The state government has formed a special investigation team to probe the twin blasts in the Delhi-Attari Samjhauta Express which left at least 66 dead and 13 hurt late on Sunday night. The blasts were believed to be a handiwork of terrorists.
Stating that the most of the deceased 66 were believed to be from across the border, the chief secretary Prem Prashant said that while one of the injured had been discharged at Panipat civil hospital, others had been rushed to Safadarjung Hospital, New Delhi.
They suffered 10 per cent to 45 per cent degrees burns. He said that the SIT which would include officials from railway police, CID and state forensic lab, had been formed to investigate the blasts.
Explosives experts from the National Security Guards and Intelligence Bureau area are already at the blast site.
Prashant and home secretary KS Bhoria said it was a well-panned case of sabotage. The DPG Ranjeev S Dalal said terrorists used incendiary bombs aimed at spreading fire to cause damage. The bombs which, he said, had been planted in briefcases at New Delhi, ignited by the timers spread the fire into two bogeys in a few minutes.
The bombs exploded near village Siwah, about 2 km short of Panipat railway station, engulfing the two general bogyes, killing almost all the passengers in them, as the train kept on moving upto Panipat where, the train guard and driver noticed the incident.
It was learnt that IEDs were crude devices in which potassium nitrite and sulphur were filled into cylindrical tubes along with bottles containing kerosene with timers. Several similar packets were also kept in different places in the bogeys.
The bombs exploded near village Siwah, about 2 km short of Panipat railway station, engulfing the two general bogyes, killing almost all the passengers in them, as the train kept on moving upto Panipat where, the train guard and driver noticed the incident.
It was learnt that IEDs were crude devices in which potassium nitrite and sulphur were filled into cylindrical tubes along with bottles containing kerosene with timers. Several similar packets were also kept in different places in the bogeys.
The Panipat DC Rajeev Ranjan and state railway SP Bharati Arora said that at least three IEDs were also recovered from other bogeys of the train and were defused in the isolated place Diwana yard where the gutted bogeys had also been kept. Meanwhile, the process of identification of the deceased was on.
The Union Home minister, Shiv Raj Patil, railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had reached the spot.