Although security agencies are ruling out the similarity with Ajmer Sharif blasts, Jaipur is an area of Lashkar operation that goes back to the now defunct Harkat-ul-Ansar planting a bomb nearly a decade ago. This border state has been of special interest to LeT’s Azam Cheema, who stands accused in Mumbai serial blasts, and has been responsible for training HUJI bombers in the past. “At present, the group behind the Jaipur blasts is only a learned conjecture,” said a senior Home Ministry official.

However, what can be said with certainty is that internal security agencies have picked up no cross-border communication or intercept in Kashmir and the linkage to the terrorists operating in the Valley is being ruled out at present.

The Jaipur blasts come after the terrorist attack near the international border at Samba two days ago and a week before External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon are to travel to Islamabad for their first bilateral interaction with the new government in Pakistan which will signal the start of the next round of the composite dialogue. The Foreign Secretary-level talks were called off due to the Mumbai blasts. This resulted in diplomatic bitterness that was finally resolved through the Havana joint statement that set up the joint anti-terror mechanism.