Similarities in Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Bangalore blasts

UNCANNY SIMILARITY: Ammonium nitrate, nuts, bolts and bicycles were used in all the blasts.

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New Delhi: Twenty five blasts in India’s prominent cities — 17 in Ahmedabad and eight in Bangalore — in last two days alone have left the entire country stunned and shocked. Earlier in May, a series of blasts had killed 65 people in Jaipur.

Intelligence agencies say that the attacks in these cities might have more in common than just their common aim to kill and maim innocents — right from the use of ammonium nitrate, nuts, bolts and nails in all the low-intensity explosions to the bicycles onto which the deadly mixture was strapped.

“They are all low-intensity explosions. The blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad are of similar nature,” said Minister of State (Home) Sri Prakash Jaiswal said.

The blasts over the past two days targeted crowded, economically important and communally volatile areas.

In all the three cities, the explosions took place within a short span of time and within a radius of less than 10 km, perhaps to minimise reaction time.

In Ahmedabad, four civil hospitals were targeted to maximize damage. There was information of hospitals in Bangalore being on the terror radar on Friday.

An Islamic terrorist outfit that calls itself the Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for three of the four blasts since 2006.

Minutes before the first blast in Ahmedabad, an email from the group was sent to media organisations, including CNN-IBN. A similar email was circulated ahead of the UP blasts last year. In May this year, the same group sent video clips showing bicycles used for the Jaipur attacks, to two media organisations in Delhi.

“They are targeting BJP-ruled states so we must beef up security all over India, particularly BJP states,” former RAW director B Raman said.

Going by the intensity of the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, experts say the intention was to cause panic, disturb peace, create division on communal lines and target the economic growth of these developmental hubs.

(With inputs from Abhir VP in Bangalore and Raheel Khursheed in New Delhi)