Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists from Hyderabad were arrested by the National Investigation Agency on Wednesday in connection with Bihar’s Darbhanga Railway Station bast case, which took place on June 17.
The key accused Imran Malik alias Imran Khan and Mohd. Nasir Khan alias Nasir Malik, both currently residents of Mallepally, originally hail from Kairana in Shamli of Uttar Pradesh. The case was originally registered at Railway PS Darbhanga District Muzaffarpur Rail, relating to an explosion in a parcel on Platform 1 of Darbhanga Railway station. It was booked at Secunderabad and had arrived in Train No. 07007 Secunderabad- Darbhanga Express. On June 24, the New Delhi unit of NIA had re-registered the case and had taken up the investigation.
A team of NIA officials from the New Delhi unit flew to Hyderabad and took custody of the Malik brothers from the Counter Intelligence (CI) Cell of Telangana police’s Intelligence Wing. For nearly 12 days, the CI Cell, Government Railway Police and officials of NIA were questioning the suspects and collected both technical and physical evidence from them. “After the visit to the scene of crime and development of key inputs by the investigation team of NIA, the aforementioned accused persons were arrested,” an official said.
Preliminary investigation and examination of the accused persons has revealed a transnational conspiracy hatched by top operatives of proscribed terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to execute terror acts across India and cause large scale damage to life and property, the NIA said. Acting under the directions of Pakistan-based handlers of LeT, arrested Malik brothers fabricated an incendiary IED and packed it in a parcel of cloth and booked the same in a long- distance train from Secunderabad to Darbhanga.
“This was aimed at causing an explosion and fire in a running passenger train resulting in huge loss of lives and property,” they said. Nasir Khan had visited Pakistan in the year 2012 and had received training from handlers of LeT in fabrication of IED from locally available chemicals. He along with his brother Imran was in touch with Pakistan based handlers of LeT over encrypted communication platforms.
The arrested accused were produced before the Special NIA Court, Patna after obtaining transit from the competent court. Detailed examination of the accused and investigation continues to unearth the larger conspiracy, the officers added.
The duo along with Mohammed Haji Saleem Kashim and his son Mohammed Kafeel of Kairana and their handler from Pakistan were accused in the case.
