Friday, March 10 2006 18:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Varanasi: Uttar Pradesh police today announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh to anyone providing a 'concrete' lead to those behind the twin blasts here on Tuesday that left 20 dead and over 50 injured.

"The identity of the person providing information and helping the police arrest those responsible for the blasts would be kept secret," Director-General of Police Yashpal Singh told reporters here.

He said the name of a shopkeeper had come up during investigations from whom the terrorists had purchased pressure cookers to carry out the explosions in which ammonium nitrate mixed with RDX and aluminium foil were used.

'Efforts are under way to locate the shop.'

He admitted that no 'concrete lead' had been found so far but "The case would be solved within a week just like the terrorist attack in Ayodhya (July 5 last year) was solved by the Special Task Force of UP police in seven days' time". There was 'information' of Salar, the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist shot dead by the STF in Lucknow on Wednesday, being involved in the terrorist strike and police were investigating "what he was doing in Varanasi on the day of the blasts", he said.