Patna/Bodhgaya, July 8: A 30-year-old youth has been detained for interrogation in connection with yesterday’s serial blasts at Bodhgaya even as investigators continued to scan CCTV footage for clues into the strike on Buddhism’s holiest shrine.

Sleuths from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) picked up a 30-year-old youth from Barachatti area of Gaya district for questioning late last night.

The youth’s voters’ identity card and a saffron civara — the robes of a Buddhist monk — were recovered from a bag which was found abandoned on the premises of the temple.

The Telegraph is withholding the name of the youth as he is yet to be arrested.

Deputy inspector-general of police (Magadh range) Nayyar Hasnain Khan said the youth has been detained for interrogation. “His role in the blast is being verified. He is being interrogated by officials of the state police as well as those from the NIA and other security agencies,” he told The Telegraph.

Sources said the youth, a carpenter by profession, worked as a part-time private guide. He was engaged by a temple in Bodhgaya for making a chariot for the upcoming Rath Yatra.

The youth, a father of four, earlier resided in Mastipur locality of Gaya but shifted to Baiju Bigaha area of Bodhgaya a few months ago. His house is locked and his family members are said to have left the place once news came that the youth had been detained.

A neighbour, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that on July 4, the youth had informed his family members that his bag containing his identity card and other documents had fallen somewhere near the temple complex and he could not find it.

An NIA team headed by its inspector-general Sanjeev Singh inspected the site of the explosions for the second day today and collected samples. No group is yet to claim responsibility for Sunday morning’s attacks.

Till yesterday, the police had been aware of nine blasts. Today, the investigators recovered the remains of one more cylinder bomb from Baiju Bigha locality, around 2.5km west of the Mahabodhi Mahavihara complex.

NIA sources said that based on the CCTV footage, sketches of three suspects had been prepared but they were not being released just yet.

An NIA source said based on the sketch, a raid was conducted on a house in Delha locality of Gaya, but no one was arrested or picked up.

Additional director-general of police (law and order) S.K. Bhardwaj said the NIA and National Security Guard (NSG) teams were trying to dig out information like composition and assembling of the material used to put together the explosive devices. Cylinder bombs, each weighing 2.5kg, were planted at 12 places and subsequently triggered. However, only 10 of the 12 bombs went off. The remaining two were defused by the bomb disposal squads, he added.

Cylinders recovered from the blast site had papers stuck on them mentioning the names of the places where they had to be planted. “The names of the spots were written in Urdu and English,” said director-general of police Abhayanand.

He said that lab tests have so far confirmed the presence of ammonium nitrate in the crude, low intensity bombs used in the blasts but there was no trace of TNT or other explosive material.

The bomb analysis report said the bombs were almost similar to those used in Jaipur, Pune and Ahmedabad blasts. Sources in the NIA said the bombs were triggered by analogue timer clocks, which were set for 5.30am on Monday.

The preliminary report revealed that about 150-200 grams of ammonium nitrate was used as the explosive material in each bomb. A total of 12 bombs were planted, four of them in the temple premises, by the anti-socials, sources said.

The NIA source said they were trying to figure out why the blasts, while planned on such a large scale, were of such low-intensity. “It may be either to test the technology used for bomb making or to send a message. But nothing certain can be said at this juncture,” he said.

An NSG team has sent a preliminary report to the Union home ministry, saying the low-intensity bombs worked like improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and were triggered by analogue clock timers.

An NIA team has also been sent to Darbhanga, from where suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives have been arrested in the past.

Once the sleuths gathered the samples, the Mahabodhi temple was reopened for the public at 6 this evening. “The visitors are allowed to enter the temple after a thorough search by Bihar police and temple management committee security staff,” said Arvind Singh, member of the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC).

Thousands of people thronged the temple immediately after the gates were opened, he added.

“The security of the Mahabodhi temple has been handed over to the state police officials on the recommendation of the temple management committee,” DIG Khan said.

The two monks, from Tibet and Myanmar, who were injured in the blasts are said to be out of danger.