Author:
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: October 23, 2002
Two Bangladeshi nationals Were arrested
after police recovered bombs from the Ganesh Murthy Nagar Zopadpatti adjoining
the highly sensitive Navy Nagar in Colaba during a combing operation this
afternoon. The suspects have been identified as Hazrat Rashid Sheikh
and Mohammed Anwar. Their backgrounds are being ascertained, said
the police.
"The mastermind in this case has
also been identified and a manhunt has been launched to nab him," said
Additional Commissioner of Police (south region Surinder Kumar.
On a tip-off, a special squad had
raided hutment number 613 and arrested the suspects. The bombs were
concealed in a bag. Their recovery assumes significance in the light
of the fact that military establishments are located in the area.
A naval helicopter base is barely a kilometre away from where the bombs
were recovered.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone
1) Himanshu Roy however said there was no threat to security in the area.
According to him, the explosives seized were not very powerful.
A similar bomb had exploded near
a military establishment in the western suburbs injuring a boy on August
26. More than a dozen bombs were recovered from hutments near another
naval establishment on Marve beach early this year.
The arrest of the suspects comes
in the wake of the formation of an outfit called Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami
by some Bangladeshis. Many of its members are believed to have undergone
military training in Pakistan and Afghanistan before returning to their
country. Police said they are taking precautions in sensitive pockets
like Cheetah Camp, Trombay, Shivaji Nagar and Govandi in the light of these
incidents. These slums are located close to the BARC and the naval
armament depot near Mankhurd.
