Bomb blasts hit Mumbai

No suspects in fatal Mumbai explosions

An Indian police officer inspects the debris at the Opera House, one of the three sites of explosions, in Mumbai, India, early Thursday, July 14, 2011. (AP / Aijaz Rahi)

Delhi police stand guard in the popular market area of Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi, India, Thursday, July 14, 2011. (AP / Gurinder Osan) Officers patrol in rain near Zaveri bazar, one of three sites of explosions in Mumbai, India, early Thursday, July 14, 2011. (AP / Aijaz Rahi) Police commandos stand guard at Zaveri bazar, the site of an explosion in Mumbai, India, early Thursday, July 14, 2011. (AP / Aijaz Rahi)

Updated: Thu Jul. 14 2011 8:12:21 AM

CTV News.ca Staff

Investigators in India have no suspects in the aftermath of a deadly triple bombing Wednesday that killed 17 people and injured dozens more.
Officials had initially said 21 people were killed in the co-ordinated blasts, but later downgraded the death toll to 17, with 131 injured.
The bombs detonated between 6:45 and 7:05 p.m. local time on Wednesday, in three busy neighbourhoods packed with commuters heading home from work.
CTV's South Asia Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer said investigators were considering all possibilities in their search for suspects.
"The fact these explosions were simultaneous suggests co-ordination and it's why the home minister today was saying nobody, no individual and no group is off their radar in this investigation," she told CTV's Canada AM on Thursday.
The triple bombing was the worst India has experienced since terror strikes in Mumbai killed 166 people in 2008.
No group has come forward to claim responsibility for Wednesday's attack and officials have declined to speculate about who might be behind the violence.
Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said there was no warning that an attack was imminent.
"Whoever has perpetrated this attack has worked in a very, very clandestine manner," Chidambaram said at a news conference after an emergency security meeting.
He added that police were considering ""every possible hostile group" in their probe.
In the past, India has accused Pakistan of supporting terror groups that carry out attacks in India. However, Pakistan's president and prime minister quickly condemned Wednesday's violence.
"Right now there are very few clues that police and investigators are working with to try and piece together who is behind this," Mackey Frayer said. "They're thinking it could be a group with ties to Pakistan or it could be the Indian Mujahideen."
Officials from India and Pakistan are scheduled to sit down for a new round of peace talks in a few days, and some have suggested the bombings were aimed at derailing the talks.
"We are ruling out no hypothesis," Chidambaram said.
The three bombs, or improvised explosive devices, were situated in open, heavily trafficked areas.
In the Dadar area in central Mumbai the bomb was placed on a bus shelter. In the Opera House business district in southern Mumbai it was hidden under some garbage on the road. And in the Jhaveri Bazaar jewelry market it was hidden under an umbrella, near a motorcycle, officials said.
The bombs were made of ammonium nitrate and incorporated electric detonators, authorities said.
"The IEDs were not crude and showed some amount of sophistication and training," said R.K. Singh, India's home secretary.
Surveillance cameras were in place at all three blast sites, but it was not clear whether any information was gleaned from them.
International terrorism and security expert Alan Bell said the 2008 Mumbai attacks set a new standard for terrorism, and the Wednesday bombings seemed to follow a similar model.Read more....