Mumbai:
Claiming to have secured "solid leads" in the 13/7 blasts here, a
top Mumbai police officer said Saturday that the investigations
are now moving in "a certain direction" and the sketch of a
suspect will be ready soon.
This has been made possible by a witness to the incident at one of
the three locations, said Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS)
chief Rakesh Maria.
But he declined to pinpoint the blast location, out of Zaveri
Bazar, Opera House and Dadar Kabutarkhana, where the suspect was
seen by the witness.
He revealed that using CCTV footage from one of the blast sites,
police zeroed in on the image of an individual - a possible
suspect.
"It needs further verification, our teams are on the job. The
images are grainy and we are taking help of technical experts to
get better images," Maria said.
He explained that checking each and every frame of a large volume
of CCTV footage was a tedious job. There are many people in each
frame and police are taking the help of locals to identify them,
in a bid to isolate those who cannot be identified.
Maria said that the role or involvement of the underworld in the
explosions, which left 19 dead and over 100 injured Wednesday
evening, was being examined.
He denied involvement of a suicide bomber in the explosions which
were the first terrorist attack in the financial hub of the
country after 26/11.
He said police teams were rushed to Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal,
New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and
Rajasthan for investigations, which have now assumed pan-India
proportions.
He refused to comment on the terror group or organisation which
could have carried out the blasts.
"Only after our investigations are completed and we have the
accused in hand, I will be in a position to say anything. We are
examining all angles, all possibilities," Maria said.
Maria said investigators indicated the use of ammonium nitrate and
metallic containers in the blasts at all the three sites, but the
final forensic reports were awaited.
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