With the arrest of Indian Mujahideen cadre in Maharashtra, the Batla House encounter and the recent arrest of Qayamuddin Kapadia, security agencies believe they had cracked the first group — essentially IM cadres who got their almost C-shaped boxes with ammonium nitrate from somewhere in Karnataka. So the search intensified for the second group.

There was no frenzy until the arrests of Sadhvi Pragya Singh and Lt. Col Purohit stayed confined to investigations into the September 29 Malegaon blasts. Largely because no unexploded device was found in Malegaon and forensics revealed little about the type of bomb except confirming the explosive to be ammonium nitrate with the state authorities claiming traces of RDX. No meaningful forensic comparison could be made with other blasts, said sources.

However, revelations claimed by ATS after interrogation of the accused about Ajmer and Samjhauta have suddenly pushed investigators across at least five states into action with security agencies here asking the question: Could this be the elusive second group?

The one unknown fact being that the suitcase bomb in Samjhauta, and the tin boxes that held the bombs in Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif had one common factor — an identical arming device. This was a small suitcase lock fitted into these boxes that had to be turned by a key for the device to be armed. After that the detonation could be through a digital timer or a remote controlled device like a mobile phone. Identical locks were found in all the unexploded bombs recovered at these three sites. So once ATS claimed that Purohit had said something about these blasts, the interest multiplied several times. More so, the last investigative trail led to Indore from where Pragya Singh worked as an ABVP activist.

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