Pune:
Police sources have said that the preliminary report of the Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL) indicates that ammonium nitrate was used in the Pune blasts. During the investigation, some black sticky substance has been found which is being studied by the FSL to ascertain what exactly it is.
Intelligence sources now say that the one man injured, a local tailor Dayanand Patil, has been detained and is being questioned.
"He works as a tailor in Junglee Maharaj Road area. He has sustained minor injuries, our team is interrogating him and after interrogation, we may get further clues," said Pune Police Commissioner, Gulab Rao.
Mr Patil had minor injuries and was taken to Sassoon Hospital, where he was questioned. He has reportedly told cops that he had stopped at the site of a Team Anna protest near the Balgandharva auditorium, where the first blast happened. He has reportedly said that he kept his bag on the ground and when he picked it up again, it felt heavy. He looked inside and the explosion happened. Mr Patil was carrying cake in a plastic cake box.
The ATS is examining CCTV footage from the branch of McDonald's outside which one of the explosions took place. Sources also say that closed circuit camera at Dena Bank, another location where a blast took place yesterday, are not working.
Till late night, investigators were gathering crucial pieces of evidence from the blast sites. Apart from Maharashtra DGP and the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), a team of National Investigative Agency also inspected the blast sites. A team of National Security Guards (NSG) joined the probe this morning.
All explosives were kept in cake boxes and placed within a kilometre. Two other bombs were defused.
Pune Police Commissioner Gulab Rao described the explosions as an act of mischief but Union Home Secretary RK Singh said terror angle could not be ruled out as it appears to be a planned attack.
Sushil Kumar Shinde, who took over as India's Home Minister yesterday, was scheduled to be in the city last night to preside over a prize-giving ceremony. He cancelled his plans at the last minute. "The blasts were of low-intensity. I was supposed to be at the Tilak Theatre, very near to where one of the blasts took place. At this moment, I cannot say anything more. It is now a matter of inquiry," he told reporters in Delhi.
The explosions took place between 7.37 and 8.15 pm during rush hour in the heart of the city on Junglee Maharaj Road, crowded with restaurants, shops and the large Sambhaji Park, popular for family outings in the evening. The blasts took place outside the Balgandharva auditorium used to stage plays, at a statue near that theatre, opposite a McDonalds outlet and near a bank. One of the bombs, placed on a cycle, was hooked up to sophisticated circuitry, say sources.
Police say explosives near Dena Bank and Garware Bridge were left in the wire-meshed carrier bags, attached to the front of the bicycles and the explosion outside McDonalds went off in a dustbin at its outer gate.
In Mumbai, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan called a meeting with senior officials to step up security for the financial capital. "Two teams from the NIA will reach Pune. Bomb disposal experts also. All experts to come to Pune and find out what device it was and what was the motive. When we know anything more concrete, we will share... Request people not to panic," he said.
After the blasts all cities across India are on high alert. A bomb disposal squad swept Jantar Mantar in New Delhi where Anna Hazare and his activists are on a hunger strike, supported by a large crowd. (
Read: High alert in Delhi)
In February 2010, 17 people were killed in a bomb blast at the popular German Bakery near Pune's famous Osho ashram. After being arrested in the US, Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley confessed to having filmed the bakery to help in the planning and execution of the terror attack.