The samples collected from Roorkee blast site, where a 12-year-old boy was killed on December 6, are said to be similar to those recovered from the Bijnor blast site. However, police appear to be groping in the dark for any leads despite over 90 hours having passed since the blast as contradictory versions emerge from the top cops. The residents of Roorkee are petrified with probe indicating terror hand in the blast. Police have so far questioned a few suspects. The question doing the rounds is whether the police are confused themselves or they are concealing things from the people intentionally.
Haridwar SSP Sweety Aggarwal said that National Investigation Agency (NIA) teams had visited the blast site on Sunday. The investigations so far indicated that the explosives used in Roorkee and those used the blast in Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh on 12 September are the same, she said. However, this is yet to be verified by the NIA team, she added.
Meanwhile, Garhwal Range DIG Sanjay Gunjyal said that some suspects are being questioned and they have arrested none so far.
Another police officer said that the police teams are working in tandem with other State police teams and NIA in the Roorkee blast investigations.
The Bijnor blast was suspected to be the handiwork of SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) activists, who had escaped from a jail in Madhya Pradesh in October last year.
After the blast, the injured SIMI activists were suspected to have fled UP and holed up in the border areas of Uttarakhand. Till now, they have remained elusive with neither the Central police force nor their State counterpart having any clue about their whereabouts. A section of the State police seems convinced that the Bijnor blast accused had planted the bomb near a VHP rally on the day when Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992. Importantly, the VHP had spearheaded the demolition movement and the rally was being organised to commemorate the event. However, a section of police have been taking pains since the blast to pass it off as an accident and having nothing to do with that particular day.
How much the police are hamstrung can be gauged from the fact that they are not yet sure how the blast had occurred and the boy had died. Two contradictory versions have come out. According to one, the blast occurred after the