No intelligence about Mumbai blasts-minister

Updated: 2011-07-14 15:30

(Xinhua)

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MUMBAI - Indian Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Thursday expressed deep regret on the three blasts that rocked Mumbai Wednesday evening, and said that the government will follow all leads and find out who is responsible.

Chidambaram said that 17 people were confirmed dead and 131 others got injured after the bomb blasts at three crowded locations in the heart of the Mumbai city.

"Out of the 131 people admitted to 13 hospitals, 26 were discharged, 82 were stable and 23 were seriously injured, some are still critical," Chidambaram said in a press conference in Mumbai Thursday.

Rubbishing claims about intelligence inputs for Wednesday's blasts, the Union Home Minister claimed that there was no intelligence, and also said that this cannot be seen as an intelligence failure.

"Intelligence sharing has improved...we collect it every day and act on it," said Chidambaram.

Chidambaram said that the Government will not point fingers at any particular terror group and look into all leads.

"All groups hostile to India are suspects, we are not ruling out anything," he said.

Talking about the investigation into the three blasts at Dadar, Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House in Mumbai, Chidambaram said the forensic evidence have already been collected from blast sites and that ammonium nitrate was used with timer mechanism in the blasts.

"The National Security Guards (NSG), National Investigation Agency (NIA), Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) teams from Delhi and Pune, and Crime Branch Mumbai are all working together on investigation," Chidambaram said.

Mumbai being the economic capital of the country, the blasts are being seen as attacks on the commercial market of India. Chidambaram, however, said that blasts cannot be seen as attacks on the commercial market of India.

Appreciating the efforts made by the Mumbai police, Chidambaram said, "the capacity of Maharashtra police has been increased tremendously after November 26 and yesterday's response shows that."

"Mumbai police have neutralized a large number of terrorists in the past 31 months," he added.

He expressed his disappointment with Pakistan on the slow progress made in 2008 Mumbai attack probe.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan announced a compensation of 500,000 rupees ($10,000) to the family of deceased and 50,000 rupees ($1,000) to the injured.