Ajmer blasts: Patil suspects foreign hand

Ajmer, Oct 13: Suspecting cross border links in the blast in Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chisti's Durgah here on Thursday, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said there could be a foreign hand behind the blast which left two persons dead and several injured.

Talking to reporters after taking on the spot stock of the situation in the Durgah Sharif here today, Mr Patil said that hints out of the initial investigation suggested that the connectives of blast execution were spread beyond the border.

The Home Minister refused to share more details about the probe inferences, with the media and said it was not an appropriate time.

However, he expressed satisfaction over the progress in the investigation in the blast.

Earlier official sources yesterday, tipped Karachi based terrorist Shahid Bilal, the suspected mastermind in several terror strikes including the Samjhauta Express blast and Malegoan and Hyderabad serial blasts, and Bangladesh based militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islam (HuJI) as mastermind behind the durgah blast. The sources said preliminary investigations in the blast pointed at Bilal and HuJI's involvement in the incident.

The sources said circumstantial findings and nature of blast and style of operation matched with the modus operandi adopted by Bilal and HuJI in some of their previous terror strikes.

Meanwhile, the investigation being conducted jointly by various Centre and state government agencies, was progressing well.

The police has so far filed three cases in connection with the blast and related incidents and rounded up several persons for interrogation.

One case has been lodged against unknown, unspecified accused in connection with the blast while two more cases were lodged on behalf of the Durgah police station SHO and the Durgah Deewan Sayyad Zainual Aubeddin in connection with the incidents of assualt on police personnel and Durgah Deewan respectively.

UNI