Pune blast mastermind trained in Sri Lanka

MUMBAI - Investigators probing the February Pune terror blast case have found that training in bomb-making was imparted to the mastermind, Mirza Himayat Baig in Sri Lanka, top officials said Thursday.

Baig was given the training to assemble the bombs and trigger them in Colombo by Faiyaz Kagzi and other people, they said.

Though it is not clear why Sri Lanka was selected by Baig and his handlers for training, investigators feel it could be due to easy entry and exit from that country for Indians who only require a visa on arrival.

Baig’s associate, Shaikh Lalbaba Ahmed Hussain Farid alias Bilal of Nashik, acquired weapons training in Muzaffarabad and Lahore from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the officials said.

It was Baig who arranged to send Bilal to Pakistan for the training for nearly three years. The duo was arrested by the ATs from Pune and Nashik over the past two days and remanded to custody by a Pune court.

As the mastermind, Baig was the contact person with his handlers in Pakistan and also recruited potential candidates for terror activities, brainwashing them and arranging to train them.

Meanwhile, according to sources, the duo had conducted a recce and taken pictures of the high-security Police Training Academy at Nashik, which was reportedly on their hit list after the Pune terror blast of Feb 13 this year but police did not confirm it.

The ATS is also probing the source of Rs.250,000 which Bilal had got for financing the Pune operation, the officials said.