Zahid Hussain has been instrumental for the Indian Mujahideen for making a come back after being beaten down by security agencies. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Two weeks after suspected IM module Mohd Qateel Siddiqui was killed in Pune jail, a Delhi court on sought explanation from Maharashtra police as to why he was not produced before it after expiry of his police custody.
People in his hometown claim that Ahmed Siddibappa, alias Yaseen, had joined the Taliban in Afghanistan and had died five years ago. The police, however, are certain that the man is responsible for several terror attacks in India. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
With the arrest of six suspected Indian Mujahideen men the Delhi police have claimed a breakthrough in three terror cases -- the German Bakery blast in Pune, the Jama Masjid shootout and blast in the capital and the Chinnaswamy stadium blasts in Bengaluru.
A team of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, probing the German Bakery blast, has left for Delhi to question the six suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives held recently for alleged involvement in blasts in Pune, Bangalore and Delhi's Jama Masjid.
Over a month after suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Mohammed Qateel Siddique was found strangled in a Pune jail, the city's Anti Terrorism Squad on Tuesday filed before a Delhi court its report explaining the sequence of events leading to his death.
The investigations into the four incidents of terror -- Jama Masjid in New Delhi, 13/7 blasts in Mumbai, the German Bakery in Pune and Chinnaswamy blasts in Bengaluru -- may appear as though they are taking longer than usual to crack.
The Pune Police appealed to people on Wednesday to inform them about illegal Bangladeshis in the city. Talking to reporters in Pune, Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh said it was likely that Bangladeshi migrants staying illegally in the city were working in the construction and jewellery industry.
Here is the chronology of major blasts in the country:
Nine months after a powerful bomb exploded at the German Bakery in the posh Koregaon locality in Pune killing 17 people, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Saturday filed its chargesheet against the alleged mastermind of the attack Himayat Baig. Assistant Public Prosecutor for ATS A V Ausekar told judicial magistrate Swarup Bose that the accused had committed heinous crimes against the state of India.
The interrogation of Pune blast suspect Abdul Sammad Bhatkal is providing investigating agencies crucial clues about his brother and key Indian Mujahideen operative Yaseen Bhatkal.Sammad, who was arrested at the Mangalore airport on Monday, is being interrogated by teams from the Intelligence Bureau and the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad.Yaseen Bhatkal was at the forefront of orchestrating the Pune blast at German bakery on February 13.
A telephonic conversation between two suspected members of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen gave the security agencies clue about the outlawed wing's alleged involvement in triggering the Pune blast, police sources said on Sunday. Days after the German Bakery blast on February 13, in which 17 persons were killed and over 50 injured, alleged IM operative Salman Ansari's telephonic intercepts suggested that he had received a phone call from someone, believed to be Riyaz Bhatkal
Vitims of the Delhi high court blast nursing their wounds on Thursday had a visitor who had gone through such agony when she lost her son in the German bakery blast in Pune last year.
A Nashik court remanded to police custody Himayat Baig, prime accused in the Pune German Bakery blast case, and his aide Shaikh Lalbaba Mohammed Hussain alias Bilal.
A Rehman, a senior lawyer, had appeared on behalf of Baig on September 20 before the magistrate hearing the case, ignoring an appeal issued by the Pune Bar Association (PBA) asking fraternity members to refrain from representing the accused in view of the "anti-national" nature of the crime.
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad may invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against the two alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives, one of them a Pune blast suspect, arrested last week.
The cell will focus on the "movements of suspicious persons" in the city and police inspector Sunil Tambe, who is heading the SOW, will also be in charge of the new squad, Assistant Commissioner of Police Anant Shinde said
Nashik has become a crucial centre for terrorists, say sources in Mumbai's Anti-Terrorism Squad, after interrogating the two terror suspects arrested in connection with the German bakery blast. One of the accused admitted that he had conducted a reconnaissance of a few security establishments in the city. Groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba have been trying to set up base in Nashik. One of the reasons is to strengthen their hold over Maharashtra.
Two persons have been arrested from Pune and Nashik by Mumbai's Anti-Terrorism Squad in connection with the German Bakery blast case in Pune that left 16 people dead, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said on Wednesday.
Investigators have found "footprints" of US terror suspect David Headley in the Pune blast and hope to get a breakthrough "very soon" following intensive questioning of some people, mostly locals. Highly placed sources said on Wednesday that the plan of exploding the high-intensity bomb at the German Bakery was executed by some local terror modules with help from outside Maharashtra.
