Chennai station blasts: Initial probe suggests timer used to trigger bombs
Chennai: Initial inquiries into the twin blasts in a passenger train in the Chennai Railway Station this morning reveal the perpetrators used an improvised explosive device with a timer.
“Forensic teams have collected ball-bearings and pellets besides traces of ammonium nitrate, nitro toluene and sulphur from the scene of the blast,” sources said.
Various police units including the National Investigative Agency, CBCID, city police, special division, railway police and the RPF have dispatched their representatives and were together trying to solve the terror puzzle by chipping in their inputs.
Bombs exploded in the tri-weekly Bangalore-Guwahati Express when it was at Chennai Central station around 07.12 am Thursday. Three coaches – S 3, S 4 and S 5 – were affected due to the explosion.
The train arrived late by one and a half hours. A 22-year-old techie from Guntur in Andhra PRadesh, Swati, lost her life in the blasts.
The police are not sure if the bags containing the explosives arrived in the Bangalore-Guwahati train or somebody planted the bombs in the two compartments after the train pulled up at platform 9 at the Chennai Central. One strong possibility is to trigger the blast using a timer. “They could have set the time in the bomb and kept the bags with explosives in the S4 and S5 compartments,” noted an official.
It could be also possible the suspects planted the bombs and then triggered it using a remote control or mobile phone. “If they were using mobile phone trigger, it can be used from anywhere but if they were using remote control, they could have been somewhere nearby,” police sources said.
Police suspect a concoction of ammonium nitrate, sulphur and tri-nitro Toulene (TNT) could have been used in the low intensity blast.
Pointing to the time of blast, a police official noted if the bomb was planted last night with timer, the blast could have happened when the train had entered Andhra Pradesh. “But the train was running one and half hour behind schedule. So it exploded in Chennai. But if the bomb was planted in Chennai central itself, it would become clear that perpetrators of the crime wanted the explosion to take place in Chennai,” police said.
Three suspects questioned
While the government, within hours of the blasts, handed over the case to the state CBCID, various security agencies had reportedly picked up at least three men for interrogation. Police has not ruled out the angle of 'revenge' act by terror groups for the arrest of Sakir Hussain, a suspected ISI agent arrested by Q branch in Chennai.
Immediately after the blasts, a passenger who returned to collect his bag, was picked up by the police on suspicious ground. “He said he was working in a corporate hospital in the city as a cashier. We are verifying his claim and as well as his back ground,” the police said.
Meanwhile at the Chennai airport two persons were picked up by the city police on suspicious ground. “One of the detained two was let off after primary investigation as he was found to be a smuggled goods carrier,” the police noted.
However a police team headed by a joint commissioner of police grilling another suspect who was traveling in the ill fated train but rushed to the city airport to catch a Guwahati flight. “He claims he wants to reach home very urgently so decided to catch flight fearing delay due to blast in the train he was traveling. He is from Guwahati and worked as welder in Bengaluru. We are trying to verify his claims,” the city police said.The intelligence sources also noted that if the twin blast was executed by terror groups to show their anger after the arrest of suspected Pakistan spy Sakir Hussain, a Sri Lankan native.
