By IANS,
New Delhi : The alleged mastermind of Ahmedabad blasts, Mufti Abdul Bashar, suspected to be holding “vital information” about the Delhi terror attack, was Thursday brought to the capital for questioning, police officials said.
Gujarat Police and Intelligence Bureau officials brought Bashar, 27, here in the morning. He was immediately taken to an undisclosed location, where a team of Delhi Police’s Special Cell joined in his questioning.
Gujarat Police Director General P.C. Pande told reporters in Ahmedabad that Bashar was taken to New Delhi to verify certain leads.
Pande refused to say when Bashar would be brought back to Ahmedabad or whether he would be taken to any other state.
Bashar was caught from Azamgarh village of Uttar Pradesh last month and brought to Ahmedabad in connection with the July blasts in the Gujarat city that killed 56 people.
The suspect had worked as a teacher in a Hyderabad-based madrassa for almost two years from 2005 and police were also suspecting his role in the terror strike in Lumbini Park in the Andhra Pradesh capital last year.
According to highly placed sources, Bashar would we taken to all those places in the capital where the police believe he stayed before and during the Ahmedabad blasts.
Delhi Police officials said they would also be questioning Bashar about the Sep 13 serial blasts – one in Karol Bagh market, two in Connaught Place and another two in M block market of Greater Kailash-I that killed 24 people and injured around 100.
“We believe that he has close relations with Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqir. We suspect that Bashar holds vital information about the SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India), its modules and its sleeping cells in the capital and in various parts of the country,” a Delhi Police officer involved in blasts probe told IANS on condition of anonymity.
“Bashar holds a crucial key in the Delhi blasts probe. We hope that his joint interrogation would generate some vital leads in the blast case,” the officer added.
Tauqir, a Mumbai based software professional and wanted by the police forces from six states, is believed to have sent emails to the media in the name of shadowy Indian Mujahideen claiming responsibility for terror strikes in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur and Hyderabad.
The Indian Mujahideen is believed to be an offshoot of SIMI. Mumbai’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) is also looking for Tauqir, also suspected of architecting the Delhi blasts.
“Bashar had told the Gujarat police that the Indian Mujahideen would next target Delhi. He also said that Tauqir and he stayed in a same house in Zakir Nagar in south Delhi from July 24 to 27,” said a senior Intelligence functionary.
“He said his brother Abu Zar was working as a parking attendant in walled city and two of his other contacts Danish and Aftab were staying in south Delhi,” the officer added.
During his interrogation, Bashar also spoke about SIMI leader Kayamuddin, who belongs to Vadodara and had arranged cycles for blasts in Ahmedabad.
Investigators also believe that Tauqir, Kayamuddin and their three-foot soldiers identified as Alamzeb Afridi, Mujib Sheikh and Abdul Razzak Mansuri, all residents of Ahmedabad, were in Delhi before the blasts.
Delhi Police officials said they were also working in tandem with the police forces from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.
“If we feel that the custody of former SIMI general secretary Safdar Nagori and Jaipur blasts accused Shahbaz Hussain is required to crack the terror attacks, we would approach the concerned authorities,” said a police officer.
Nagori is presently lodged in Madhya Pradesh while Hussain is jailed in Jaipur.