Speaking to the media, Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said most of the states were against the formation of such an investigative agency, which was envisaged to operate directly under the central command and equipped to deal with serious crimes like terrorist attacks or communal violence.

“Our Government has been trying very hard for the last one year to convince the state governments about the need for having such an investigative agency. But the response of most of the states has not been very encouraging,” he said. “However, we will continue our efforts to seek a consensus on this,” he added.

On the Jaipur blasts, the minister said a state which had witnessed similar attacks in Ajmer just a few months back should have been more alert. He said though there was no specific intelligence input of a possible terror strike in Jaipur, the state Government had been asked to maintain extra vigil at religious places in the wake of Ajmer attacks. However, he quickly added that he was not blaming the state government for any security lapse.

He said the blasts in Jaipur, and similar incidents in Varanasi, Faizabad, Ajmer and Hyderabad were all linked and there was a clear foreign hand in all of these. “We have to examine these in the light of political instability in some of our neighbouring countries,” he said, in an obvious reference to Pakistan.

Jaiswal also urged the state governments to establish specialised intelligence cadres, separate from their police machinery, to deal with high-tech terrorist activities.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said: “Maybe, the time has come to have a single agency at the federal level to fight against terrorism and other specified federal crimes.” He added: “The tragedy in Jaipur is also a time for introspection and reflection. The Government has tried to build a consensus to classify certain acts of crime like terrorism, which can be tried at the federal level.”

His gems-II

• The explosive used was very dangerous. It may be RDX or ammonium nitrate or a mixture of these two or some other mixture.

• What I can say is that this is the work of a very dangerous terrorist organisation. It was a very well-planned conspiracy.

• Whichever organisation has done this, I declare it to be the enemy number one of this country. Culprits will be apprehended very soon.

• It is not correct to say that the investigations in the previous terrorist attacks have yielded nothing. But yes, they have not reached their logical conclusion. And the biggest reason for that is that the clues are linked to our neighbouring countries.

• Whichever terrorist organisation or foreign hand is behind these blasts, it is not able to digest India’s progress.