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Three more bombs defused in Surat

— Photo: PTI

LINGERING THREAT: The bomb disposal squad defuses a live bomb recovered from the Varachha area, soon after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, in Surat on Wednesday.

AHMEDABAD: For the fourth day on Wednesday, three more powerful live bombs were defused in Surat, even as Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi visited the diamond city and reviewed the security arrangements.

The death toll in Saturday’s bomb blasts in Ahmedabad has meanwhile gone up to 51 with five more deaths in hospitals. Health Minister and Cabinet spokesman Jaynarayan Vyas said as many as 212 people were injured in the bomb blasts.

In Surat, a live bomb was found near the Labheswar police chowky, about 200 metres away from where one was detected on Tuesday.

Soon after Mr. Modi left Surat for Gandhinagar, another bomb was found near the Surat municipal corporation-run swimming pool. It was found hanging from a mango tree. Both bombs were found in the same labour-dominated Varachha Road area where 10 bombs were detected on Tuesday.

Late in the evening, one more live bomb was detected at Mahidarpura, also in Varacha locality, and defused.

As a precautionary measure, schools and colleges, shopping malls, main markets and cinema theatres in Surat remained closed. Mr. Modi announced a reward of Rs. 51 lakh if anyone gave definite information that could lead to the busting of the terrorist network involved in the Ahmedabad blasts. To encourage “people’s policing,” Mr. Modi announced a reward of Rs. 21,000 to each person who detected and informed the police of live bombs. The reward would also be given to those who gave the first information about the blasts on Saturday, he said.

Describing the Ahmedabad blasts and planting of bombs in Surat as a “proxy war,” Mr. Modi expressed confidence that the government and the people of the State would be able to face the challenge from the terrorists. He said if the people of the state were with him, he would not need any other help to meet the situation.

An expert said the excess moisture in the atmosphere in the diamond city, lying on the coast, and rising humidity due to rainfall in the last four days, could have prevented the bombs made of ammonium nitrate powder not to explode. He said the explosive capacity of ammonium nitrate came down drastically in moist weather.

Even as the police detained two more persons from Bapunagar in Ahmedabad in connection with Saturday’s bomb blasts, a local regional language television channel claimed to have received a letter sent in the name of “Harkat-ul-Jehad” explaining the “reasons” behind the bomb blasts in different parts of the country.

As aired by the channel, the letter was written in Hindi and it carried the stamp of the Shah Alam post office in the city. It declared that its “mission” in Gujarat had been “successful and completed” but warned that it would come back to the State if “our threats are not taken seriously.” It claimed that the Harkat was a “Hindu organisation” and was causing bomb blasts in different parts of the country only to “avenge” the killing of Muslims in the Gujarat riots and would continue to take revenge by attacking other cities and towns in the country.

It also claimed that after the Jaipur blasts, the Harkat informed the Gomtipur police of the Ahmedabad blasts. “It is not our fault that the Gomtipur police did not take us seriously.”

Security has been strengthened in the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, and other important institutions following anonymous letters threatening to blow up the university and other educational institutions. In Ahmedabad, two more persons were detained from Bapunagar on suspicion of involvement in Saturday’s blasts.

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