BOMBAY, 21 September 2006 — Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief K.P. Raghuvanshi said yesterday that the two brothers — Muzamil and Faisal Sheikh — arrested after the July bomb blasts, have confessed to having links with international terror groups.
The ATS has sought extension of the two suspects’ police remand. Raghuvanshi, however, refused to give further details.
Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil, speaking to the media on the ATS disclosure, said investigations into the train blasts are at an advanced stage and all efforts would be made to bring the perpetrators of the bombings to book in a week. Patil, like Raghuvanshi, refused to give further details saying it would hamper the ongoing investigations.
When asked to name the terror outfit involved in the blasts, Patil said that the police were working on that. Asked if the train blasts and the Malegaon blasts were interlinked, Patil said it was not correct to link the two blasts, but added that RDX explosives were also used in Malegaon.
“We have got some clues in the Malegaon blasts and the investigators are working on that” Patil added. The home minister confirmed that the investigators have found out who were the perpetrators of the train blasts but refused to name them. However, sources close to ATS said that since Muzamil and Faisal were allegedly Lashkar-e-Taiba members, the group may be involved in the blasts.
Meanwhile, police said they had busted a militant cell in western India after arresting four people and seizing CDs encouraging terrorist attacks.
The four men were allegedly part of a pan-Indian network of Lashkar.
Police said the four arrested over two days this week in the western state of Gujarat included a Muslim prayer leader. Officers claimed that two of the men went to training camps in Kashmir, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
“A lot of jihadi (holy war) literature along with some CDs and cellular phones have been seized,” said assistant commissioner of police G.L. Singhal.
