Sabahuddin, the prime accused in the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force camp in Rampur and the attack on the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, has confessed to playing a pivotal role in the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. Ansari, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative, had conducted the recee before the actual attack, Sabahuddin told the interrorgators. He also confessed that the attack was carried out by the LeT and launched from Pakistan.
According to the IB, the ATS questions Kasab first and there is only a two-minute gap before the IB moves in to resume the questioning. ATS and IB sources told rediff.com that the short gap between interrogation by the two agencies is deliberate so that Kasab does not have the time to think up new versions. There have been times when he has told the ATS one thing and when the IB steps in he has given an entirely new spin to the Mumbai terror strikes
A slip up by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad a year ago has proved to be a costly error for India's security establishment. The primary suspects behind Thursday's Hyderabad blasts -- Indian Mujahideen founder Yasin Bhatkal and operatives Tabrez and Waqas -- were staying under one roof in Mumbai. However, just minutes before the police could nab them they managed to slip out.
'The Force One team has given the ATS a big boost. There are several commandos who are trained to fight terrorist groups and equipped with state-of-the-art arms and ammunition. We do not want this force to be lacking in anything. They are being constantly trained,' says ATS Chief K P S Raghuvanshi.
"Commando training should be imparted to all three wings of ATS by November," Mayawati said during a review meeting with top bureaucrats and police officers held in Lucknow on Wednesday evening. The CM also directed the Director General of Police for immediate improvement in crime investigation by ensuring necessary arrangements are being made to use forensic lab and other methods of scientific investigation.
Four of the five accused named in the Ajmer Dargah blast chargesheet filed by the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorist Squad have links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an ATS official said.
7/11: Home secy given evidence of Pak hand
The registration number of the car used by Riaz has turned out to be fake one, the ATS chief said adding other information like where did the ammunition cache arrive from will be disclosed later.
The Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday busted a Pakistan-organised terror module with the arrest of six men, including two ISI trained terrorists.
However, senior ATS officers admitted that there was still no convincing evidence to suggest that these modules had any knowledge, or had participated in the July 11 blasts.
The Madhya Pradesh police recently disclosed that nearly 163 trucks with explosives on board have gone missing. According to the police, these trucks were on their way to MP from Rajasthan and were carrying more than 800 tonnes of explosives.
An ATS source told rediff.com, "How will a person walk into Zaveri Bazaar or such a place with wires tied to his body? We believe the first priority is to crack the case. And, for that, one needs patience."
An Army man and his relative have been arrested in Kutch district by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on charges of spying and passing on Indian Army's confidential documents to Pakistan-based intelligence agencies, ATS officials said.
Abdul Jabbar alias Sikandar, a resident of Pakistani port city of Karachi, was arrested on Tuesday night by the Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad, Additional Director, General (Law and Order) Brijlal told media-persons in Lucknow. "Maps of restricted cantonment areas in Lucknow and secret information regarding Central command were recovered from Sikandar," he said.
A total of 149 kgs of mephedrone or 'meow meow' drug (both in powder and liquid form), 50 kg ephedrine, and 200 litres of acetone was recovered from the three labs located in Bhinmal of Jalore district and Osian in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan and Gandhinagar in Gujarat, the officer said.
Notwithstanding the Centre's decision to hand over 2008 Malegaon blast probe to the National Investigation Agency, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad on Thursday filed a charge sheet alleging that Abhinav Bharat activist Praveen Mutalik was the key conspirator in the bombings that left six people dead.
Rajasthan Anti Terrorist Squad has pleaded in a local court that Aseemanand, an activist of right-wing Hindu group 'Abhinav Bharat', and three other accused in Ajmer Dargah blast case should not be allowed to be taken out of the state by other probe agencies because of security reasons.
The Ram Pradhan Commission which probed the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks has found that the intelligence alerts provided by Central agencies were treated 'casually' and 'mechanically forwarded' to operational units by the director general of police office, anti terrorist squad and the home department.
The Indian Coast Guard along with the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad apprehended a fishing boat, carrying eight Pakistani nationals and 30 kg of heroin, near Kutch district's Jakhau coast on Thursday, an official statement said.
