Two arrested, hunt on for four more for Patna serial blasts

Bombs planted by 3 groups, IM operative mastermind: police

October 28, 2013 10:16 am | Updated November 16, 2021 07:40 pm IST - Patna:

A day after multiple bomb blasts ripped through Patna’s Gandhi Maidan and railway station, claiming five lives and injuring scores of people, the police on Monday made another arrest.

The arrested, Ainul alias Tariq, hailing from Ranchi, was seriously injured while planting a bomb in a toilet of the railway station. Imtiaz Ansari, also a Ranchi resident, was arrested on Sunday while trying to flee the station. Both have confessed to their crime, the police said.

Investigators have cited suspected key Indian Mujahideen operative Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu as the mastermind.

The FIRs registered by the railway police and the city police have named six accused. Besides Ainul and Imtiaz, the others are Tehseen, Hyder, Numan and Taufeeq, the Senior Superintendent of Police, Manu Maharaj, told reporters.

The bombs were planted on Sunday morning. Dividing themselves into three groups, the six accused set off from Ranchi on separate buses on Saturday night. They carried bombs with them and fixed the timers in Patna.

Imtiaz and Ainul were part of the first group that planted and carried out the blasts at the Patna station in the morning. The second group comprised Tehseen and Hyder and the third had Numan and Taufeeq. The last two groups planted bombs on Gandhi Maidan.

“Imtiaz played a key role in the blasts. He had come under the influence of Tehseen,” Mr. Maharaj said. When the police interrogated Imtiaz, they learnt about planting of bombs on Gandhi Maidan. However, before they could act, the bombs exploded.

The police are verifying if Imtiaz and Tehseen are related. Tehseen is a resident of Bihar’s Samastipur district. He has been on the radar of security agencies for years and is believed to be second-in-command to IM commander Yasin Bhatkal, police said.

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