Hyderabad Blasts: National Investigation Agency steering probe

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/hyderabad-blasts-national-investigation-agency-steering-probe/articleshow/18648125.cms

NIA is coordinating a country-wide search for three key bomb planters of IM as the Centre warned states of more terror strikes by this group in major metros, including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

NIA is coordinating a country-wide search for three key bomb planters of IM as the Centre warned states of more terror strikes by this group in major metros, including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is coordinating a country-wide search for three key bomb planters of Indian Mujahedeen (IM) as the Centre on Saturday warned states of more terror strikes by this group in major metros, including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Asadullah Akhtar (alias Tabrez) from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Tahseen Shaikh from Samastipur in Bihar and Waqas are the three most-wanted IM men whom intelligence agencies have identified as the actual bomb planters in Mumbai on September 13, 2011 and in Pune on August 1 last year.

The trio are said to be the key aides of the IM chief in India, Yasin Bhatkal. With footage of an unidentified suspect being thrown up in CCTV footage at Dilsukh Nagar in Hyderabad of having come on a bicycle with a bag to the spot (before leaving it behind and fleeing minutes before the blasts on Thursday), the focus of the probe shifted to Tabrez, Shaikh and Waqas.

Till earlier this month, Tabrez and Waqas were thought to be Pakistanis but the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on February 11 released their pictures and put out a reward of Rs 10 lakh on each of them, saying they were Indians.

“We have been told by Maharashtra ATS that they got phone calls from citizens in the last one week saying Tabrez and Waqas were spotted in Hyderabad. The bombs used in Hyderabad also bear an uncanny resemblance to the bombs used in Mumbai and Pune,” a senior NIA official has told ET.

The Centre has asked all states to share with NIA and the Centre any information about the three terrorists in question. Lack of coordination between the Delhi Police Special Cell and Maharashtra ATS is said to be responsible for Tabrez and Waqas earlier slipping away from the net after they were traced to a rented accommodation in Byculla area of Mumbai in November 2011.

IB officials say a special cell had laid a trap to arrest the duo armed with a tip-off from an informer named Naqi Ahmed but he was arrested by the ATS on charges of being involved in the Mumbai serial blasts of September 13, 2011, leading to Tabrez and Waqas getting an alert and slipping away.

Subsequently, the duo plants bombs in Pune on August 1 last year — ATS declared a reward on them on February 11 saying they are involved in both the Mumbai and Pune blasts.

The ATS, however, made no mention of the four IM arrests made by Delhi Police last October regarding the Pune blasts, including that of Sayed Maqbool who confessed to have done a recee of Dilsukh Nagar last year for the IM. Meanwhile, Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma said that a team from the Hyderabad Police had interrogated Maqbool in Delhi last November and he had told them of the recee done by him of Dilsukh Nagar.