Pune blasts - Watches used to trigger bombs: 10 big developments

The police are reportedly relying heavily on the description given by the staff in the cycle shop who reportedly sold the two cycles that were used in Wednesday's blast on the busy Jangli Maharaj road. Police have prepared sketches of the two suspects who had come to the shop to buy the cycles.

Intelligence sources say that locally-made watches were used to trigger the four bombs that exploded on Wednesday night. Two other bombs were defused.Sources say the explosions could be a dry run or the explosives may have malfunctioned.

The one man injured in the blasts, a local tailor named Dayanand Patil, has given conflicting accounts of why he was carrying a bag which blew up. The explosive was planted in a cake box inside the bag. His passport has been impounded, allegedly because of a foreign trip that he was not able to explain. His wife was also questioned for several hours today by investigating agencies. (See Pictures)

The six bombs consisted of ammonium nitrate and a black sticky substance that is being analysed by forensic and other experts. The police suspects half a kilo of this substance was mixed into the ammonium nitrate to produce the bombs. The bombs were intended to create serious damage, but managed low-intensity explosions. (Read)

Sources say the use of cycles and the sort of circuits indicate that terror group Indian Mujahideen was involved with the blasts. The investigators are also exploring the possibility of whether the bombs malfunctioned owing to a poor mechanism.

Home Secretary RK Singh said today, "The fact that it (blasts) took place within 45 minutes in a radius of less than a kilometre shows there was planning."

Investigators will be deprived of assistance from security cameras placed at some of the locations where the blasts took place. The CCTV at a branch of Dena Bank was not working; at a McDonald's outlet where another blast took place, one camera was not working, the other filmed the interior of the restaurant and not the street outside. (Read)

After 17 people were killed at a major terror attack at the German Bakery in Pune two years ago, the Pune police said it needed 300 cameras installed across the city. Many crores have been spent but only 70 cameras have been set up.

The Pune police has cancelled the permission granted for a public protest on Jangli Maharaj Road to supporters of activist Anna Hazare. (Read)

In Delhi, there is high security at Jantar Mantar, where 75-year-old Anna Hazare and his aides are on a hunger strike supported by a large crowd. Their fast will end today evening. A bomb disposal squad swept the area last night as a precaution.