Bengaluru: A pipe bomb an improvised explosive device, which was detonated by a timer device, which had a battery circuit using a regular 9 volt battery, was reportedly used to execute the terror attack on Church Street.

“The IED is similar to the one used in the Chennai train blast on May 1, which was triggered by the five SIMI fugitives of Faisal gang, who had escaped from Khandwa prison in Madhya Pradesh,” said an official source.

He added that the timer device has not been found yet. “It has either been destroyed in the blast or has been thrown off to a distant spot because of the blast impact.

It was not a low-intensity blast. The explosives were used to kill people. The victims have suffered deep injuries with shrapnel that have got embedded inside their bodies.

The blast impact was such that it claimed a life. It literally blew off the woman’s head, who succumbed to her injuries in no time,” said an official source.

While no terror outfit has so far claimed responsibility and according to official sources, the investigation is immature to come to any definite conclusion as to who could be behind the dastardly attack, the finger of suspicion points at Faisal’s gang or the Al Umma, which had used pipe bombs for the 1998 Coimbatore blasts during the Bharatiya Janta Party leader L.K. Advani’s Rath Yatra.

“This could be a sleeper module of either SIMI or Al Umma. Both are active in Karnataka. The intention was to kill and maim people and strike terror in the city. There is no information on the whereabouts of the SIMI suspects or the Al Umma leader Abu Baqr Siddique,” added the officer.