With the festival season having just started, a virtual nationwide hunt is on to locate unauthorised SIM cards after links were found between the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts. What has got the Centre on its toes is that the accused in the Hyderabad twin blasts had revealed they had purchased 50-100 SIM cards.

Imran Sayeed and Mohammed Kaleem, the two accused in the twin blasts, had in their narco-analysis disclosed that they had helped obtain 50-100 SIM cards over a period of time. Hyderabad Police Commissioner admitted that these cards have still not been located and investigations are underway.

However, security agencies here are convinced that the Harkat-ul-Jehad-I-Islami (HUJI) has zeroed in on the mobile phone trigger mechanism to carry out such explosions.

It was used in the Mecca Masjid blasts and now in the Ajmer Sharif attack. Sources said the disclosures made by Saeed and Kaleem need to be taken “very seriously”.

Alerts have been sent across the country asking state governments to trace irregular and suspicious purchase of SIM cards.

HUJI is known to use largely two kinds of trigger mechanisms. The most favoured seems to be the mobile phone and the other is by using the common alarm clock which is what was found in the Hyderabad twin blasts and the Varanasi Sankatmochan explosions.

Obtaining a SIM card, sources said, is the critical part for terrorists and once that is available, this mechanism is perhaps the best option. Though mobile phones were not used in the twin blasts, the accused talked about SIM cards which, sources add, only emphasises the link.

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