Two of the three accused arrested by the National Investigation Agency in the Delhi high court blast have recorded their confessional statements in which they reportedly said they were involved in the conspiracy.
Sources privy to the probe said that on Sunday Abid Hussain and Hafiz Aamir Abbas Dev recorded their confessional statement before a magistrate recently in which they are believed to have owned up the responsibility for drafting and sending an email after the blast in which they claimed responsibility for the audacious attack.
The blast outside Delhi high court on September seven in which 15 people were killed was the first case handed over to the NIA immediately after an incident before local police could step in.
One of the two has stated in his confessional statement that Wasim Akram Malik, a Kishtawar resident studying medicine in a Bangladesh college, had handed over the mail two days in advance and also introduced them to the "bombers" who looked like Pakistanis or Bangladeshis, the sources said.
There were some indications about who had planted the bomb but there was no linking evidence, the sources said, adding, therefore, the probe agency was pushing to get another confessional statement from the third accused. However, crucial questions remained about how the Improvised Explosive Device was procured and who conducted the reconnaissance.
Questions also remained on from where the sophisticated briefcase bomb was procured and how it was transported to the national capital. The NIA theories about involvement of Junaid Akram Malik and two others -- Shakir Hussain Sheikh and Amir Ali Kamal -- meanwhile are apparently nto finding any takers in the security establishment including the Jammu and Kashmir police. NIA has announced Rs 10 lakh each for information leading to their arrest.
While Junaid is not a trained militant, other two have neither figured in any of the interrogation reports of other militants for long nor have they been active, the sources said.
The last call made by Junaid, whom his family claims to have been kidnapped by militants of Hizbul Mujahideen, was made from Dachhan area of Kishtawar and after that he has never figured on the net.
After a month's probe, the NIA team has pieced together the stay of Wasim during his earlier stay in Jammu and during the period when blast took place.
In the meantime, the parents of Wasim Akram Malik -- Reyaz Malik and his wife Shameema, who were summoned by the NIA sleuths on October 17, have alleged that their son was being "pressured" to own the responsibility for the incident.
"We last spoke to Wasim on October 19 when NIA officials made him to talk to his mother. In that brief conversation, our son told us that the policemen accompanying him had promised his migration to Jammu college only if he accepted the knowledge of the blast," Malik, a JK government employee, had said.
"Our son also told us that NIA officials wanted to pin the entire blame on his 16-year-old younger brother Junaid Akram who is missing for past one year," he said, adding that their son was being promised migration to Jammu Medical College if he pinned the blame on others including his younger brother.
Wasim's mother -- Shameema -- said her family had all along suffered because of militancy. "It seems now they are taking revenge. We got Azhar Ali arrested and one finds it surprising that they (NIA) is having more trust on Ali's statement rather than ours." She said that her family was in for a through probe into the incident "but for God's sake let no one make a biased opinion. It seems NIA is only interested in hushing up the case as soon as possible."
The mother said while the family was unaware about the welfare of their younger son, who is being suspected as another mastermind in the case, NIA was making it sure that the career of their elder son was also jeopardised. "My appeal is for justice and nothing else. And my question to the government is that are they not making a militant out of my son," she added.
