Many links between Ahmedabad, Pune blasts

GANDHINAGAR - There are many reasons to suspect a link between the 2008 serial blasts in Ahmedabad and the Feb 13 bombing in Pune, including the prime suspects - Akbar Chaudhary and his brother Mohsin Chaudhary - police sources said here.

Akbar Chaudhary, arrested for his involvement in the Ahmedabad blasts and also a prime suspect in planting explosives in Surat, is the brother of Mohsin Chaudhary, who is now a prime suspect in the Pune blast. Both hail from Pune.

Mohsin is among the 34 people wanted by the Gujarat police in connection with July 26 Ahmedabad blasts that killed at least 60 people. Police officials allege he was closely involved with the Bhatkal brothers Iqbal and Riyaz.

The Bhatkal brothers, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives working closely with David Headley and Tahawwur Rana who are now in US custody, are among the most wanted in connection with the Ahmedabad blasts.

Rana and his wife Samraz Akhtar stayed for two days in an Ahmedabad hotel in November 2008 and apparently were scouting for potential recruits to LeT ranks from amongst the 2002 riot victims, a police source said.

Iqbal Bhatkal visited Ahmedabad between August and September last year this year as

security agencies tracked the 16-digit IMEI number of his mobile phone.

Inspector General of Police (Ahmedabad range) Ashish Bhatia, who investigated the Ahmedabad explosions, feels that Mohsin is an important part of the terror machine stalking the country.

While his brother Akbar is lodged in Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad, a team of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Gujarat police is currently in Pune.

Interestingly, nine of the 64 people arrested in connection with the Ahmedabad blasts and the Surat explosives seizures are from Pune, indicating a terror link between the two cities, the source said.

Pune is said to be a key base of the banned Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). And highly placed sources who have been analyzing the terror attacks feel that “there is a need to grill the Pune residents lodged in Sabarmati jail again for further clues to the Pune blasts”.

Akbar Chaudhary himself could provide further leads, the sources added.

The SIMI, headed by Sajid Mansuri in Gujarat, is said to have masterminded the operation in Gujarat.

Abdul Rashid alias Mufti Abu Bashir Ilahi, suspected to be the head of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) - believed to be an offshoot of SIMI - was arrested from a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district.

The other IM suspect Taukir, also known as Taufiq and Abdul Suban Qureshi, is a techie who also reportedly hails from Pune. He is considered the cyber brain as well as the explosives expert of the organisation.

Mufti had established a link to Rasul Khan, a close associate of Ahmedabad underworld don Abdul Latif, who was subsequently killed by the Gujarat police.

Now based in Pakistan, Khan is a key coordinator putting together the Indian Mujahideen as a terrorist set-up peopled by Indian manpower, the source said.

The group is designed to keep Pakistan’s ISI in the background while creating a faade of a home-grown set-up of Indian Muslims up in arms against “majority repression”, the source added.