Zeenews Bureau Ahmedabad, Aug 16:
The Gujarat police on Saturday confirmed that they have arrested the mastermind behind the July 26 Ahmedabad serial blasts. Addressing a press conference in Ahmedabad, state DGP P C Pandey said that the mastermind – Mufti Abu Bashir, a SIMI activist – was arrested on Saturday morning in Uttar Pradesh’s capital, Lucknow. Apart from Abu Bashir, who hails from Azamgarh, nine other SIMI activists have been arrested in connection with the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and the planting of live bombs in Surat. Bashir has been sent on a 3 day transit remand. He will be taken to Gujarat via a special plane and handed over to the Gujarat police for questioning. The UP police has also conducted raids on Bashir’s house on Saturday. Meanwhile, a Special CBI court in Lucknow today has sent Abu Bashir to three day transit remand. The DGP also said that the Indian Mujahidden terror group, which had claimed responsibility for the Ahmedabad blasts, was none other than the hard-line faction of the banned SIMI organisation. The police said that SIMI junked the Indian part of its name so that it became SIM, ‘Student Islamic Movement’ with global aspirations. It later took out the ‘Student’ from its name so that it was left with ‘IM,’ which was re-christened in ‘Indian Mujahideen.’ Pandey told mediapersons here that the Ahmedabad crime branch and the state Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), along with local intelligence units, had "nearly solved" the serial bombings in Ahmedabad as well as about 11-12 others including those in Jaipur, Bangalore, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The conspiracy About 40-50 cadres of the banned organisation had participated in extensive training in the jungles of Kerala. They were trained in Jungle warfare, rock climbing, swimming etc, the police said. He further added that prior to the Ahmedabad and Surat blasts, Abu Bashir organised camps in Gujarat during April 2008 where they charted out the plan of Ahmedabad and Surat blasts. A meeting was held at the house of Yunus Mansuri in Bapunagar area of the city to plan the blasts, Bhatia said. They had purchased five pre-paid mobile cards for internal communications and they were traced after checking the records. It was found that the calls which were coming to these five cards had stopped after July 26, the day of the blasts. Bhatia also said police have indentified the shops from where the cycles used in the blasts were purchased. Explosives for the blasts came from Madhya Pradesh, Bhatia said. "Those arrested were present during a training camp organised by SIMI in Halol in Vadodara distrct in January 2008. They were given training on how to survive in adverse conditions and were trained how to tackle police interrogation," Bhatia said. "They were also taught how to drive motorcycle and fake an accident during the camp," Bhatia said. Those arrested include Jahid Sheikh, Yunus Mansuri, Shamsudin Sheikh, Arif Kadri, Gyasuddin, Imran, Usman Agarbattiwala, Iqbal Sheikh and Sajid Mansuri. Without ruling out the involvement of locals, he said that a lot of outsiders were involved in the blasts. He also claimed to have busted many sleeper cells of the banned SIMI across the state. In an eye raising discloser, the DGP said that most of the arrested were well educated. One terrorist, who hails from Mumbai, even worked in Wipro, said the police. But he was not able to provide other concrete details, as the person was still at large. According to the DGP, SIMI had a role in all the major blasts that shook the country in the past few years, including in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jaipur, Maharashtra and Hyderabad. The Gujarat police has leads which will lead them to those behind the blasts in other states, he added. According to Pandey, live bombs found in Surat failed to go off due to faulty chips. Ruing the media’s role during the terrorist attacks, Pandey said, “It is very unfortunate that media sometimes over excitedly and unknowingly project things in such a way that helps terrorists and gives them boost. Sometimes Police do not divulge things that will affect the investigation.” Brain mapping on Bilal : Mumbai ATS chief Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare said that the organisation is also conducting a parallel investigation into the Ahmadabad and Surat blasts. He further said that the police have conducted brain mapping test on Bilal Kagzi and another person in connection with the cases. He said that the police was not giving a ‘clean chit’ to the American national whose IP address was used to send the email, purportedly from the Indian Mujahideen, after the blasts. Investigations so far indicate that the plot could have been planned in Mumbai, as many of the clues lead to the metropolis. According to the Gujarat police, one Zahid Seikh of Mumbai had played an important role in arranging car bombs.
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Many people sneered and misrepresented what Sushma Swaraj said about the bomb blasts being a distraction away from the cash-for-vote scam. With Mulayam Singh coming out in open support of SIMI, it is not untenable that he got his contacts in SIMI to orchestrate blasts in BJP ruled states. By cohabitating with Mulayam, Congress is also implicated. A CBI probe should be ordered into the Mulayam-SIMI connection. When is the Parliamentary committee on cash-for-votes scam concluding its hearing? - K.Venugopal - Mumbai
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