One month and several cold leads later, the Mumbai Anti Terrorism Squad officials are finally somewhat hopeful of having a clear insight into the case. Toral Varia reports.
Three suspected members of terror group Hizbul Mujahideen, who are believed to have come from Pakistan via Nepal, were on Tuesday detained by an anti-terrorism squad of Jammu and Kashmir police at the railway station in Jammu, police sources said.
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.
A local court in Nashik on Tuesday extended the police custody of alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative Shaikh Lalbaba Mohammed Hussain alias Bilal, nabbed by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in Nashik last week.
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.
Nothing substantial was found about the role of two alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives in the Bengaluru twin blasts after their questioning, the Anti-Terrorism Squad said on Thursday. On Tuesday, the ATS arrested Mirza Himayat Baig, 29, who allegedly heads the LeT's operations in Maharashtra, from Pune and his aide Shaikh Lalbaba Mohammed Hussain alias Bilal, 27, from Nashik.
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.
One person has been arrested from Nashik and another detained from Jalgaon in connection with the threat call made at the residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan. "One Abdul Gani Shah has been arrested from Nashik. According to the preliminary inquiry, he made the call to the CM's residence from outside Dheolali railway station. We have recovered eight SIM cards from him and a diary containing the telephone numbers of several ministers," said ATS chief.
A public interest litigation was filed on Monday in the Bombay high court demanding that probe into the July 13 serial Mumbai blasts should be transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation.
Fringe elements of the underworld may be involved in the serial blasts that shook Mumbai on Wednesday night and claimed 19 lives. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has started questioning some elements of the underworld and their informers to garner more clues about the case. "A turf war has been going on between the underworld and terror outfits for some time. We believe that the underworld may have carried out blasts to step up the heat on terror networks," said a source
Emotions ran high during the ongoing trial of the Mumbai terror attacks case in the Special Court in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail on Friday. Arun Jadhav, the sole survivor of the Toyota Qualis Jeep carrying three of Mumbai's top policemen -- Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar on the day of the terror attack-- broke down while deposing before the court.
The celebrated police officer was also involved in numerous operations against gangsters in Mumbai and terrorists during his decades-long career.
The Uttar Pradesh police have refused to divulge details about their investigation into the bomb attack on the state's Institutional Finance (stamps and registration) Minister Nand Gopal Nandi, in which one person was killed and many others injured.Sleuths of the Anti-Terrorism Squad and Special Task Force have failed to make any headway in the case.
The police in Kerala and the Anti-Terrorism Squad have started massive combing operations into the brake pipe cutting incident of the Nilambur-Shoranur passenger train, which was discovered before the train was to leave Nilambur station at 5.30 am on Thursday.
The home ministry has postponed a meeting of top police and civil officials of all states scheduled for March 9 to end the logjam on the National Counter Terrorism Centre and it will now be held on March 12.
Minhaz Ahmed and Maseeruddin, both residents of the city, were apprehended by the state police's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and they were planning to 'unleash terror activities on August 15 (Independence Day) in different cities of the state', including Lucknow, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar told reporters.
Maharashtra government on Thursday appointed senior Indian Police Service officer K P Raghuvanshi as the chief of Anti-Terrorism Squad hours after the Bombay High Court pulled up the authorities over the crucial body remaining headless since the killing of Hemant Karkare in terror attacks in Mumbai last November.
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.
Two suspects arrested for allegedly plotting terror strikes on ONCG headquarters and two markets in prime areas in Mumbai had received money from a Pakistani national based in Dubai through a UAE financial firm, says the chargesheet filed by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in a local court.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which arrested Pune blast prime suspect Abdul Samad Bhatkal, is probing the possible nexus between underworld and terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) in the case.
Union home minister P Chidambaram has complimented the Anti Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra, the Pune police and the central agencies for the arrest of Abdul Sammad Bhatkal, the suspected mastermind behind the Pune bomb blast.
The South African team is scheduled to play two Tests and three T20 matches in Lahore.
The National Investigation Agency, which has been struggling to collect evidence in the 2006 Malegaon blast case, is likely to quiz some of the Maharashtra ATS officials who had probed the case.
