Date:07/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/07/stories/2008080754891200.htm

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Gujarat police release 3 sketches

Manas Dasgupta

These do not match with the sketches prepared by Jaipur police

— Photo: AFP

Profiling terror: Joint Police Commissioner H.P. Singh displays sketches of three suspects in the Ahmedabad serial bombings, on Wednesday.

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat CID (crime branch) police on Wednesday released sketches of three suspects, who allegedly planted bombs on cycles at three places during the July 26 serial blasts in this city.

Ahmedabad Joint Police Commissioner H.P. Singh said the four sketches were prepared on the basis of the descriptions given by eyewitnesses, who claimed to have seen the bombers at the Narol circle near a Hanuman temple, at the Hatkeshwar circle at Maninagar and at the Raipur circle, Khadia, on July 26 evening.

The sketches, however, did not match with those prepared by the Jaipur police after the blasts in the Rajasthan capital. Of the four sketches, two were of one suspect, believed to have been involved in the Raipur Chakla blast.

Death toll is now 56

Meanwhile, the death toll in the Ahmedabad blasts has gone to 56, with one more person dying in the civil hospital on Tuesday night.

Mr. Singh said the police registered 18 incidents of blasts, largely in labour-dominated old Ahmedabad, which occurred within 90 minutes.

Investigators claimed that they had unravelled some “important clues” but declined to share any information with the media.

After attending a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Narendra Modi at Gandhinagar, Minister of State for Home Amit Shah said premature publication of the probe progress could hamper the investigation.