Jaiswal blames foreign hand for blasts

Union Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal, who visited the blast sites in Jaipur, said that the nature of explosives used by the perpetrators of crime was so powerful that it ripped through metal sheets and hit people.

"It seems they used a lethal mixture of amonium nitrate and RDX in these explosions," Jaiswal said.

He complimented the people of Rajasthan for maintaining communal harmony during this hour of crisis and thereby giving a fitting reply to those who wanted to strike at the communal harmony of India.

He pointed out that a majority of the bombs had been set up next to religious places as was done in the case of Ajmer Sharrif Dargah, six months ago.

"It seems that those who were involved in the blasts wanted to strike at the economic prosperity of India," Jaiswal said.

Though he indicated that the organisations like Harkat-Ul-Jehhadi Islamiya, Laskhar-e-Tayyiba could be involved this time as well, the minister refrained from naming them.

"It is the handiwork of a foreign power," he said. But again refused to name either Pakistan or Bangladesh.

"The time has now come for the state governments to set up their own high-tech intelligence units to deal with such situations. So far the police is being used for this purpose. It would be wrong to say that there was lack of intelligence or its failure led to terrorists striking in Jaipur. Though other cities were on the terror list but not Jaipur," he admitted.

Jaiswal said that for last one and a half years the government had been toying with the idea of setting up a Federal Investigating Agency but the response from the states has not been encouraging. "We want the new agency to handle such crimes," he told media-persons.

Jaiswal accompanied by senior home ministry officials reached Jaipur around midnight and visited hospitals and the blast sites and held discussions with the Rajasthan government officials before returning to Delhi.