HYDERABAD, India, 28 August 2007 — Police have constituted a special investigation team to investigate the twin blasts in the city last Saturday that claimed 42 lives.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said that the inquiry team would be headed by Additional Commissioner of Police M. Punna Rao.

He said police received seven false bomb alarms yesterday. They checked all these places but found no suspicious objects. He appealed to the people not to panic. “There is nothing to worry about. The city is safe at the moment. Please don’t panic.”

Answering a spate of questions, the commissioner said the police inquiry would look into the broader angles of the case. The team would investigate whether Saturday’s blasts had any link with the bomb blast at the historic Makkah Masjid during Friday prayers on May 18 in which nine people were killed and 58 injured. “We are doing the investigation and it is too early to comment,” he said in reply to a question about the identity of the bombers and added that the police were also looking into the possibility of terrorist outfits from Bangladesh and Pakistan being involved in the blasts.

Asked about the possibility of sleeper terrorist cells operating in south India, particularly Hyderabad, he said: “We are verifying the presence of sleeper cells, if any, in the city.” The Intelligence Bureau is keeping a watch on the activities of suspicious people and it is possible that most members of the sleeper cells are inactive, he added.

To another question whether there was any link between a fake currency racket busted by the police on the same day when the twin blasts took place, he said: “We are verifying that also.” The police are believed to be interrogating suspects in the fake currency racket and hope to get clues to the bombings if they are connected.

Police unearthed an international fake currency racket, seized fake currency worth 23.6 million rupees and arrested four people including UAE national Alkaz Khamis Obaid Khamis Ali. The fake currency originated in Pakistan and was smuggled into the state as sea cargo from Dubai. The entire lot, in denominations of 500 and 1,000 rupees was brought in three separate consignments by this gang that had links with fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Nagpur’s police commissioner yesterday spoke to Balwinder Singh regarding the explosives used in the twin blasts. Such explosives are found anywhere in the country although they are manufactured in Nagpur. The chemical analysis of the explosives confirmed that Neogel-90 was used in Saturday’s blasts.

The police are examining the explosives used in Saturday’s blasts and those in Makkah Masjid explosion to see if the bombings had anything in common.

Singh said that no arrests have been made in connection with Saturday’s blasts so far. “We have not picked up anyone nor detained anyone,” he said and refuted media reports about a person being arrested in Nagpur in connection with the blasts.

The main opposition Telugu Desam Party yesterday asked Andhra Pradesh Gov. Narayan Dutt Tiwari to intervene in the wake of what it termed a total breakdown of law and order in the state.

Speaking to newsmen after presenting a memorandum to the governor at the Raj Bhavan in the morning, Telugu Desam Party chief C. Chanrababu Naidu said that “the constitutional machinery has broken down in the state and there is total collapse of law and order.”

“This chief minister (Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy) is not responding to grave situations like the ones caused by twin bomb blasts in the city. Despite recurrence of serious incidents, he has failed to act. It is unfortunate that he refuses to own up moral responsibility for his government’s lapses leading to the incidents like the recent ones,” he added.

Meanwhile, a strike called by Hindu outfits — the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad — evoked mixed response in Hyderabad and other towns in the state. The strike was near-total in some Telangana towns but evoked partial response in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

Shops, movie theaters, restaurants, gas stations, schools, colleges and private establishments remained closed in Hyderabad and several other towns. State-owned buses were withdrawn in the state capital and other places after BJP activists picketed the bus depots.