The Hindu : National : “Weak power supply to bombs saved Surat”

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“Weak power supply to bombs saved Surat”

Manas Dasgupta

SURAT: After their claim of breakthrough in the Ahmedabad blasts probe, the Gujarat police on Wednesday said they arrested two persons in connection with planting of 29 bombs in Surat.

Director-General of Police P.C. Pandey told journalists here that Tanvir Pathan and Zahir Patel, who were arrested from their Ghazipur hideout near here on Tuesday night, not only confessed to having planted the bombs but also showed the police the exact locations. All the locations were found to be correct.

The DGP said Tanvir, who hailed from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh but now settled down in Surat doing air-conditioner repairs, was given the assignment of planting bombs by SIMI activist Sajid Mansuri, who is now in police custody in connection with the Ahmedabad blasts. Tanvir took into confidence his friend Zahir, also believed to be from Uttar Pradesh, and carried out the job.

Mr. Pandey said Tanvir told the police that the duo had planted bombs at 10 different places in Surat on the night between July 24 and 25, a day before the Ahmedabad serial blasts, and 19 bombs on the night between July 25 and 26.

J.M. Vyas, Director of the Forensic Science Laboratory, Gandhinagar, which examined the unexploded bombs, said the power supply from mini-transformers to the detonators through the integrated circuit chips was too weak to cause explosion, though these were as lethal as the ones which went off in Ahmedabad. The operation in Ahmedabad succeeded because there the perpetrators had used mechanical clocks as the timer device.

Mr. Vyas said there was nothing wrong with the integrated circuits manufactured by the American Microchips company and but for the weak power supply, Surat might have suffered even a worse disaster.

Mr. Pandey said the main architects of the Ahmedabad blasts — Sajid Mansuri, Mufti Abdus Bashar Kasmi and computer expert Taukeer — were also behind the Surat incidents. He said the three had come to Surat and worked out the planning after which Sajid assigned the job to Tanvir. As in Ahmedabad, two car bombs additionally fitted with gas cylinders and iron pellets were stationed near two major hospitals in Surat to cause maximum damage. But, for the same reason — weak power supply — the bombs too did not explode and the police recovered the “abandoned” cars.

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