Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who chaired a high-level meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss Monday's bus blast in Ghatkopar in Mumbai, said his government will try to find out if the recent blasts in Mumbai were in any way linked to last year's riots in Gujarat.
Recent bomb blasts in Mumbai:
Ghatkopar blast | Vile Parle blast | Mulund blast
Mumbai has seen four bomb blasts in the past seven months. The first in the series had occurred in Ghatkopar on December 6, 2002 killing two persons. The second took place on January 28, 2003 in Vile Parle, killing one person and injuring 25. The third, a much bigger blast, took place on March 14, 2003 in a local train at the Mulund Railway Station, and claimed 10 lives.
Ghatkopar, Vile Parle and Mulund have large Gujarati populations.
The chief minister said initial investigations point towards the involvement a lesser known terrorist group Al-Hadees in Monday's blast.
He said Al Hadees was formed by Students' Islamic Movement of India activists after the organisation was banned in the country.
Shinde said Al-Hadees is backed by Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
He said intelligence agencies have been put on a high alert to prevent recurrence of such incidents. Combing operations have been intensified across the state to flush out terrorists, he added.
The meeting was attended among others by Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, Ministers of State for Home
Kripashankar Singh and Rajendra Darda, Director General of Police O P Bali and Police Commissioner R S Sharma.
Perpetrators will be punished: Shinde
Chaos, anger at Rajawadi Hospital
Chronology of bomb blasts in Mumbai since Dec 2002