New Delhi, Sept. 29: Snazzy to look at and fast on the run, the Bajaj Pulsar seems to have caught the terrorists’ fancy, Delhi police suspect.

They have claimed that the bike carrying the Mehrauli bombers was one of 11 black Pulsars stolen in the city in the 24 hours leading to the blast. Ten police stations in the capital registered 11 bike thefts — all black Pulsars.

According to the police, Pulsars are a favourite with snatchers and thieves in Delhi and possibly also the Indian Mujahideen. They think it’s the speed and fuel efficiency, but auto expert Tutu Dhawan said it could just be good looks that has made the machine a hit with biker gangs.

One biker gang boss, Bunty alias Om Prakash, who was killed in an encounter near the Delhi-Haryana border last month, rode a Pulsar. To catch the thieves, Delhi’s patrol cops, too, have switched to Pulsars.

The police are, however, finding it difficult to trace the bike used in the Mehrauli attack last Saturday as no one saw its registration number.

The Students’ Islamic Movement of India, suspected of have a hand in the recent terror attacks, also seems to prefer Pulsars. Karnataka police seized four Pulsars from Riyazuddin Nasir, an alleged Simi activist who was picked up earlier this year. Investigations also revealed that he had stolen some bikes from Suratkal in Mangalore.

Over the past two months, the police have tracked a trend — that terrorists chose to use vehicles preferred by thieves in the city they wanted to target. After the vehicles were stolen, some modifications were made to turn them into bomb carriers.

Police sources said this proved that terrorists were getting a lot of local help.

In the Ahmedabad blasts in July, two of the cars used were Maruti WagonRs — said to be the preference of car thieves in the Gujarat capital. Statistics revealed that out of the 35 cars stolen in Ahmedabad from June till August 4, 12 were WagonRs.

The WagonR comes in the economy car segment and does not have added security features.

“Two of four the cars (used to carry explosives for the Ahmedabad blasts) — a black WagonR and a silver WagonR — were stolen on July 9. The cars were then packed with explosives and placed near Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital and a marketplace,” said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of the Mumbai crime branch.

He said the man who drove the two cars to the target sites, Afzal Mutalib Usmani, was a car thief.

Mumbai police said the four cars that were stolen for the Ahmedabad blasts were petrol-run vehicles but were later converted to diesel-powered ones.

Investigations into the blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Uttar Pradesh and Jaipur have revealed that the Indian Mujahideen, suspected to have caused all the blasts, have a fetish for using vehicles as bombs or their carriers.

“It’s difficult to keep track of car thefts or study a trend unless incidents such as these happen. What this indicates is that there is a cross-country racket that’s at play here — some steal the vehicles, some make the modifications and others ensure that it reaches the spot that the terrorists want to strike. These thieves might not be privy to the entire operation, but are important cogs in the entire plan,” said a police official.