Chennai train bomb was assembled in Bengaluru railway station

Chennai train bomb was assembled in Bengaluru railway station 

By: Vicky Nanjappa Bengaluru, June 24: How effective is the security set up in the railway stations? The statements given by the two accused in the Chennai train blasts suggests that they assembled the bomb in the washroom of the Bengaluru railway station before planting it on the Kaziranga express. Further they also said that they had checked into a house in Dharwad, Karnataka posing as cloth merchants. While checking in they had given their names as Arvind and Anand Joshi and stated that they were cloth merchants from UP. Investigators have learnt that the planning and execution of the blast was carried out by Zakir and Mehboob alleged members of the Students Islamic Movement of India. On May 1 2014 an explosion rocked the Kaziranga Express when it had reached Chennai. One person was killed in the blast. Security? The duo told investigators that they reached Bengaluru on April 30. They had a bag which contained the explosives- a pipe, matchsticks, firecracker powder, sugar, IED, batteries and a timer device. On reaching the Bengaluru railway station, they headed to the washroom. While the explosive substances were pre loaded into the pipe, they connected the timer and the batteries in the washroom at the Bengaluru railway station. The bomb was planted in the train at 3.30 Am when the passengers were asleep. An hour later they got off the train and returned to their safe house in Dharwad. Motive and planning: The duo had checked into a house in Dharwad, Karnataka. They planned the attack from there. They told investigators that the motive for the attack was to avenge the atrocities against Muslims in Assam. Hence they decided to target the Kaziranga Express which runs between Bengaluru to Assam. After checking in at Dharwad, Zakir left for Bengaluru and boarded the same train. He purchased a ticket to Chennai and travelled by the train. This was part of the dry run. From Chennai he travelled back to Dharwad by bus following which the plot was hatched. Zakir tells the police that they had planted the bomb in Bengaluru itself. The bomb was timed to go off five hours after the train left the Bengaluru station. We wanted to give the impression that the bomb had been planted in Chennai. However the train was running late and hence the bomb exploded in Chennai itself.