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Three suspects behind Delhi blasts arrested

Ashok Kumar

The module had planned to set off 20 more explosions

— Photo: S. Subramanium

ANOTHER CRACKDOWN: The three suspected terrorists arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell being taken to the Patiala courts in New Delhi on Sunday. The arrests come close on the heels of the killing of two terrorists involved in the blasts.

NEW DELHI: Three suspected terrorists involved in the Delhi serial blasts and part of the module that planned to set off 20 more bomb explosions in the city were arrested at Jamia Nagar in South Delhi on Sunday.

Identified as Zia ur Rehman (22), Mohammad Shakeel (24) and Saqib Nissar (25), the three were detained late on Saturday night following a tip-off. They were arrested a few hours later after they reportedly confessed to their involvement in the serial blasts in Delhi.

Zia ur Rehman’s father Abdul Rehman, a stenographer with the Public Works Department in Uttar Pradesh, has also been arrested. He allegedly forged the signature of the house owner in the lease agreement for the L-18 flat in Batla House, the scene of the encounter in which two suspected militants were killed this past Friday.

Of the 13-member Indian Mujahideen module that is suspected to be behind the serial blasts, five have been arrested so far. Two others — Mohammad Bashir alias Atif and Mohammad Fakruddin — were killed in the gun battle with the police.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) H.G.S. Dhaliwal said the terror module was planning to set off at least 20 bombs in different parts of the Capital, including Nehru Place in South Delhi.

“Atif, who was killed in the recent encounter, had confided in Shakeel a plan to carry out another serial blast in the Capital. It was to be executed in the near future,” he added.

According to Mr. Dhaliwal, Zia, a B.A. final year student at Jamia Millia Islamia, was in charge of logistics of the module. “Zia had also planted a bomb, neatly wrapped in two grey-coloured polythene bags and concealed in a school bag, at Connaught Place. Both Zia and Shakeel have confessed to having planted bombs at Maninagar in Ahmedabad,” he said.

Shakeel, an M.A. (Economics) final year student at Jamia, was the ideologue and indoctrinated the members of the module to make the supreme sacrifice for the sake of their religion, police said.

Saqib, the third accused, is pursuing an MBA course through correspondence.

At a separate press conference, Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Karnal Singh said Atif, Saif Ahmad and some of their accomplices had also planted bombs at Gorakhpur and Varanasi.

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