New Delhi:
Bihar Police on Monday released the CCTV footage of the nine blasts which took place in and around the famous Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya on Sunday. Based on their initial investigation, the investigators suspect that the bomb was planted in the temple premises between 2pm to 4pm in cover of darkness.
Investigators also began their probe after police detained one person in Kolkata for questioning in connection with the Sunday's terror attack on the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar.
A suspected Indian Mujahideen member, who was arrested on Sunday from the Nadia district in West Bengal, will be questioned over whether he had any role to play in the multiple blasts that rocked the Mahabodhi temple.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which reached Bodh Gaya on Sunday evening, began its probe into the serial blasts.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who rushed to the blast site from Patna, about 100 kms from Gaya, demanded deployment of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for security of the shrine.
"We had increased the security of the Mahabodhi temple. CCTV cameras were put in place. But after this incident, we will take further steps to strengthen its security," Nitish Kumar said.
However, no group has claimed responsibility for what the Centre and state government have described as a terror attack in a region where Maoists have a strong foothold.
Earlier, Delhi Police on Monday claimed it had alerted its Bihar counterpart and intelligence agencies about terror threat to Bodh Gaya temple in Bihar and also told investigators that Mumbai is on the radar of terror outfits, a senior police official said.
The Delhi Police official said they had got the inputs about the threat from a group of Indian Mujahiddin (IM) operatives, who were arrested in 2012 in the Pune blasts case and had done a recee in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bodh Gaya to carry out blasts.
The police officer said that during interrogation, one of the IM operatives had said they were planning to target the temple to retaliate against the alleged atrocities done on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Terror struck the world renowned religious site of Bodh Gaya, Bihar in the early hours on Sunday as a series of nine explosions in and around the famous Mahabodhi temple left two monks injured. "Two monks from Tibet and Myanmar were injured in the attack," an eyewitness said.
The 1500-year-old temple, which is a UNESCO World heritage site, and the Bodhi Tree, under which Lord Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment, did not suffer any damage in the blasts which shook the holy town frequented by Buddhist pilgrims from Sri Lanka, China, Japan and the whole of southeast Asia.
