Expired SIMs saved hundreds

HYDERABAD: If it were not for expired SIM cards, there would have been four blasts at Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad on Friday.  Police sources told DNA that out of the four mobile phone bombs placed at the masjid, three failed to explode because their SIM cards had expired and hence could not complete the circuit needed for the bombs to explode.

“If the other three bombs had exploded the toll would have been more than 200. The bombs were timed to explode during the peak prayer time,” said a police officer closely connected with the investigation.

Police sources said they recovered five SIM cards from the spot and all had been purchased by Shahed Bilal from West Bengal. “Bilal is a rising star of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and learnt his bomb-making skills at Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami, a Bangladesh terror outfit,” said a senior police officer.

Andhra Pradesh Home Minister K Jana Reddy and senior police officials literally owe to their lives to the expired SIM cards. “The other three bombs - packed in tiffin boxes with TNT and RDX — were timed to explode one after the other to create maximum damage,” said a source.

All the three SIM cards had been disconnected a couple of days back after Bilal had failed to pay the bills. The bombs bear a striking similarity to the one that exploded in Malegaon killing 37 people.

“It is a planned terrorist act as you can see from the type of device (used to trigger the blast) used. It is a sophisticated device. We are looking into all possibilities,” Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said.

Samples of the bombs from Mecca Masjid have been sent to the Forensic labs in Hyderabad for analysis though police officials said they were a mixture of TNT and RDX.

Mumbai ATS team to help probe

DNA Correspondent.

MUMBAI: A crack unit of the Mumbai Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) left for Hyderabad on Saturday to help their Hyderabad counterparts with the investigation into the Mecca Masjid blast . “We have sent a four-member team, led by Deputy Inspector General of Police Subodh Jaiswal to help the Hyderabad blast investigators,” said ATS chief and Joint Commissioner of Police Krishan Pal Raghuvanshi. “The team will collect samples and raw materials and compare it with Malegaon samples.”

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 Nashik district minutes after Friday afternoon prayers.