Was a human bomb used in Patna blasts?

The Bihar police and the National Investigation Agency are probing the angle of a human bomb in the serials attacks in Patna ahead of Narendra Modi’s rally on Sunday.

The police suspect that one of the persons who died in the attack had a bomb wrapped around his waist which was set with a timer.

“On the face of it, it appears that he was a human bomb, but we need to investigate further”, an officer told Rediff.com.

While there is no doubt in the mind of the agencies that this man was one of the foot soldiers, it is yet to be ascertained if he was a human bomb or did the bomb explode before he was attempting to plant it somewhere.

It seems that the bomb was wrapped around his waist and he could have been approaching the dais where the rally was taking place.

However, the aspect that brings about a doubt in the minds of the investigators is the very short duration that the timer was set. It was set for 90 seconds and the bomb exploded a good 25 minutes before the rally commenced.

The only other way of looking at it is that he could have been trying to get in between the crowd and carry out the explosion.

Another aspect is that human bombs are normally remote controlled and not timed. It is quite strange that he had a timer device around his waist. “The extent of the injury in the post mortem report will make matters clear”, the official also pointed out.

Image: People carry an injured man after a bomb blast at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan

Photograph: Krishna Murari Kishan/Reuters