July 17, 2011 -- Updated 0721 GMT (1521 HKT)
Mumbai, India (CNN) -- With the death toll at 19 and no one in custody, Indian authorities say they are close to preparing the sketch of a suspect in the three deadly blasts that rocked Mumbai last week.Rakesh Maria, anti-terrorist squad chief of the state of Maharashtra, said a witness at one of the blast sites provided information that is helping authorities prepare the composite.
The sketch will not be made public, Maria added. Rather, it will be shared with officials investigation the attacks.
Meanwhile, two more people have succumbed to their wounds, bringing the fatality count from the Wednesday blasts to 20, the government said.
Earlier, Indian authorities said they received no warnings about the blasts -- the first major assault in India's largest city since the 2008 siege. So far, no group has been singled out for blame, nor has any claimed responsibility, officials said.
"All groups hostile to India are under radar," Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Thursday. "We are not ruling out anything. We're not ruling in anything. We're looking at everyone and we will find out who is behind these attacks."
He refused to accept a lack of intelligence about the attacks as failure despite widespread anger of Mumbaikars who have witnessed carnage in their city too many times.
"Whoever perpetrated these attacks has worked in a very, very clandestine manner," Chidambaram said. "It's not a failure of intelligence."
The three blasts Wednesday evening occurred within minutes of each other in the areas of Opera House, Zaveri Bazaar and Dadar, all busy commercial hubs teeming with people. Forensic evidence collected from the scenes suggested that the attackers used ammonium nitrate with a timing device for the detonations, Chidambaram said.
The bombings Wednesday brought back haunting memories in a city that has suffered from terrorism before, including the massive assault by Pakistani gunmen in November 2008 that left 164 dead
No comments:
Post a Comment