Mumbai Blast 2011 Victims Photos- The blasts at the Opera House and the adjoining Zaveri Bazar had ripped off several vehicles and damaged several shops. The traders have put their losses at an estimated 25 crore.
Rescue workers, the police and teams deputed by the diamond industry have plucked over 65 pieces of diamonds from the streets of the hub of precious stones in Mumbai - the Opera House , one of the three sites targeted by the terrorists on Wednesday.
The rush-hour blasts had ripped through the market injuring many possible diamond couriers, even killing some people from the traders association.
Jayesh Labdhi, a committee member of the Mumbai Diamond Merchants' Association told the media that they had recovered 65 gems and is considering auctioning them. "We have not yet evaluated their worth, but we will auction them and the money recovered would be used to help the blast victims and their families," he said.
Association's president Bharat Shah, however, said many traders were likely to try to trace property lost in the blasts by identifying recovered stones via their description, colour, clarity and purity.
He said losses to traders due to the rush-hour blasts had been minimised because torrential rain had prompted many people to leave for home early, leaving fewer diamond couriers on the crowded streets.
The probe into the triple bombings, in the meanwhile, continued with the police getting no major headway. A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team questioned Jalees Shakil Ansari, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, on Sunday and Monday at the Ajmer Central jail in connection with the Mumbai blasts.
Ansari, a medical doctor and a leader of the Ahle-Hadees sect, is serving a life term for his role in the 1993 blasts. He was arrested in 1994 in a joint operation by the Mumbai and Gujarat police. Ansari is also called 'Dr Bomb' because of his expertise in explosives and it is believed that he has trained several accused involved in various blasts across the country.
The NIA team also questioned Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operatives Shabir Ahmed and Mohammad Yasir who are also lodged in Ajmer jail. The sleuths also visited hotels in the neighbouring Pushkar where David Coleman Headley stayed.
The leads gathered out of the interrogation of Danish Riyaz, an IM operative lodged in an Ahmedabad jail in connection with the 2008 Gujarat blasts, have led the investigators to believe that SIMI may have played an important role in plotting the July 13 attacks.
The last week's raid in Ranchi (Jharkhand) house of a key Riyaz aide, Manzar Imam - a SIMI member, has led the investigators on the trail of at least a dozen other SIMI operatives from neighbouring states.
"Manzar is emerging as a mastermind of the Mumbai blasts for his suspected role in planning the execution," said a senior official associated with the Multi-Agency Centre. According to a senior Jharkhand police officer, Manzar may have fled to Nepal.
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