The Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HUJI) and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) have come back on the radar of the internal security establishment after preliminary evidence to indicate that the Jaipur explosive devices had clock timers, a mixture of RDX and ammonium nitrate with ball-bearings to maximise human casualties.

This evening’s serial blasts in Jaipur shook North Block as there was no previous alert by security agencies on a terrorist attack in Rajasthan. The closest was an alert regarding most popular tourist destinations. Although there was an “activation of terrorist sleeper cells” detected more than a month ago in the state, today’s strikes took both the State and Central government by surprise. A total of seven explosions took place in six places with an unexploded eighth device being recovered by the local police. Six of the blasts were set off on parked new bicycles, one underneath a car.

Given the fact that the terrorists aimed for religious places in the city, the state government till late night was contemplating a series of security measures, including a morning curfew to prevent any untoward incident or communal conflagration in the charged atmosphere.

Similar devices planted on new bicycles were used in Malegaon and the UP court serial blasts. The nature of the explosives — derivatives of ammonium nitrate mixed with RDX — and the type of timers with ballbearings or shrapnel match those found in a series of attacks: from the Delhi Id-Diwali blasts to the Sankat Mochan temple blasts in Varanasi, the Hyderabad serial blasts and the Gorakhpur explosions as well.

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