Author: Rajat Rai and Sanjay Singh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: November 26, 2007
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/243443.html
Security agencies and the state police are
investigating the role of Mohammed Tuffail Hussaini, a Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami
(HuJI) militant and mastermind of the 1993 train blasts, in connection with
Friday's serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh. Hussaini's elder brother, Faizi Ahmed,
has been called for questioning.
Late on Saturday night, a travel agency run
by Ahmed in Ameenabad area of Lucknow, Faizi Travels, was raided, and the
police took away a computer and documents.
The police suspect that Tuffail, who is believed
to have arranged cadres for HuJI, masterminded the serial blasts as his previous
plan to carry out explosions in buses had failed. The 41-year-old Tuffail
carries a cash reward on his head, announced by the CBI.
He is believed to head the Mujahideen Islam-ul-Hind
(MIUH), which is suspected to be a HUJI front. Security agencies suspect he
has fled the country to either Pakistan or Bangladesh, and is masterminding
operations from there.
For more than a decade after the 1993 train
blasts, which followed the Babri Masjid demolition, Tuffail and the MIUH remained
missing from the terror map. In June this year, their names resurfaced after
two militants, who were carrying bombs meant for planting on UP roadways buses,
got injured when the bombs went off prematurely. While one of the militants
died, the other reportedly named Tuffail and the MIUH.
At the press conference held after those arrests,
the police said that Tuffail's role was also suspected in the Delhi serial
blasts of 2005. He may have also had a hand in the blasts at the Gorakhpur
railway station on May 22 this year. The explosives in the Gorakhpur attack
were stuffed inside tiffin boxes and tied to bicycles, quite similar to Friday's
serial blasts in court complexes.
"We have got information that Tuffail
was in touch with terrorists and hasn't been traceable for the past few months.
We are in the process of scanning the computer and documents found during
Saturday's raid," said A K Rai, SP (West).
In other raids, over half a dozen people were
detained in Faizabad for questioning. Police are trying to trace the whereabouts
of a local battery mechanic in Rampur Bhagan area of the city, Guddu Verma,
in connection with the batteries used in the explosions in Faizabad.
