Apollo 600. This pen scrawl on a tailor-made cover of the suitcase in which a bomb was packed is one clue which is being given a hard look by investigators probing Sunday midnight’s Samjhauta Express blasts that killed 68 people, mostly Pakistanis — one more person succumbed to injuries this morning.

Preliminary investigations by the Haryana Police SIT also point to “home-grown elements” who may have been used to engineer the blasts. Similarities with the Varanasi and Shramjeevi train blasts in UP are also being looked at.

Two sketches of the suspects were released today based on the account of a Pakistani eyewitness, Rana Shaukat Ali, who has been admitted to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. The Indian Express had reported this morning that Ali told officials he had seen two men get into an altercation with an RPF guard on board and had jumped off the train when it slowed down before Diwana railway station.

“Both suspects were on the train and were speaking local languages, particularly good Hindi,” said Sharad Kumar, IG Rohtak Range. According to the SIT, one of the suspects was 35-36 years of age, plump, dark, had a light moustache and was wearing a jacket, shirt and trousers. The second person was around 26-27, slim and dark and had a muffler.

Panipat police have already alerted the Delhi Police Special Cell regarding the Apollo 600 marking. Investigators believe this could be a a tailor-mark and may just provide the lead they are looking for. “It is apparent that the suitcases were prepared with bombs in Delhi or around and then put on the train. We have asked Delhi Police to check this Apollo 600 lead very closely,” SP RPF Ambala, Bharti Arora, who is part of the SIT formed by Haryana Police, told The Indian Express today.

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