INITIAL PROBE POINTS AT IM LINK TO BLASTS.

WHILE security agencies question 34-year-old tailor Dayanand Patil in connection with Wedenesday's serial blasts in Pune, the explosions bear the stamp of Indian Mujahideen (IM). Patil was the only person injured in the blasts. The ATS and the NIA were probing how Patil, living in a humble house in Pune, could have travelled to Jordan and Dubai, as his passport shows.

Intelligence officials, however, say IM remains a prime suspect in the attacks, and the security establishment is not going by the assumption that the bombs were not meant to cause casualties.

Sources in the Maharashtra ATS said substances used in the bombs were a clear indication that they were not meant for low intensity explosions. They said it was possible that a technical failure in the detonators caused the bombs to explode in a low intensity. "It does not appear that these blasts were a trial run. The composition certainly indicates that the plan was much bigger...We have found ammonium nitrate, low voltage batteries, detonators as well as traces of fuel oil in the two bombs that were defused in a controlled manner on Wednesday night," an investigator said.

"The Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL) has handed over its preliminary report stating that ammonium nitrate was found in the samples. A yellowish-black sticky substance has also been found at the site and we have sent it for examination," he said.

Ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, found from the defused bombs, have been the signature ingredients of IM bombs in the past. Also, explosives were planted in cycles and dustbins, something IM has done earlier, intelligence sources said. The IM connection is also being suspected due to the synchronisation of the blasts. "Even in the past they have carried out serial strikes C*at short intervals of 15 to 20 minutes," an official said.

State home minister R. R. Patil on Thursday said the police were actively probing whether the death of terror accused Qateel Siddiqui, who was killed in Pune's Yerawada jail in June, could have led to the bomb blasts. "A few days after the death of Siddiqui, Pune police commissioner had received an anonymous letter written in Marathi. It referred to Qateel's death and said it would be avenged. The police are probing this and all other angles," said Patil. Siddiqui was an accused in German Bakery and Bangalore stadium blasts.

The ATS picked up the owner and an employee of Soni Cycle Trading Mart, a shop from where the two bicycles used in the blasts were bought, JCP Sanjeev Singhal said.

With inputs from Abhishek Bhalla and Aman Sharma in New Delhi and Aditi Pai in Pune

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