'Same forces behind Mecca Masjid, Ajmer blasts'

Police teams from both Rajasthan and Hyderabad confirmed on Saturday that the same operatives carried out both the Mecca Masjid and the Hyderabad blasts.

The link has been established in the form of a sim card, found in one of the bags outside the blast site, which is reportedly in the name of one Babu Lal Yadav. A sim card found at the blast site in Mecca Masjid was also in the name of Babu Lal Yadav.

The Hyderabad Police had earlier said that they suspect Harkat ul Jihadi Islam  commander Shahid Bilal's involvement in the Mecca Masjid blasts. Given the similarities in the two cases, it is evident that Bilal could also be the mastermind behind the Ajmer blast.

Bilal, a resident of Hyderabad, had left for Bangladesh about 5 years ago and reportedly joined the Huji, the Bangladesh wing of the militant outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba. Bilal has been accused of masterminding the Malegaon blast, the Mecca Masjid blasts and also the recent twin blasts in Hyderabad.

According to the police, Babu Lal Yadav is just a fictitious name used by the terrorists to purchase the sim cards. The terrorists used a photograph of Taraknath, a doctor from Noida, for the same purpose. The police say that the terrorists bought several sim cards using Yadav's name.

The sim cards for both the Hyderabad blasts as well as the Ajmer blasts could have been purchased at the same time, say the police.

The sim card is inserted inside the phone and the phone is connected to the explosive device. Once a call is made on the phone, it triggers the explosive device and causes the blast. This enables the bomber to set off the blast from any place of his choice.

Now that the link between the Mecca Masjid blast and the Hyderabad blast has been established, the two police teams can work in tandem and share information.

Though the police suspect that Bilal was also involved in the recent twin blasts in Hyderabad, the bomb used in them differs from the explosives used for the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer blasts.

A substance known as Neogel-90, used in mining operations, was used in the twin blasts in which over 40 people were killed. However, a timer device was used to set off the twin blasts. .