19 MORE BOMBS FOUND IN HYDERABAD

By M H Ahsan

HYDERABAD: Police found 19 unexploded bombs in Hyderabad a day after at least 70 people were killed in blasts Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy blamed on terrorists based in Bangladesh or Pakistan. New Delhi has sent extra police and special bomb detection equipment to Hyderabad, an IT hub, after bombs packed with metal pellets exploded at a food centre and an amusement park on Saturday night. About 150 people were wounded by the three blasts that went off within minutes of each other. Police discovered the unexploded bombs, most fitted with timers and placed in plastic bags, at bus stops, by cinema halls, road junctions and pedestrian bridges and near a public water tap across the capital of Andhra Pradesh.

The explosive substance that was used in the deadly twin blasts in the city on Saturday evening was manufactured at Nagpur in Maharashtra, a forensic expert said on Sunday.It was Neogel-90, an ammonium nitrate-based emulsifier explosives that was manufactured in Nagpur by a company named Omni Explosives, he said. The expert said the bomb that was defused at Dilsukhnagar was fitted with the explosives and metal balls.Asked about the explosive substance, city Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said "It was too early to arrive at a conclusion."

The government on Sunday said it would not be cowed down by terrorist strikes like the twin blasts that killed 42 people here but refused to specify whether terror groups based in Pakistan and Bangladesh were behind the attacks. "We are sorry but we are not cowed down. We will definitely see to it that it is reduced and eliminated ultimately," said Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. Patil, was here to take stock of the security situation in the aftermath of the two blasts last night and refused to comment on whether groups based in Pakistan and Bangladesh could have been responsible for the attacks.

He told reporters "these things cannot be openly discussed" and it was for investigating agencies to ascertain all facts about the explosions. Earlier in the day, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had blamed "international terrorist organisations" based in Pakistan and Bangladesh for the blasts. Patil also spoke of the need for timely action on intelligence inputs to avert such attacks. "We had bits of information, but we didn't know when and where it would happen," he said, replying to questions on whether some intelligence inputs had been received about the blasts.

Pointing out that it was "not an easy job" to prevent terrorist attacks, Patil said, "The country is very big and even if we have the information that something is likely to happen, sometimes we don't know when and where this is likely to happen." Asked to comment on statements made by BJP leader L K Advani that terrorist attacks could have been prevented if anti-terror laws like POTA were in force, he said he would not like to enter into a discussion on this issue.

"We did what we felt was right," he said, adding that there was no guarantee that such incidents would not have occurred if POTA had been in force. Such incidents, in fact, took place even after POTA was brought in, he pointed out. As part of measures to prevent such incidents, the strength of police forces is being enhanced and their arms and equipment are being modernised, Patil said.

There was also a need for better coordination between states and Central security agencies. Patil said "when floods and incidents like this happen, people try to help each other" to mitigate suffering. Patil said the investigations into the blasts would establish whether there was a failure on the part of intelligence agencies and necessary corrective measures would be taken thereafter.