HYDERABAD, India, 26 May 2007 — A suspect in last week’s Makkah Masjid blast here has been arrested in Maharashtra, police said yesterday. Sohaib Jagirdar was arrested from his residence in Jalna near Aurangabad bordering Andhra Pradesh Thursday night in a joint operation by the security forces of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
Krishan Pal Raghuvanshi, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief and joint commissioner of police, said in Mumbai: “One person has been arrested by a joint team of the Special Investigation Team of the Andhra Pradesh Police and the state ATS. The man is being questioned.”
“Jagirdar was arrested from his residence in Jalna Thursday night. The Andhra Police team had gone to Jalna on a specific tip-off about the suspect,” Raghuvanshi said without elaborating on the charges against the suspect. Jagirdar has been taken to Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to entrust the probe into last Friday’s bomb blast at the historic Makkah Masjid to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The government has also decided to order a judicial inquiry into the police firing in the vicinity of the mosque after the explosion took place.
A commission of inquiry will be appointed to go into the circumstances of the police firings soon after the blast when some people indulged in brick batting at the police. The terms of reference of the judicial probe will be finalized in a day or two. A retired judge is likely to head the inquiry commission. The state government will write to the union government seeking a CBI probe into the blast which Chief Minister Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy termed as a “terror attack.”
The government took the twin decisions at a high-level review meeting held at the chief minister’s camp office on Thursday night.
The meeting reviewed the progress of the investigations so far and the measures to be taken for strengthening the security at places of worship in the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad.
Also yesterday, tension prevailed for some time in and around Charminar area in the Old City after Friday prayers at the Makkah Masjid. Some persons sustained minor injuries in stone-pelting and police baton charge. About 50 youths were taken into custody by the police.
Though the Hyderabad City Police had elaborate security arrangements in the entire Old City, particularly at the mosque and in its vicinity, to control any outbreak of violence, police officials faced riot threats after the prayers ended when people leaving the mosque tried to gather near Charminar and take out a procession toward Pathergatti.
Some tried to take out processions toward Lad Bazar, Shah Ali Banda and Kotla Alijah. Shops had closed down in the area for the prayers. The protesters, holding black flags, raised slogans denouncing the bomb blast and police firings last week. Some of them pelted stones on media persons stationed in front of Makkah Masjid and adjoining places. They also attacked media vehicles near Pathergatti.
Some pelted stones at nearby shops at Gulzar Hauz. The police resorted to a mild lathicharge at Charminar, Gulzar Hauz and Pathergatti to disperse the trouble-makers.
Elsewhere in the Old City, tension prevailed at Yakutpura, Dabirpura, Rein Bazar and Mughalpura areas as people shouted slogans against the police and pelted stones. Police reinforcements were rushed to these places to restore order.
MIM leader and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi also went round, asking the people to disperse peacefully.