An image of three blasts suspects outside Mazgaon court.
Over the past year, the IB, police and also the Researh and Analysis Wing have collected material in connection with this blast and they reveal a foreign hand in this attack.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Maharashtra government on a petition filed by Pragya Singh Thakur, prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case, seeking bail.
A team of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad has visited Rajkot to collect information about hardcore criminals as part of their investigation into the July 13 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai, police sources said on Friday. The team, which arrived on Thursday, met Crime Branch officials and sought information on underworld dons Aftab Ansari, Asif Raza Khan Pathan and Fazal Ur Rehman alias Fazlu, who were named over a decade ago in the kidnapping of a local jeweller's son.
A special court in India has reserved its verdict in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, which killed six people and injured over 100. The trial began nearly 17 years after the bombing in the town of Malegaon, located in Maharashtra. The prosecution concluded its final arguments on Saturday, marking the end of the hearings. Seven individuals, including Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and BJP leader Pragya Thakur, are facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The verdict is expected to be delivered on May 8th.
Nearly 17 years after a blast in Malegaon town of north Maharashtra claimed six lives, a special court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted all the seven accused, including former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, noting there was 'no reliable and cogent evidence' against them.
Scores of people, some armed with sticks, walked in the funeral cortege of a youth killed during a Durga idol immersion procession in Bahraich amid cries for justice from the family and others on Monday, as tension escalated with shops being burnt down and angry crowds out in the streets.
President Pratibha Patil has cleared the names of slain former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare, sub-inspector Tukaram Gopal Omble and National Security Guard commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who laid down their lives during the Mumbai terror strikes, for Ashok Chakra. A senior Rashtrapati Bhavan official told rediff.com, "All that I can tell you is that she has cleared the file and it has been sent to home ministry."
Seventy nine-year-old Antulay, whose remarks created uproar in Parliament and outside with the opposition parties demanding his removal, sent his resignation on Wednesday night, they said.
Throwing its weight behind the Malegaon blast accused, including sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a group of advocates in Sonepat have set up a 17-member lawyers committee to provide legal assistance to them. The Hindu Unification Movement Legal and Welfare Association will provide legal assistance to the sadhvi and other accused, according to Bhupeshwar Dayal Gaur, a founder-member of the association.
Strongly protesting against two news channels for their reports about Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad's (ABVP) alleged involvement in the Malegaon and Modasa blasts, the BJP's student wing today termed it a "conspiracy of the Communists and the Church to defame it".
Judge Vyas observed that it was for the first time that a dozen persons were being convicted for conspiring in a terror attack before they could do any damage.
Suspected Pakistani ISI agent Asad Ali, arrested from Haridwar, allegedly had a string of relationships with local women apparently to win people's confidence to extract information regarding cantonment areas.
District Judge G N Patel cleared the accused as there was no sufficient evidence to prove the charges brought against them by Gujarat's Anti-Terrorist squad. The ATS had arrested Nooruddin, Peer Ali, Haarish, Junaid, Zahid Khan of Ahmedabad and Altaf Sheikh, a Vadodara resident, in 2006.
Two police teams from Kerala are assisting Karnataka Police in questioning the two suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba militants allegedly involved in the serial bomb blasts in Bengaluru last year.
A largely behind-the-scene operative, Yaseen Bhatkal is today on the watch list of the Interpol with a red corner alert issued against him.
After questions were raised over his claim, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Tuesday produced record of the call slain Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare made to him on 26/11 terror attacks and demanded apology from Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil
Other than detention of three labourers, the local police and the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad has failed to make any headway in the Varanasi blast case so far.
Two men belonging allegedly to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba were picked up from Thane district of Maharashtra, bordering Mumbai, the Anti Terrorist Squad said on Monday.
The ATS was keeping a close watch on the movement of two residents of Khavda village of Kutch for last one year.
The Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Mumbai police suffered a major setback last week, when charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against Sadhvi Pragya Singh, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and nine other accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, were dropped by the special court's designated Judge Y B Shinde.Dropping MCOCA charges against the prime accused in the Malegaon blast case has definitely made the prosecution's task tougher.
