Kolkata/Bodh Gaya:
The Bihar Police have detained a man who they say is a suspect in the multiple blasts at the Mahabodhi temple in Bihar's Bodh Gaya on Sunday morning. Two monks were injured in the terror attack.
Here are the top 10 updates in this story:
The police are analysing footage of the last 48 hours from about 15 CCTV cameras that are installed inside the temple. They are questioning Vinod Mistry, the man they have detained. (Read) No sketches of suspects have been released so far.
Three live bombs have reportedly been recovered from the temple and defused. A bomb analysis report says the bombs were triggered by clocks which were used as an analogue timer, and all of them were set to explode at 5:30 am. Each bomb had 150-200 grams of explosives and there were ball bearings and nails in the gas cylinders in which the explosives were packed. However, sources say RDX was not used for the blasts.
Sources say the bombs found had inscriptions in Urdu. One had the words "bada Budh (big Buddha)" inscribed on it and another, the word, "bus." Police suspect that the first referred to a big Buddha idol at the temple and conjecture that "bus" could refer to a tourist bus, sources added.
A suspected Indian Mujahideen man Anwar Hussain Mallik has been arrested from the Nadia district in West Bengal and will be questioned on the multiple blasts. Mallik was arrested yesterday with Rs. 1.9 lakh in fake currency. The police allege that he had supplied explosives for the 2010 Pune German Bakery blasts which killed 17 people.
Security was lax at the temple. This despite the special cell of the Delhi Police having sent an intelligence input in October last to Bihar about a possible strike on the Mahabodhi temple by the Indian Mujahideen.
After the alert, the temple had hired a private security agency, but there was allegedly no initiative by the Bihar Police to secure the important religious and tourist spot. After the blasts, Bihar Chief Minister said the Bihar Police would have charge of security at the temple.
Lalu Prasad's RJD and the BJP, which ruled Bihar as a partner of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United till last month, have slammed the state government's "failure" to prevent the terror attack in Bodhgaya despite prior information from intelligence agencies. They have called a bandh in the Magadh division.
The Home Ministry yesterday confirmed it was a "terror attack." The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing the blast. An NIA team reached Bodhgaya on Sunday evening. The National Security Guard too will investigate the blasts.
The first blast took place inside the temple at 5:30 am on Sunday, followed by nine successive explosions in the next half hour.
There has been no damage to the shrine. "The holy bodhi tree is safe and there is no damage to it," Bihar police chief Abhayanand said yesterday. Experts say the damage was limited because it is a lean tourist season and there were not too many people inside the temple during that time. The two injured, reportedly a Buddhist monk from Myanmar and a pilgrim, were rushed to a hospital.
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