Blast triggered by explosives in pressure cooker

New Delhi, Mar 8: The Home Ministry today (Mar 8, 2006) said the blast at the Sankatmochan temple in Varanasi yesterday was triggered by explosives and a timer device, kept in a pressure cooker.

"I have been told that the explosive was kept in a pressure cooker which had ammonium nitrate and a timer device," Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who returned early this morning from Varanasi after visiting the blast sites, told mediapersons.

The number of people killed in the blast at the Sankatmochan Hanuman temple was less as compared to the casualties in the other explosion at the cantonment railway station, he said after flagging off a BSF expedition to Mount Everest this morning. Mr Patil assured all help to the Uttar Pradesh government in maintaining law and order in Varanasi and other places. In the twin-blasts, at least 17 people were killed and over 90 injured in the temple town of Varanasi last evening.

UNI