• Just like in the Hyderabad blasts, the explosive was wrapped in a case and a white tape was used that was also found in one of the explosives used in the Lucknow court blasts.

• The clock in the defused bomb was cushioned by a pair of men’s briefs. It was in a haversack, the kind that is not readily available in Jaipur.

• The manufacturing code of a mangled Avon bicycle recovered from one blast site led the police to a bicycle shop at Kishanpole Bazaar where it was bought barely five hours before the blast. It is learnt that the shopkeeper helped the police draw a sketch of the person who bought the bicycle around 2 pm on Tuesday and even admitted that the buyer had been able to bargain down the price by Rs 100.

• Nine bicycles were apparently used to carry explosives to different sites. The police suspect these were all bought recently. Given the number of bicycles used in the blasts, the police believe that at least half-a-dozen, if not more, people must have been involved in executing the plan. One estimate put the number of plotters at 20.

• Six cigarette packets, suspected to be from Bangladesh, are said to have been recovered from the blast sites.

The Hyderabad blasts were attributed to HuJI, which appears to be the group behind the Jaipur blasts too going by these preliminary inputs. But investigators are handicapped by the slow progress in the Hyderabad case. Agencies are also finding it difficult to name SIMI as its key leadership, including Safdar Nagori, is under arrest.

... contd.