A wanted accused in the 13/7 Mumbai blasts, who had planted one of the bombs that went off that fateful evening, had enrolled himself at a gymnasium owned by the family of underworld don-turned-politician Arun Gawli, the Anti-Terrorism Squad said on Friday.
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad on Thursday arrested a man in Jammu and Kashmir for his alleged links with Junaid Mohammed, who is accused of recruiting terrorists for the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba, an official said.
As Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Rakesh Maria claimed a breakthrough in the 13/7 Mumbai blasts case on Monday he seems to have ruffled quite a few feathers. Though he junked out reports of a tiff with the special cell of the Delhi police in carrying out the probe, insiders say the arrests of the two Darbhanga operatives were an attempt by the ATS to gain an upper hand in the investigation.
Hindu right-wing activist Swami Aseemanand, an accused in several terror cases, has moved a court seeking to withdraw his application to turn a witness in the Ajmer Dargah blast case even as the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad on Friday said it is planning to file a chargesheet against him on April 8.
Authorities of the Mumbai police had to protect Ajmal Kasab, the sole Pakistani terrorist arrested during the November 26 attack on the city, not only from the angry public, but even "from within the (police) department," Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Rakesh Maria said on Monday. "There was a lot of public anger. The dept had lost some of the best officers (during the attack), so we had to protect Kasab from within dept because there was anger in the department," said Maria.
A local court on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of two terror suspects Abdul Latif Rashid and Riyaz Ali Imtiaz till April 27. The duo was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad on March 13 for allegedly planning to carry out terror attacks in the metropolis.
Yaseen Bhatkal, a distant relative of Indian Mujhahideen founder Riyaz Bhatkal, has been named the mastermind of the Pune blast by Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad. A blast in German bakery, one of the city's most popular eateries, had left 17 people dead and many more injured on February 13. Yaseen hails from the coastal town of Bhatkal in Karnataka and has been involved in terror activities since 1998, say sources in the Intelligence Bureau.
Yasin Bhatkal, believed to be a relative of Indian Mujahideen founder Riyaz Bhatkal, has been identified by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad as one of the main conspirators of the Pune blast, in which 17 people were killed. Indian Mujahideen is suspected to be behind the blast in Pune's upscale Koregaon Park area, an ATS source said. The ATS, which has submitted a preliminary report on investigations into the terror attack -- the first after the terror siege on Mumbai.
The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court in Mumbai on Saturday passed an order prohibiting the media from publishing anything pertaining to investigations in the serial train blasts here in July 2007.
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 information was forwarded to the Intelligence Bureau, Anti-Terrorism Squad, Special Branch of police and Crime Branch, a police officer said.
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad has seized over 7 kg of natural uranium worth about Rs 21.30 crore and arrested two persons in this connection, an official said on Thursday.
Indian Mujahideen terrorist Salman, an accused in the Delhi serial blasts case who was trained in handling weapons and explosives in Pakistan, has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad from Siddharth Nagar district, the police said in Lucknow on Saturday."Salman alias Chottu, an active member of Indian Mujahideen who was wanted by the Delhi police in the serial blasts case, was arrested from Badhni area along the Indo-Nepal border on Friday evening," he said
A Delhi court on Thursday extended by 14 days the judicial custody of suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist Shahzad in the September 2008 serial blasts case in which 26 persons were killed in New Delhi.
Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad is grappling with a severe manpower crunch with 283 posts of the total 732 lying vacant, two-and-a-half years after a panel set up to probe state police's response to the Mumbai attacks recommended streamlining the force.
The National Investigation Agency, which was formed to investigate cases relating to terrorism, was not roped in for the investigation into the Pune blast.
The voluminous chargesheet filed by the Anti-Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra Police has clearly stated that Rakesh Dattatraya Dhawade, one of the accused in the Malegaon case, had made arrangements and facilitated training to the accused persons in the Nanded bomb blasts in 2006. Six people were killed in the Malegaon explosions while the Nanded blasts claimed the lives of two persons.
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