With the electronic surveillance countrywide throwing a blank on the perpetrators of the Panipat blasts, security agencies are now poring over tapes from a CCTV discreetly installed at the Samjhauta Express ticket counter at Old Railway Station.

Government agencies are also revisiting the grenade-throwing incident on Samjhauta Express in 1996 near Panipat and re-looking at the Jammu Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF) which was then held responsible for the incident as well as the Lajpat Nagar blasts. The JKIF, led by Muzaffarabad-based Bilal Beg, is considered a group that “outsources” its attacks and is said to have a connection with 1993 Mumbai blasts accused Tiger Menon.

Investigators hope that the CCTV tapes at the ticket-counter may help in narrowing down their search. It’s not going to be easy, they admit, given that many perished in the fire. A laborious exercise of identifying the face in the tapes with passport details submitted at the counter is currently on.

5 detained in raids

NEW DELHI: Security agencies on Wednesday night detained five persons in coordinated raids in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and the Walled City in Delhi in connection with Sunday’s blasts in Samjhauta Express. Sources said two persons each were held in Rajasthan and UP while one was detained in Old Delhi. — PTI