MUMBAI, 5 November 2006 — In a new twist to the investigations of the Malegaon blasts case, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has come up with another round of allegations that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was behind the three bomb blasts in Malegaon in September.
The ATS has drawn this conclusion on the basis of interrogations of the two arrested accused Noor-ul-Huda and Shabbir Ahmed Maisullah Ansari alias Shabbir Batterywala, who told the interrogators that they had traveled to Pakistan and obtained arms training.
Meanwhile, the ATS on Friday had booked the two accused Shabbir Ansari and his employee Nor-ul-Huda under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crimes Act (MCOCA). The duo were produced before the Special Judge Mridula Bhatkar of the MCOCA court, who remanded them to police custody till Nov. 16.
The ATS officials told the judge that both the accused were active members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and had undergone arms, ammunition and explosives training in Pakistan, sponsored by the ISI.
Shabbir and Noor-ul-Huda, the ATS officials told the court, had earlier been arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and literature was seized from their possession which was meant to spread disharmony and enmity among the majority and minority communities.
The ATS also contended that the two accused were associated with one Mohammed Zahid Majid, who is wanted in the Malegaon blasts case, and was a key member of terrorist syndicates. “We have sufficient evidence and information against the accused, but it would not be proper to reveal our next course of action at the moment, as this would hamper the investigations” said an ATS official.
So far the ATS has named five accused in the case out of which the two produced on Friday have been arrested, and the others are still at large. The other accused are Mohammed Majid, Riyaz Ahmed Shafiq Ahmed and Ishtiaq Mohammed Ishaq, and police are on the lookout for them, said another ATS official.
In another development, the Anti-Terrorist Cell (ATC) of the Aurangabad police, following a tip-off, laid a trap near the AS Club on Waluj MIDC road, and nabbed Laxmikant Jagannath More and seized from him 20 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, 18 detonators and 18 gelatin sticks. The accused told the police that one Subash Seth had approached him and had handed over the explosive material to him to take to Tisgaon village.
An ATC officer said that the seized material is normally used for excavation, mining and digging, but though the quantity of the seized material was small, it is dangerous to be available so freely and it could be used by terrorists in their terror acts,” the officer said.
