues in the suspected terror attacks in Jama Masjid while several teams are criss-crossing small towns in Uttar Pradesh looking for leads.