'UP blasts: Explosives in pressure cooker'

NEW DELHI: Explosives hidden inside a pressure cooker and a timer device were used to trigger blast in Sankatmochan temple in Varanasi, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said here on Wednesday.

Patil, who visited Varanasi along with Congress President Sonia Gandhi late on Tuesday night, said that the Centre was providing all assistance to the state government in maintaining peace in the temple town.

"I have been informed that the explosive was kept in a pressure cooker which had Ammonium Nitrate and a timer device," he told reporters here after flagging off a BSF expedition to Mount Everest.

"The casualty at the temple was less and more lives were lost at the cantonment railway station," he said.

"The Centre as well as the state government will try to nab those responsible for blasts as soon as possible and ensure that they are punished," he said.

"There is no need to fight each other or indulge in a blame game. We have to be united in our fight," said Patil.  The state government and the police are doing their best to keep the situation under control; he said adding that the Centre is providing all assistance to them.

Patil praised the people of Varanasi for facing the situation courageously and for maintaining peace and calm.

Govt determined to combat terror: Warning that the Varanasi temple was targeted to cause communal tension in the country, Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Wednesday appealed to everyone to ensure that such acts of terror by "some desperate anti-national elements" do not disturb peace and public order.

In a statement tabled in Rajya Sabha amid pandemonium over the twin blasts in Varanasi, Patil assured that Government remained firmly committed to combating terrorism.

Patil said "the temple was targeted understandably to cause communal tension in the country".

He said "all of us have to ensure that such acts of terror by some desperate anti-national elements do not disturb peace, public order and communal harmony in the country and would not be allowed to undermine our determination to combat, control and contain violence."

All evidence points to involvement of LeT in Varanasi blasts

All the evidence collected on the twin blasts in Varanasi so far points to the involvement of Lashkar-e-TOiba, a Pakistan-based militant outfit, which had masterminded the October 29 explosions in Delhi, highly placed sources said on Wednesday night.

"There are several similarities in the modus operandi with regard to the blasts in Varanasi and Delhi," the sources said.

Pressure cookers were used in the Varanasi blasts yesterday while the explosive in the Sarojini Nagar blast in Delhi was also kept in a pressure cooker.

"There is another similarity -- the timing of the explosions. In both cases, the blasts took place in the evening time when people throng market places and religious shrines," they said.

Explosives used in Delhi and Varanasi were also fitted with time devices and the blasts were not carried out by use of remote control instruments, they added.

While 59 people were killed in Delhi explosions, so far 20 people have died in Varanasi.