Bengaluru blast: Intel sent out alert 4 days ago
Tags:
.content_image.jpg "Blast site Bengaluru (2).jpg")
Bengaluru: While the Wednesday morning explosion came as a shock to Malleswaram residents, the state Intelligence is learnt to have sent ouan alert four days ago warning of a possible incident in Bengaluru.
Sources told Deccan Chronicle that although the alert was general in nature, Bengaluru was identified as the target. But an already overstretched city police force seemed buffeted between election fever and cricket fever, with poll nominations, campaigning and rallies as well as IPL matches all happening in the city.
Police said that while the explosive was well-made, if the aim was to kill a large number of people or create terror, it was either misplaced or mis-timed. “There were crowds of supporters of poll ticket aspirants all through last week and especially as candidates went to file nomination papers in the last two days. Otherwise, too, it was placed in a residential area, where vehicles were parked on the roadside, and there wouldn’t have been thick crowds there until at least 11 am on any given day”, an official said.
Police suspect that the bike could have been parked on Temple Street on Tuesday night itself. Police officials refused to categorise the blast as ‘high intensity’, although the materials used in the explosive were potent. An early impression they had gathered was that the Wednesday blast was similar to blasts in the city in 2008 and 2010.
Next: CCTV footage holds key
CCTV footage holds key
DC/Amit S. Upadhye/ Ambarish B.
Investigating agencies had obtained closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) images from at least three different sources around the Malleswaram blast site by Wednesday evening.
Sleuths took the hard disk containing CCTV footage from a camera atop the BJP office almost as soon as they arrived on the scene. In the evening, they also obtained images from a camera on an apartment complex right opposite the blast site.
Although there were no traffic surveillance cameras in the residential area, footage from a camera at the Malleswaram 18th cross junction is also expected to provide some clues.
Investigators have begun downloading all the footage. “It’s a marathon task to download and study images from the last 24 hours. It will take us a while,” a city police officer said. Footage from CCTV cameras have helped investigators create sketches of suspects in recent blasts such as in Hyderabad.
Post new comment