"Perhaps the person who I think could possibly be the bomb planter may not turn out to be so. But one thing is sure, that the person looked suspicious and I can assure you that he was quite at sea at the bakery for he did not even know if waiters served there at the table or if it was a self-help joint," says Mohsina
Notwithstanding the charge sheet filed by ATS holding Himayat Beig as an accused in the Pune blast, which took place on this day last year killing 17 people, including foreigners, the police is yet to answer many queries regarding the blasts including the triggering mechanism and the modus operandi adopted by the perpetrators.
The jinx associated with number '13' seems to hold true for the country with four bomb blasts taking place on this date during the last three years.
From scams and inflation to recession and a delay in reopening of colleges for the new academic year, find out what affected young Indians the most.
The Maharashtra Director General of Police D Sivanandan has admitted that the investigations by the state Anti-Terrorism Squad into the February 13 German Bakery terror attack have gone wrong.
The alleged mastermind of the Pune German Bakery blast, Himayat Baig, was trained to assemble explosives in Colombo by two of the co-accused in the case when they visited the Sri Lankan capital in March 2008, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has contended in the chargesheet submitted to the judicial magistrate in Pune.
The Maharashtra government on Monday said action would be taken against ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi if he had indicated involvement of Hindu organisations in the Pune German Bakery blast.
The Maharashtra ATS, which is in charge of the investigation being coordinated with various other agencies including NIA, has not come out with any official word on the progress of investigation or identification of any group responsible for the blast, the first terror attack after the 26/11 Mumbai massacre.
The government had intelligence inputs to indicate that Pune was vulnerable to terror attacks, based on which the state police issued detailed security guidelines last year to major commercial establishments, including the German Bakery.A blast in the popular bakery in the city on February 13 had claimed 17 lives.In a reply in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Maken said, "The suspected main targets in Pune were put under protection."
The news about the entry of two foreign nationals in to the city that has prompted the government agencies to issue high alert will not participate in any terrorist attack themselves. According to sources in the Mumbai police, who have been tipped off by the Intellegience Bureau, Kalimuddin Khan alias Rameshwar Pandit and Hafeez Sharif are here to activate the sleeper cells to engineer a terror attack.
Mirza Himayat Baig, a suspected LeT operative arrested for his alleged role in Pune's German Bakery blast, had been to Colombo for training in bomb making for three weeks in 2008, a senior ATS official said on Thursday.
The University of Pune, which has a large number of foreign students, is being fortified with enhanced security measures, a fall-out of the blast in German Bakery in the city on February 13. The sprawling campus of the prestigious varsity, with houses a number of key research institutions, may soon have closed-circuit television system and armed guards to stave off any possible threat, sources said.
The global jihadi network is under pressure but it needs a long-term strategy to keep it in control, writes Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The attempts by the Pune police probing the February 13 German Bakery blast to hunt down Riyaz Bhatkal may prove futile, since there is confirmation now that the founder of the Indian Mujahideen is safely tucked in at Karachi.
In the brief telephonic conversation, Obama condoled the loss of lives, the Prime Minister's Office said, adding, "The two leaders took the opportunity to review developments in Indo-US relations."
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision to go ahead with the scheduled Indo-Pak meeting after the blast at Pune's German Bakery that has so far claimed 10 lives, is not an easy one for him, with two key ministers of his government opposing the move.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's year-long charmed existence as the home minister has apparently ended, with the tough talking minister suddenly sounding a little vulnerable and looking a little helpless.The lull after the terror attack in Mumbai on November 2008 was broken by the blast in Pune's German Bakery, which claimed nine lives, and the Maoist attack in West Bengal that killed 24 jawans.
Four persons suspected to be having links with Indian Mujahideen were picked up on Tuesday for questioning in connection with the German Bakery blast and the police said it has got "vital" information from CCTV footages. While two of them were from Kudalwadi and Janwadi localities in Pune, two others from Aurangabad were quizzed.
An unknown group called the Laskhar-e-Taiyba Al Alami on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the blast in Pune's German Bakery that killed 9 people and injured many more.A person, calling himself Abu Jindal, called a national daily and claimed to be the spokesperson of the LeT Al Alami (international). Jindal declared that the group had carried out the attack because of 'India's refusal to discuss Kashmir' and 'India's alliance with America'.
The packing of the improvised explosive device with RDX, used in the blast at Pune's German bakery has left forensic experts flummoxed as they were unable to find any remnant to identify the circuit used for detonating the bomb.
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