By Abdul Hameed, TwoCircles.net
Mumbai: The Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra has given clean chit to the alleged LeT operative Muhammad Omar Madani in Mumbai local train blasts case. Madani, who is currently in the custody of Kolkata State Task Force (STF) was arrested last month by Delhi police in connection with a fake currency racket and the Mumbai ATS visited him in order to probe his role in the 7/11 blasts.
As per the media reports, the ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi, before the agency had left Mumbai for questioning Madani, had claimed that it was Madani who had sent Kamal Ansari, one of the arrested accused in 7/11 serial train blasts, to Pakistan for terror training. However, the ATS team, which has come back to the city, reportedly ruled out that Madani has any direct link to the serial train blasts.
Madani’s brother Hafeez Zubair is suspected to have sent Ansari to Pakistan. Hafeez Zubair is one of the 13 wanted accused in 7/11 local train blasts whom the ATS has mentioned in its 11,578-page chargesheet. In the Mumbai local train serial bomb blasts that took place on July 11, 2006 at seven suburban trains, 183 persons were killed while nearly 829 others were injured.
However, the ATS sources reportedly told that Omar Madani, 50, accepted during investigation that he met Jamaat-Ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed in 1998, joined its 21-day training camp where he was imparted physical training. Proficient in six languages including English, Arabic, Hindi, Nepali, Urdu and Bengali Omar Madani could not bear the physical strain and within 15 days, he was assigned to teach Arabic to people.
Hailing from Madhubani district of Bihar, Madani later sent 10 youths- two from Nepal and seven, including his brother Hafeez from Bihar- for terror training to Pakistan in the name of Jihad, the police said.
Madani holds Alim and Fazil degrees from Jamia Salfia Banaras besides having a BA degree in Shariah from a university in Saudi Arabia. It is reported that he was under Intelligence Bureau scanner for the last three years.