Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant outfit, whose member was shot dead in an encounter with police near Lucknow on Wednesday, appeared prima facie behind the blasts in Varanasi, a senior Uttar Pradesh government official said in Varanasi on Wednesday.
Principal Secretary (Home) Alok Sinha told a hurriedly called press conference that security agencies probing the blasts have been able to "uncover" that the LeT terrorist, who was shot dead in an encounter with the Special Task Force of the state police near the state capital, was involved in them.
"Prima facie, it appears that the slain terrorist was involved in the twin blasts but it would be a matter of investigation to ascertain the degree of his involvement or whether he was the mastermind," Sinha said.
Asked specifically whether LeT was involved in the blasts, Sinha said it could not be said with certainty as yet but hastened to add that the terrorist outfit keep on changing their names and also their modules. To a query about the possible involvement of Pakistani intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence, the Home Secretary said, "It was difficult to say whether it was involved."
In reply to a question, he said there was no specific intelligence information about the possibility of a terrorist attack in the temple city and added that, "There never is any specific inputs on terrorist attacks."
"There was no specific intelligence inputs on this attack -- the terrorists keep their operation top secret or else there will be no attack at all," Sinha said.