Mumbai sleuths to help in Hyderabad blast probe

MUMBAI: A crack unit of the Mumbai police's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Saturday left for Hyderabad to trace the terror imprints in the blast at the Mecca Masjid there a day earlier.

A four-member team of ATS sleuths will help investigators probe the blasts that killed 10 devotees and injured 50 others during Friday afternoon prayers at the 400-year-old mosque.

"We have sent a four-member team, led by Deputy Inspector General of Police Subodh Jaiswal, to help the Hyderabad blast investigators. The team will study the site and tally the samples and raw materials used in assembling the bombs used in the Malegaoan bombings in September 2006 and in Hyderabad," said ATS chief and Joint Commissioner of Police Krishan Pal Raghuvanshi on Saturday.

"The team will study the terror imprints and probe the modus operandi involved in the terror attack and also the possible links between terror outfits active in Maharashtra," Raghuvanshi said.

The ATS chief said the team would collect samples of the two live bombs that were defused in the Hyderabad mosque after the blast.

"The samples will play a vital role in our ongoing probe on terror imprints in the state and ascertain whether the same outfits are linked to the Malegaon blasts or not."

On September 8 last year 35 people were killed and 300 injured when a series of bombs kept on bicycles outside a local mosque and an adjacent burial ground rocked the textile city of Malegaon in Maharashtra's Nasik district minutes after Friday afternoon prayers.