New Delhi, December 01: The Delhi Police on Wednesday claimed that six suspected Indian Mujahideen ( IM) operatives, including a Pakistani, have been arrested.
They said the militants carried out the blasts outside Jama Masjid here, at German Bakery in Pune and M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
Security agencies suspect the absconding mastermind of the six- man IM module, Ahmad Siddi Bappa, could actually be ‘ Yaseen Bhatkal’, who planted the bomb at German Bakery on February 13, 2010, that killed 17 people. Bappa is also suspected to have planted the bomb in a car that caught fire outside the Jama Masjid on September 19 last year.
The motive behind the Jama Masjid attack was to create panic before the Commonwealth Games, then only a month away, and mark the anniversary of the Batla House encounter, the police said.
The police gave the names of the arrested men as Pakistani national Mohammad Adil, Mohammad Qateel Siddiqui, Mohammad Irshad Khan, Gauhar Aziz Khomani, Gayur Ahmad Jamali and Abdur Rehman. The crime branch busted the module, which the police said was inactive for a year.
“ Bappa travels across the country to enlist youngsters into the IM,” a police officer said.
Bappa, whose picture was captured by a CCTV camera at the German Bakery, is a close relative of the Bhatkal brothers, Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal who are being sheltered by the ISI in Pakistan, a source said.
Siddiqui, from Darbhanga in Bihar, is believed to have recceed the German Bakery.
Police claimed to have seized two AK- 47 rifles along with 50 cartridges, one 9mm pistol along with 14 cartridges, 4.6kg explosives, five detonators, fake Indian currency notes worth ` 2lakh and other incriminating material from the arrested men.
The seizures were made from a factory, run by Mohammad Irshad Khan, at Mir Vihar in the Capital and other addresses outside Delhi.
Siddiqui ( 27) was the first to be arrested from near the Anand Vihar bus terminal on November 22. “ Two fake passports, one forged National Cadet Corps identity card and one fake driving licence were seized from him and Adil ( arrested later),” the officer said.
On November 23, Khomani ( 31) was arrested from Delhi. His interrogation led to raids in Madhubani district of Bihar and the next day, Jamali ( 21) was arrested. On November 25, Adil ( 40), who hails from Karachi, was nabbed from Madhubani.
Further raids in Chennai on November 27 led to the arrest of Khan ( 52) and Rehman ( 19).
The busting of the IM module has once again exposed that the ISI’s ‘ Karachi project’, which involves training Indians for carrying out terror strikes in India, is still active.
Adil was trained by the JeM in Pakistan before the Bhatkal brothers sent him to India in August last year to carry out terror strikes.
“ This clearly implies the Bhatkal brothers are in Pakistan… we have been asking Pakistan to hand them over since 2010,” a home ministry source said.
BANGALORE COPS IN A FIX
The Delhi Police’s claims, however, confused the Bangalore police as the then home minister V. S. Acharya had said last year that Kerala- based People’s Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Madani was involved in the twin blasts at the cricket stadium.
“ During interrogation, Madani revealed he was involved in the stadium blasts,” Acharya had said on August 25 last year. It prompted the Bangalore police to seek extension of Madani’s judicial custody. He is still being interrogated by the police.
But the Bangalore police have not made any headway into the stadium blasts other than claiming that Madani was a part of it.
Madani is also an accused in the serial bomb blasts that rocked the city in 2008. He is among 30 accused named in the chargesheet.
The Bangalore police on Wednesday sent a team of officers to New Delhi following the arrest of the six men allegedly belonging to the IM. With inputs from Aman Sharma in New Delhi & Mail Today Bureau in Bangalore
FEB. 13,2010: GERMAN BAKERY ATTACK
Bomb blast at German Bakery in Pune killed 17 people and injured at least 60 more, including foreigners. The bakery is located near the Jewish Chabad House and Osho ashram.
The ashram and the bakery are frequented by foreigners
APR. 17,2010: M. CHINNASWAMY STADIUM
Two explosions took place outside the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore around 4 pm just before an IPL match was about to start between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians. Fifteen people were injured
Courtesy: Mailtoday.in