Promising but no conclusive leads in Delhi blast: Chidambaram

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Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said there were 'promising' but no conclusive leads in the Delhi High Court blast so far but investigators have taken into custody the person suspected to have sent the e-mail from Jammu and Kashmir owning responsibility for the terror attack. He did not elaborate on the arrest.

"There are promising leads but I cannot call them conclusive leads. They are being pursued round the clock," Chidambaram told reporters about the progress of the probe into the bombing that killed 13 people and injured over 90 others.

About the third email claiming responsibility for the blast, which surfaced today, Chidambaram said it was written 'amateurishly' but was being taken seriously by investigators.

"Third e-mail arrived today (on Friday)," Chidambaram said, elaborating that it was written in a numerical code that was deciphered 'easily'.

"Number 1 reads as A, number 8 reads as H. It seems it is hinting at the next target," he said, adding that Ahmedabad in Gujarat may have been named as the next target.

"We have sent revised advisories to states, including Gujarat," the minister said.

The earlier two e-mails were attributed to the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HuJI) and the home grown terror group Indian Mujahideen which owned up to the bombing.

The HuJI e-mail was tracked to an internet cafe in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district. It threatened to carry out more such attacks if the death penalty to 2001 parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was not immediately repealed.

Meanwhile, sleuths led by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) are pursuing scattered leads to crack the case but have not achieved any major breakthrough.

Chidambaram said the forensic experts were also corroborating their findings about the nature of the explosives used in the powerful bomb that exploded outside the Delhi High Court on a busy Wednesday.

"These findings are being reconciled to know the exact nature of the explosives," the minister said, indicating that investigators were yet to make any major headway in cracking the third worst attack in India since the November 2008 Mumbai strike.

The Home Minister also added the investigators were not in a position to say if the blast was the handiwork of Pakistan-based terrorists.

"I cannot say if it's the Indian module or the module from across the border," the minister said.