UP blasts: Suspect's sketch released

Lucknow, Dec 2 (UNI) Allahabad Police today released the sketch of a suspect in connection with the triple blasts, which hit three cities of Uttar Pradesh on November 23.

The contemporaneous bicycle blasts at Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad courts had killed 13 people and wounded 70 others.

''Police has released the sketch of a suspect in connection with the Friday coordinated blasts on the basis of information gathered from various sources,'' IG, Allahabad zone, A K Diwedi told UNI tonight.

According to Mr Diwedi, the sketch bears an uncanny resemblance to an Afghan.

The bicycle used in the Varanasi blast was purchased on November 16 by Arun Kumar Mishra from Lal&Company, Pandeypur.

In Faizabad, Amir Khan of Mugalpura had purchased the cycle from Pappu Cycle Store on November 21, while a person named Salman had purchased the Road King brand bicycle from Sen Agencies on November 20.

UP Police had already released sketches of the cycle purchaser of Lucknow and Faizabad.

In all the three cities, lawyers had beaten up terrorists arrested there in the recent past. The lawyers had manhandled terrorists in Varanasi, blamed for the March, 2006 blasts. In Faizabad, they had refused to fight cases of terrorists involved in the 'fidayeen' attack on the 'makeshift' Ramlala Temple on July 5, 2004.

On November 17, lawyers in Lucknow had heckled JeM terrorists charged with the conspiracy to kidnap a UP politician.

UNI