By IANS,
New Delhi/Ahmedabad : Police investigative teams from Delhi and Gujarat Monday joined hands to nab software engineer Abdul Subhan alias Tauqir, belived to be behind Saturday’s terror attack in New Delhi – and four suspected bombers – with raids being conducted at SIMI hideouts across the country.
Two teams of the Gujarat police, one led by an assistant commissioner of police and a police inspector of the crime branch and another an Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) team headed by Deputy Inspector General Ajay Tomar, reached the national capital in the morning.
The Gujarat Police shared the background of the four suspected bombers – identified as Alam, Afridi, Rakuib and Mujib – with their Delhi counterparts, police sources here said.
Police officials said the quartet are suspected to be foot soldiers of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and were present in the national capital before the Saturday blasts. Their arrest could help reach their masters – Mumbai-based Tauqir and SIMI leader Kayamuddin from Vadodara.
“Everything is common between the New Delhi and Ahmedabad blasts. We are looking for Tauqir and Kayamuddin who could take us to the root of the conspiracy, though there are still three to four more persons about whom we wish to investigate,” a top crime branch official of the Gujarat Police who is in New Delhi, said.
However, Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal refused to give details, saying: “This information is between the Gujarat Police and us. There is nothing we can share with the media right now.”
Tauqir, who is now believed to be mastermind of the serial blasts here, is suspected to have sent the e-mails on behalf of Indian Mujahideen, timed with the blasts in Ahmedabad and New Delhi, claiming responsibility for the terror attacks.
His name came up during the Gujarat Police interrogation of Abu Bashir, said to be an architect of the July 26 serial blasts in Ahmedabad. Investigators say Indian Mujahideen that claims to be a homegrown terror outfit, is nothing but an offshoot of SIMI.
Bashir, held from Azamgarh village of Uttar Pradesh last month, told the Gujarat Police that Tauqir is based in Mumbai and has a fetish for writing long e-mails. Tauqir’s name also came up reportedly during the interrogation of Shahbaz Hussain, arrested last month for the May 13 Jaipur serial blasts.
Kayamuddin had conducted a number of meetings in Vadodara to plan the terror attacks. He had stayed in Ahmedabad for over a month prior to the serial blasts in that city.
Investigators believe that Kayamuddin was also present at the terror training camps conducted in Kerala and Halol in Gujarat ahead of the Ahmedabad blasts.
The investigators now suspect that Tauqir might have slipped out of the country or could be hiding in Mumbai or Uttar Pradesh.
“They both could have been in Delhi before the blasts. A Gujarat Police team had come to Delhi last week for Kayamuddin’s arrest but returned empty-handed,” said a top Delhi Police officer involved with the probe.
Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said they were working on vital clues and were likely to soon release sketches of some of the suspects prepared on the basis of eyewitness accounts.
“We are giving final touches to the sketches and would release them soon,” he told reporters Monday evening.
At least 23 people were killed and 97 injured when a series of bombs – one in the Gaffar Market, two in Connaught Place and two in the M block market of Greater Kailash-I – went off Saturday evening in a span of 20 minutes.
Police officials said they were raiding both old and suspected new hideouts of SIMI activists in various parts of the National Capital Region. People with direct or indirect links with the banned SIMI are also on the police radar, they said.
Various teams of Delhi Police and the Intelligence Bureau are also camping in parts of Uttar Pradesh, considered a hotbed of SIMI activities, especially in various villages in Azamgarh district.
According to police sources, at least five people were detained from Sanjay Colony in Faridabad. However, they said no one had been arrested till Monday evening.
Officials of the Uttar Pradesh Police Special Task Force (STF) are camping in New Delhi to share their intelligence inputs on SIMI.
“The Gujarat and Rajasthan police forces have provided us vital information that was unearthed during the interrogation of Abu Bashir and Shahbaz Hussain, architect of the Jaipur serial blasts. We are also working with the Uttar Pradesh Police,” said an officer of the Delhi Police Special Cell.
Slueths were also speaking with eyewitnesses, including Moolchand, whose auto-rickshaw bore the brunt of the first explosion at the Gaffar Market in Karol Bagh.
Police have sought more details from Moolchand, 40, about two youngsters who had hired his auto-rickshaw from near Hotel Imperial in Paharganj in central Delhi.
“We have questioned Moolchand once again today. He is our best bet in preparing sketches. We are planning to provide security cover to him and other eyewitnesses in the case,” said a top police official involved in the investigation.
“Other eyewitnesses are being questioned again and their statements are being recorded,” the officer added.
Police also checked the details of calls made from around the blast sites Saturday evening.