By Rehan Ansari, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: There is no connection of two students arrested from Mohali (Punjab) with any terror activities, Rakesh Maria, Chief of ATS Maharashtra clarified on Friday in a meeting with a delegation led by Mehmood Hakimi, Media Secretary, Anjuman Bashindagaan-e-Bihar.
Mehmood Hakimi, who led the delegation along with Aftab, brother of Abdul Wahab, one of the students arrested on 1st Jan. from Mohali, told TwoCircles.net: “Rakesh Maria Sb. has told us that during investigation we did not find any evidence of their link with any terror incident.”
Hakimi also informed that we were assured that these students will be produced in the Mazgaon Court, Mumbai on 10th January, 2011 i.e. on Tuesday. He said, “We were told that ATS has charged them with cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy because they hold 14 SIM cards availed with forged documents.”
Mehmood Hakimi, Media Secretary, Anjuman Bashindgaan-e-Bihar, Mumbai, who led the delegation to meet Maharashtra ATS Chief
Meanwhile, leading English daily of Mumbai reported on Friday: “ATS looks for links between nabbed youths’ crimes, 13/7”.
The report quoted the ATS sources, “We are probing all angles,” said a senior ATS officer when asked if Wahab and Sheikh were being probed for allegedly forging identities in connection with the terror attack. “We want to find out why a student would forge identities to procure 14 SIM cards.”
Report further states, “When asked if the allegations against the two youths related to these crimes being committed in Maharashtra or elsewhere, an ATS source only said that the agency was dealing with this case as it had information about this here.”
Another leading daily claimed on 5th January, 2011, “Two youth picked up from Punjab, grilled on 13/7 blasts.”
The report further states, “Two youth, aged 19 and 20, were picked up from Mohali in Punjab by the Maharashtra ATS and brought to Mumbai. It is learnt that the duo was grilled about the July 13 blasts of 2011 in the city. Qamar-e-Aalam Shaikh and Abdul Wahab, both residents of Darbhanga in Bihar, were interrogated at Kharar police station in Punjab before being brought to Mumbai.”
NIA team inspecting blast sites of serial terror bombings on July 13, 2011 in Mumbai
Aarif Nasim Khan, Minister of Minority Affairs, Maharashtra also talked to that ATS Chief about the arrest of students. He said, “We will not allow any kind of injustice with the youths.”
Aftab, brother of Abdul Wahab told, “They went to meet his brother today in the Kalachowki, an ATS lock up situated in south Mumbai and gave them the fresh cloth.”
While talking to TCN he said, “We were assured by the ATS officer that Abdul Wahab might get the bail on Wednesday after the ATS produced them in the court on Tuesday.”
Abdul Wahab Umar (22) and Qamar Alam Sheikh, students of mechanical engineering at Swami Paramanand Engineering College, Mohali (Punjab), were picked by Maharashtra ATS sleuths in plain clothes on 1st January, 2011 but their families in Darbhanga (Bihar) have not been informed by the police.
Their family could locate them in Mumbai on Thursday after Urdu dailies in Mumbai reported the incidents on their front pages.