By IANS,
Mumbai : Five suspected activists of the shadow terror group Indian Mujahideen have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the Ahmedabad and Delhi serial blasts, with the police saying they were controlled by a high-ranking functionary of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJi) from his base in Pakistan.
A large cache of explosives was recovered from the five men, who had next planned to carry out serial bombings in Mumbai, police said.
Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor told a jam packed media gathering Wednesday evening that the five suspects are in their 30s, belong to Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh – where other suspected terrorists linked to the recent bombings also belong – and are highly educated individuals who used their academic expertise for their terror activities.
The Indian Mujahideen group, which includes the elusive Tauqeer, Aftab Ansari and others, is controlled by one Aamir Reza, a high-ranking functionary of both the Let and HuJi, from his hideout in Pakistan, he said.
The men were identified as Mohammed Afzal Usmani, Mohammed Sadik Shaikh, Mohammed Zakib Shaikh, Sheikh Mohammed Ansar and Abu Rashid.
“All have also been trained in a hostile foreign country for prolonged periods in different aspects of terrorist acts like bomb-making, triggering blasts, etc,” Gafoor said.
At least one more terrorist, Roshan Khan, said to be the co-founder of IM, is absconding. The crime branch sleuths are on his trail, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said.
Maria said that the most shocking outcome of the investigations was that these terrorists have been linked to practically all the bomb blasts carried out all over India by the group since 2005, pointing to their sheer expertise, deep connections and the vast resources at their command.
They were directly connected with the July 26 serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, had links with the Sep 13 New Delhi serial blasts, as well as the previous July 25 Bangalore blasts and the May 13 Jaipur blasts, as also the July 11, 2006, serial blasts aboard Mumbai’s suburban trains, the police officials said.
Maria said that the five masqueraded as Pakistanis in the underground terror network, but it has been revealed that they are actually Indians. They have been trained in all aspects of terrorist activities by the HuJi and LeT, he said.
The police officials refrained from naming the “hostile country”, though the obvious indication is Pakistan.
According to Gafoor, the five had been arrested from “in and around Mumbai.