deepak pace
DJ_DEE
Chandigarh, December 9
A routine search at the Sector 17 ISBT by the CRPF and the police personnel led to the recovery of a dozen gelatin and two novel gel sticks with detonators, capable of causing extensive damage, from six Nepalese, including a minor, early this morning.
Though the police has yet to confirm if the suspects have any terror links. They are being interrogated by a high-level multi-agency probe team comprising officials of the intelligence bureau and the police.
Senior intelligence officials said nothing was being “left to chance” and they were probing the possibility of a Maoist link as the ISI’s connection with Kathmandu are well known. “They could be couriers,” an official said.
However, the suspects have claimed that they were construction workers employed at a remote place beyond Rohru in Himachal and were going to UP as the work at the construction site had been stalled due to snow. They claimed that they had “picked up” the explosives from the site to make some easy money.
Five of the accused are in their early 20s while the sixth is 15 years old.
Sources in the police said the explosives were enough to blow up any major structure in the city and investigating officers were trying to find out if the accused were working as conduit for some terrorist organisation.
Gelatin sticks are equivalent to RDX as far as the explosive quality is concerned. Similar sticks were used in the Shingar cinema blast in Ludhiana.
The SSP, S.S. Srivastva, said the accused were nabbed at the ISBT at around 5 am and the seizure comprised 14 dynamite sticks (weighing 1.75 kg), out of which 12 were gelatin sticks and two high quality novel gel. Besides this, six small detonators, 7 m of fuse wire and 18 ball bearings were recovered from the suspects. The police also found two Nepalese identity cards from the suspects.
The SSP stated that no terrorist connection had surfaced during the preliminary interrogation. A team of the Chandigarh police has been dispatched to Himachal to verifying the claims of the accused. The police would question the contractor for whom they were working.
