No clue yet in Delhi blast; alert in Ahmedabad

New Delhi - 09 Sep 2011: Two days after terror struck at the heart of the capital, investigating agencies are still groping for conclusive leads even as a spate of mails now hamper the probe.

Gujarat is put on high alert after a third email warned that Ahmedabad will be the next terror target.

Even a fourth email surfaced on Friday evening, from a person named Chhotu Minani, claiming to be written on behalf of the Indian Mujhaideen and claimed that the third email to Delhi Police was also sent by them and that Ahmedabad will be attacked in a way that police will not be able to find evidence.

Victims of Delhi High Court blast may be struggling to get back to their lives, but the pol barbs were out in full force, with Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley Home Minister P Chidambaram indulged in a war of words over the Delhi blast.

Chidambaram retaliated by saying, "If I have been hackled, I would not have complained. But Mr Jaitley is been out of office for too long to know how people would react to such situation."

"Rather then making it a partisan issue Mr Chidambaram should be seriously concerned with the fact that in cases after cases either there is no prior intelligence coming or the cases are going unresolved. I don't see the sense of anger and urgency in him in order to achieve this," said BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

Even as investigators struggled to find the terrorists, the Home Minister took the atack to the Opposition, and also defended his men.

"The average policeman stands on his feet for 14 hours a day. The average policeman doesn't get off for three weeks in a stretch," said Chidambaram.

The Home Minister insisted they are doing their best, but for the investigators the clues became even harder to come by. The forensic report from four different labs could only agree that some nitrate based substance was used for the bomb, but there is no clarity on the exact compound.

In desperation, the reward money for any input on Delhi blast has been raised to Rs 10 Lakh from Rs 5 lakh.

Also the string of emails continued, with the day began with a fresh mail allegedly from the Indian Mujahideen to the Delhi Police.

The third email sent as a numeric code 1,8,5,13,4,1,2,1,4 as the next terror target was deciphered to mean Ahmbedabad.

Not taking any chances, home ministry immediately put Ahmbedabad and entire Gujarat on high alert.

"The email states that it will be a cruel attack and will be remembered for ten years. We are taking the email very seriously, but its authenticity is yet to be established. That mail, for sure, has not been generated from Ahmedabad," said Sudhir Sinha, Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad City.

Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Police tracked down the boy who sent the September 7 email on behalf of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). Sources said nothing concrete could be recovered from him.

The September 9 email of the Indian Mujhideen was traced to West Bengal, while the proxy server for the third one was traced to Moscow.

More emails and detention of more suspects on the third day get no closure to finding the real culprits. Home Minister P Chidambaram may hit out at critics and also assured that the NIA does have some positive leads, which could translate into some evidence in next few days, but as the Opposition ups the ante, it will be difficult for the Government to defend itself unless the NIA can come up with some concrete evidence soon.

source: CNN-IBN