Delhi Police investigators have announced the arrest of a terrorist cell that they claim was responsible for a string of nationwide attacks last year — raising fears that Pakistan-based jihadist groups may be preparing for a renewed escalation of operations against India.
The Delhi Police's élite Special Cell announced on Wednesday that it had held six men, including Karachi-based Jaish-e-Muhammad operative Muhammad Adil, on the suspicion of having carried out three major attacks last year: a shooting at Delhi's historic Jama Masjid in September; the serial bombs outside Bangalore's Chinnaswami Stadium in April; and the bombing of the German Bakery in Pune in February.
Fugitive Indian Mujahideen commander Muhammad Zarar Siddibapa — a Karnataka resident also known by the alias Yasin Bhatkal and the commander of the cell, who is wanted for his alleged role in a string of urban bombings that began in 2005 — however escaped arrest, the police said.
Adil is alleged to have had past relationships with both the Jaish-e-Muhammad and organised crime groups. He, the police said, was living under cover in Madhubani, Bihar, since 2010, when he was despatched to India by Indian Mujahideen commanders in Karachi to aid Siddibapa's cell.
Bihar residents Mohammad Siddiqi, Irshad Khan, Gauhar Aziz Khomani, Gayur Jamali and Abdur Rahman were held in separate raids in New Delhi and Chennai. The Delhi Police said they had recovered several kg of explosives, ammunition, two assault rifles and a pistol from a safe house used by the cell.
The case is the second involving a Pakistan national in recent weeks. Earlier, the National Investigation Agency said fugitive Jammu and Kashmir-based terror commander Ghulam Sarwar, a resident of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, had carried out the bombing of the Delhi High Court in September.
Sarwar, interestingly, possessed fake documents identifying him as a Bihar resident, and travelled to meet still-unidentified contacts in the State — raising the prospect that he may have had links to the cell held in Delhi.
Wednesday's arrests are the third in a series linked to the Pune bombings —all at apparent odds with each other. Maharashtra prosecutors had earlier charged local resident Himayat Baig with having carried out the bombing in Pune, naming Siddibapa as his commander. Elements of their account, though, sit ill with the Delhi Police's findings. For example, Maharashtra Police investigators said Baig was paid to source bomb-making equipment to fabricate an explosive device at his cyber-café. The discovery of a bomb-factory in Delhi, though, puts this version in some doubt.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters on Wednesday that the six arrested men were suspected of having been “involved in February 13, 2010 German Bakery blast in Pune.”
Earlier this year, though, Mr Chidambaram told Parliament the Maharashtra Police had solved the Pune bombing — following on from an earlier faux pax in which he complimented investigators on having arrested Siddibapa's older brother, Abdul Samad Siddibapa, in connection with the case. Abdul Samad Siddibapa was later cleared of all charges and released.
(With inputs from Vinay Kumar in New Delhi and Amruta Byatnal in Pune.)
How is that 3 unrelated and unconnected groups of people are being
arrested for the same crimes and charges? Is it possible they all
prepared and arrived at the same spot to carry out the same crime and
then found each other there.This is all crap.Whenever the intelligence
agencies find anyone suspicious they just trap him in some blast case to
lock him up for a long time cos otherwise their suspicion is not enough
to lock up people.All these will be released by the court as innocents
in a few years insha.
India should hammer out terrorist activities very decisively . Presntly ,there is crisis in Pakistan , there is very strong sentiments working agaginst America,but unfortunately Pakistan cannot do much against US , finally there would be some sort of understanding with US . Consequently , to pacify extremist and terrorist working in Pakistan , most likey Pakistan would commit some terrorist action against India , very shortly. Therefore Home Minister should pay more attention to terrorist activities in India and Pakistan than Anna Hazare.
For the Kashmiri I would reserve my comment. But for the Pakistanis,
if they really are Pakistanis, I am ashamed. These people have turned
Islam on its head.
Mr. Zafar Iqbal's comment is baseless and out of context. None of Zakir
Naik's lectures or activities are provocative, nor does he preach terror
unlike the other terrorist outfits in the name of religion. It is
imperative to understand that there are black sheep in every herd and it
is sheer senselessness to call the whole herd wrong because of a few bad
ones.
@Zafar Iqbal: what is the connection between Zakir Naik and Terrorism??
And are you saying Praveen Swami's article are well investigated. His articles are always based on Inteleggince Inputs and Investigative agencies. If you notice he cleverly used the word alleges and "investigators Believe" to bring home a point that he or no one knows is for a fact.
His articles have many a times contradicted his subsequent articles simply because he relies too much on the Investigative agencies.
Now the time has come to rise above petty vote bank politics and bogey of "Hindu terrorism". Even after 5 years NIA is still "collecting" evidence regarding "Hindu terrorism" and what we have are the confessions made under duress and retracted later.Overwhelming evidence points otherwise but NIA(read Central govt.) needs a polarizing factor.
Praveen Swami's articles are always well investigated. I guess Indian government and political parties on both sides of the aisle should unite and act. India is sleeping when people who spread divisive ideas like Dr. Zakir Naik are busy preparing young minds for terror.
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