MUMBAI: In what they claimed a major success and breakthrough in the serial blast across the country cases since 2005, the Mumbai police yesterday said arrested not only the founder member of the Indian Mujahedeen outfit but also four other accomplices involved in other terror activities.
In a hurriedly called press conference last evening, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor said that the crime branch officials of Mumbai police had arrested all the perpetrators of the blasts that have taken place in the country since the year 2005, including the recent blasts in Delhi.
Gafoor said that all the accused were arrested from different locations in the city based on tip-off. The great breakthrough was of arresting one of the founder members of the Indian Mujahedeen who was involved in the blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi.
Giving details of the arrests, Gafoor identified the five alleged terrorists as Mohammed Sakib, Afzal Osmani, Mohammed Sadiq, Arif Shaikh and Mohammed Ansar. The city police said that the alleged terrorists were arrested after three days of joint operation by the Gujarat, Delhi and the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squads (ATSs). All the five arrested were confirmed members of Indian Mujahedeen.
Gafoor said that this great breakthrough was due to the hard and sustained efforts of the Mumbai crime branch in cooperation with the police forces of different cities in the country and the federal and state intelligence agencies. He announced a cash award of Indian rupees five hundred thousand to the policemen who arrested the five alleged terrorists.
Gafoor also disclosed that the police had seized 12 kilograms of the deadly RDX explosives from the accused, besides huge cache or ammunitions, ammonium nitrate rods, detonators, and sub-machine guns, and jihadi literature.
The city police commissioner also revealed that all five terrorists are originally residents of Azamgarh district in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and they are suspected of stealing the cars from Mumbai and using them in Ahmedabad blasts. “Three of them obtained weapons training in a hostile country and the fact cannot be ruled out that the suspects may have a possible connection with Laskhkar-e-Toiba (LeT),” he said.
