Bengaluru cops to help in Pune blast probe

A team of the Bengaluru police left for Pune on Monday evening to collect leads regarding the investigation in the German Bakery blast case.

The Bengaluru police will share the information they have about terror outfit Indian Mujahideen's operative Riyaz and his brother Iqbal Bhatkal, who have emerged as the prime suspects in the Pune blast case.

Sources in the Bengaluru police told rediff.com that barring the missing integrated chips, the bomb used in the Pune blast was similar to the ones used in the Bengaluru serial blasts in 2008.

"We have managed to establish that the blasts in Bengaluru were carried out by the Indian Mujahideen. The presence of ammonium nitrate and the packaging of the bomb in both the places are very similar in nature. But the Bengaluru blast was triggered off by a timer device, while the Pune bomb went off with the help of a remote control," said a source.

The Bengaluru police will also discuss the material assembled to make the bomb used in the blasts in the two cities with their Pune counterparts..

Meanwhile, a team of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad is likely to visit Delhi to interrogate IM operative Shahzad, who is in the custody of the Delhi police, after being arrested from Aazamgarh in Uttar Pradesh due to his links with the Delhi serial blasts and the Batla House encounter.

The investigating agencies had told rediff.com that they have managed to get some information from the CCTV footage and it would be shown to the waiter who had claimed to have seen the men who planted the bomb. The footage showed that there were two men involved in planting the bomb, and one of them was talking away on the phone while placing the bag in the eatery. The bag exploded when a waiter tried to open it later, killing 9 people and injuring many others, on Saturday evening.