Delhi Police arrest IM trio behind Pune blasts

Delhi Police arrest IM trio behind Pune blasts

Busted Module Was Planning Attacks In Delhi, Bodh Gaya

Neeraj Chauhan TNN

New Delhi: Armed with the information provided by 26/11 mastermind Abu Jundal, Delhi Police busted a gang of Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists which carried out the serial blasts in Pune in August and had planned to attack Delhi and Bodh Gaya during the coming festival season.
    Announcing the arrests of Asad Khan, Imran Khan and Sayed Feroz, all belonging to Maharashtra, Delhi Police chief Neeraj Kumar said the IM cell carried out the serial bomb attacks in Pune on August 1 to avenge the killing of Qateel Siddiqui in Pune’s Yerwada Jail. Siddiqui was an accused in the terror attack on Delhi’s Jama Masjid, Pune’s German Bakery and explosions at Bangalore’s Chinnaswamy Stadium. Siddiqui was killed by jail inmates after he provoked them by boasting about his plan to attack a famous temple in Pune. Kumar said the troika was working to create mayhem in the capital during Diwali celebrations. “Delhi has been saved from a major attack which they were planning and Pune blast case has been solved,” Kumar told reporters.
    Sources said they had planned to target at least seven crowded places in Delhi. The terrorists, who came to Delhi after a period of hiding in Roorkee to dodge the police hunt after the Pune blasts, was carrying 5kg of explosives and 10 detonators as part of the plot to explode at least 10 bombs in Delhi and the pilgrim city of Bodh Gaya in Bihar. Circuits, 9-volt batteries, ball bearings, nails, shrapnel and other material used to make IEDs were part of the cache recovered from the jihadi troika.
    Asad and Imran were arrested from their Pul Prahladpur accommodation on September 26 while Feroz was arrested on October 1 from Nizamuddin railway station when he came here to join the other two.
    THE MODULE Asad Khan, 33 | Arrested from Pul Prahlad Pur on Sep 26. Hails from Maharashtra's Aurangabad district. Ran a tour office there. Commerce graduate. Also an expert in software, systems and networking. Close to Saudi Arabia-based Lashkar leader Fayyaz Kagzi. Met Kagzi in Saudi
Imran Khan, 31 | Also nabbed from Pul Prahlad Pur. Comes from Nanded, Maharashtra. Worked as a govt contractor. Has two sons and a daughter. Visited Saudi Arabia twice
Sayed Feroz alias Hamza, 38 | Arrested on Oct 1 from Nizamuddin railway station. Hails from Pune. Ran a garment shop. Has two daughters. Went to Saudi Arabia thrice
Shaqir | On the run. Said to be main bomber, who also made IEDs for Pune blasts along with Ahmed
Ahmed | On the run. IED expert, said to have trained Asad in bomb-making
Raju Bhai, 40 | On the run. Delhibased LeT man who handled logistics. No role in Pune blasts but helped bombers rent Pul Prahlad Pur room Jundal’s quizzing led to the terror trio’s arrest
New Delhi: The arrests happened just before the beginning of the shradh period when Bodh Gaya is teeming with people from across the country.
    The trio’s ring leader is IM commander Fayyaz Ahmed Kagzi, mastermind of several terror attacks who has begun to rival the prominence of other IM commanders, including the Bhatkal brothers Riyaz and Iqbal, in anti-India jihadi circles.
    The arrests from Pul Prahladpur – a tough neighbourhood on the national capital’s outskirts – were made possible because of the trove of information extracted from Jundal during his interrogation in May-June after the 26/11 mastermind was brought here from Saudi Arabia. Jundal, who was recruited by Kagzi for the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s terror operations, had given his interrogators the phone numbers and other coordinates of IM operatives.
    According to sources, one of the mobile numbers provided by him gave them the lead resulting in the crucial arrests of the Pune bombers: something which underscored the significance of the arrest of the jihadi who guided the 26/11 attackers from the Lashkar control room in Karachi. One of the arrested persons, Asad, is allegedly linked also to the Aurangabad arms haul case in which Jundal is also an accused.
    Addressing a press conference, the Delhi Police chief said, “We tracked more information on Kagzi. These people were in touch with Kagzi, so we managed to arrest them when they were here in Delhi.”
    The arrests are significant in that they point to the extensive network that IM has acquired in Maharashtra. Also, it is the second instance where the Delhi Police has stolen a march over their Maharashtra counterparts, already smarting over the former’s alleged encroachment on their turf and because the Intelligence Bureau chose to hand over Jundal to Delhi Police.
    The credit for the arrests of the three alleged terrorists belonging to Maharashtra would have been theirs, had the IB preferred to hand over Jundal to them first.
    Delhi Police stumbled upon the IM module by tracing their phone calls and email conversations with their contacts, suspected to be the Bhatkal brothers and Kagzi in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
    Sources said it was Riyaz Bhatkal who asked the Pune bombers to move from Roorkee to Delhi before the festival season, and asked one Raju Bhai to arrange a hideout. Delhi Police is now looking for Raju Bhai.

Sketches of Shaqir, Ahmed and Raju Bhai (L to R) released by Delhi Police